Precious angels or devils in disguise?

Almost every day, I have a debate with myself as to whether my students are good or bad.  Are they genuinely trying their best to learn, or are they putting all of their effort into making my job as trying as possible?  I put together a little collection of stories and descriptions about our students, so you can be the judge….  

I once had a girl sitting in class, turned completely around with her back towards me, getting her eyelids shaved by the girl behind her.  Why she thought that was OK, I have no idea?  Why she was having her eyelids shaved is the even bigger mystery.  I’ve had boys popping pimples at their desks, kids stand up and go talk to someone across the room while I’m teaching, girls just casually taking pictures of themselves right in front of me, along with countless other gross and ridiculous things.

And then there's always the constant, non stop talking. It's like a tick they can't control.  If it's not talking, then it's drumming on the desks, messing with the window blinds, or throwing things at other kids. I literally have kids put their hands over their mouths, and even that only lasts for a few minutes. Those are the kids that make you really wish hitting students was OK. But words just can't do justice to the kind of chatter we have to deal with, so here is a video for you to enjoy.  This is one of my lower classes (knows the least English), and they are a little rowdier than most, but not by too much.  Yes, they always talk this much, and no, they never stop. Prepare yourselves (it's really long, but you only have to watch about a minute to get the idea): Paige's Class

I'm sure you noticed Donut and Pee in the video (Pee is the very flamboyant one, and Donut is the pudgy one), my two little class leaders/lady boys.  They take it upon themselves to hand out papers, quiet the class down, and make sure people aren't copying.  When they aren't standing in front of the class doing something ridiculous, they're over my shoulder as I check other people's papers making comments about them.  Most days they just  make me laugh, but last week I actually had to send Donut out into the hall for being a little too disruptive.

I played a “What do you know about America?” game with my students. For some of the sections I would have them write down all the athletes or singers they knew.  Check out some of the spelling interpretations.

Joh Double U Wood

Team Harward

Wing Carter

Reddy kaka

Robot Jam

Can you guess who they were trying to write?  Well if you guessed George W. Bush, Tim Howard, Vince Carter, Lady Gaga, and LeBron James then you are an expert at Tinglish (Thai-English). They always hear the names, but probably rarely ever see them in writing.

M2 class (Freshman level)

Every other class or so I have them do a worksheet or writing assignment, and I go around to each student and have them read something out loud to me.  There are a few kids that just crack me up every time.  They (on purpose) will yell and emphasize every singe world, instead of just reading like a normal person, "APPLES! ARE! RED! BUT! BANANAS! ARE! YELLOOOOOWW!" You want to be annoyed, but you just can't help but laugh.

I taught a music lesson, and asked students why they did or didn't like certain genres of music.  I asked one student if he liked pop music, to which he responded, "yes".  And I proceeded to ask "why?".  He thought that was the wrong answer so he changed it to "no".  And I asked "why?" again. He couldn't come up with any answer, so he just sat silent for a few moments, then out of nowhere came up with "no comment". I had to turn my back because I was laughing too hard. This is coming from a class with very low English (they can barely answer "how are you?") so it's really funny that he picked up that phrase from some movie or show.

Thai students are very competitive, so even the most simple games get taken to the next level. I was doing a 'describing people' lesson, and I would show a picture of someone on the screen.  The two teams would take turns saying a sentence to describe the person and the first team to mess up loses. I had one kid doing warm up push-ups before it was his turn and Tiger Woods-esque fist pumps when his team won.  That's one of my favorite things about the students, even stupid games become really fun.

 M5 class (Junior age) doing a skit

The students do other little things that you just have to smile at. They love to mock you (in a playful way) when you’re talking.  Whenever I say, “good good”,  “OK”,  or “very good” I get a whole chorus yelled back. And then there's my favorite part of class....when they leave.  Not only because it means I'm done with that class, but also because they each have some comment to make on the way out.  Which range from, "teacher beautiful" and "i love you", to "next week game?" and "hello, goodbye, 1,2,3".

Well there's a little glimpse into the life of Teacher Paige. Hope you enjoyed it!