Roller Coaster

This has been one of the most frustrating/educational weeks for me yet. I have learned so much from my students--although, I don't know if a lot of it is good! Last Friday, I promised myself I would be able to keep my students' attention for 10 minutes. 10 minutes!! At first I thought this goal was ridiculous. Oh no.

Monday was alright. It was the start to a new week and I was optimistic. I was unaware but the class had a math test to write. They take the test and are mostly quiet. Then as time goes on more and more kids start chatting. Fine. I can deal with this. I manage to quiet the class down. The rest of the day is similar to a game of tug-a-war. I pull the kids to my side and they pull back. I have a chance to take out some of my kids for reading- which is a time in the day that I absolutely love. I love the progress these students are making. By the end of the day I think that there will be absolutely no problem with achieving my goal. We were even able to start my science experiment! I explained to the class what it means to be a good scientist. We went over terms and rules for going through an experiment. We got the experiment set up and the class could not have been more excited and I was pumped that they liked it so much.

Tuesday. Oh Tuesday. I hate Tuesdays. All of them. Forever. The day started out with the students not listening to me or my mentor teacher, Mrs. Naidoo. I can't remember the exact chain of events but the class, as a whole, was not listening to anyone. The Xhosa teacher came in and the class would not pay attention. Granted, the work is mind numbingly boring, they need to learn how to deal with it. The teacher just writes on the board, has the students copy it, and then has the students repeat her pronunciation. It is terrible. That being said, she is still a teacher. I tried to make a competition. I told the class that whichever table was the most quiet would get to leave for interval early and the table that was the loudest would have time removed. This worked for all of 2 minutes. Then, they just stopped. I think there might have actually been an explosion of sorts. The whole class transformed into this vicious, diabolical being. I lost it. I told the class that they would sit in during interval, with their heads down, for 15 minutes. I scolding the class about respect. That's when I wrote the word on the board with a definition from the dictionary. I told the class that they were to write, for 15 minutes, about respect. I told them that if I saw the definition from the board in their papers then I knew that they did not care at all.

The most amazing thing about this classroom is that their is no sense of community. Everyone willingly and openly tattles on the other. All the time. I am constantly being badgered with "he did this" or "she did that". I cannot handle it anymore. I told the class that they need to learn to respect each other, respect themselves, and their teachers. Most of the passages were good. The boys who wrote the definition from the board were sent back to their seats and had to rewrite it. Those who made a sincere effort were allowed to leave.

On the plus side- we had a really great discussion about the experiment. The experiment was seeing what happens with water (dyed a color) and the celery stalk. We were talking about how there are roots that suck up the water. We talked about how the water moves through the plant through the xylem and we touched on how the water molecules are able to move upwards through the xylem when gravity wants it to move down. Not all of the terminology was used by the class but the ideas were there. It really was awesome.

Wednesday. I achieved my goal. The class was nothing special but I was able to keep their attention while the class filled out a "lab report" about the experiment. I don't remember specifics because it was just an ordinary day of struggle and fighting with the class. I implemented the only technique I have found that remotely works for quieting the class. I raise my hand and wait for all of the other students to mimic me. Once I see a few hands I start timing. I then write the wait time on the board. So far the longest I've waited is 5 minutes!!!

Thursday. It's hard to decide if today was worse than Tuesday or just about the same. The morning started out great! I graded their reading comprehension tests last night and decided to go over some grammar items with the class based on these. I downloaded a Schoolhouse Rock video about subjects and verbs, so the class could hear complete sentences (The Tale of Mr. Morton). The class LOVED this. They haven't been that quiet for me, ever. Then we did some sentence practice. I quizzed them on what sentences end with (statement, question, or exclamation/command). Then there was quite a bit of mix up with a puppet show that was supposed to take place. Our time for the performance kept getting pushed back. The class did not know what was happening. By the time the class was eating lunch it was absolutely insane. A prefect came into the class and told me that another teacher requested that this class stay quiet. I mostly just laughed at the prefect and told her I would try. I told the class that we had to be extra quiet (I don't care if they get chatty during lunch, usually). I requested that they practice using nonverbal communication. Then to enforce this I asked them to start an activity where they arrange themselves by age without communicating. This is where I really saw the entire lack of community in this classroom. Nothing happened. Only 7 kids or so paid attention to what I wanted them to do. After chucking my three troublesome boys out of the class I was so frustrated that I just walked out. I did not go very far (just outside the door). I closed the door and wouldn't let anyone come out to talk to me. I looked at these boys and told them that it was now their responsibility to keep the class quiet for me. Usually a few students just write names on the board. But I hate this and won't let any of them do it. As soon as I was about to let these students back in to begin my teacher came back in. These kids were in so much trouble. She had them stay in for interval and do busy work. She told me that this was the first time she ever kept a class in. Some of the girls came out to see what was wrong and all I responded with was "I'm angry."

I don't know if they are trying to make me cry or what, but they will learn that I won't. Somehow, I am still optimistic about this class. Even though it is packed with the naughtiest kids in the whole grade. It has been an incredible challenge but the kids- individually- are very sweet. A lot of the girls made me cards saying how much they love me and how they feel sorry that no one listens. It's very sweet. Hopefully, I can impress upon them that their classroom is a community and they need to work together to have success.

Tomorrow is Friday! I look forward to it. Especially to go out after the rugby game. I've been itching to get out and do something different. I should be working on some of my papers but it is always more interesting to update here. I can probably even eke out a paper from my blog posts.