It seems that Hallim Middle School is my "good school" now; Gwi-il is still a stress generator. I've pretty much got fed up with the lack of classroom discipline in my classes at Hallim so now I've re-instituted an old unorthodox classroom management system that I used back in Namhae - the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) system - only this time, the class is divided into four quadrants with assigned leaders (who are randomly selected every week) to keep things under control. Quadrants are designated according to a directional trigram following the rubric of Chinese geomancy; in this case, they are organized into the Heaven, Earth, Mountain, and Wind directional trigrams. Students are assigned under a particular symbol and so when I select a student to do something, I do three coin tosses (the coin has a broken line on one side and solid line on the other) to decide who goes. A Bagua map is drawn on the board with clear divisions so the kids know what group they're in. Students are also recognized as Yin [Passive], Yang [Active], Changing Yin [Passive, but potentially Active], and Changing Yang [Active, but is more inclined to be Passive]. Should students get out of line or if the leader fails to do his assigned part, the entire group faces a penalty to be decided by the homeroom teacher. I've also requested the co-teacher to be in the classroom and enforce the policy.
As far as the matter of practicality goes, this system has been pretty successful. The first grade classes, who were consistently the worst classes, are this week's best classes and the second grade classes went much better.
Gwi-il is still going to be problematic since I have virtually little control [as my role is more or less confined to that of a tape player, reading and repeating blasse textbook phrases that may or may not be useful relevant]. The class setup is crud and can't be changed, but I'm going to try out a variant of the system to get things organized.
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Bagua in the classroom
Nice job with being creative disciplining the ankle biters...I am sure they never experienced anything like it before.
Are any of the students interested in the system itself or are they just afraid of getting punished?
Wierdness as an attention-grabber
The Bagua "map" on the board caught virtually all the students' attention for the first 15 minutes of class, the first crucial period that determines whether or not the kids are going to actually pay attention for the lesson or do their own thing. It could perhaps be because it's both familiar and unfamiliar; they mistook it for the Taegukgi at first, but then quickly figured out that the trigrams are different and there are a bunch of "new" trigrams arranged in a particular way that they didn't know about. Back in my Namhae days, I've found that the more unusual things are, the more curiosity it attracts.
Bagua system at Gwi-il
I experimented the Bagua system on the first two classes at Gwi-il. They went slightly better than usual (but Gwi-il still is driving me mad). I probably will need to clarify the "powers" of a designated class leader more since they haven't really done anything (with the exception of one who actually did zealously do his role). I didn't use the system in my last class; last class was like getting my gums scraped with a dull blade. I don't yell at them (since displays of anger go nowhere) and calmly ask them to be quiet and listen and they simply continue being downright rude. They're a girls' class, but they're oddly far worse than the boys and they're genuinely pissing me off. Worst part is that I don't even have the authority to send out trouble makers. I'm going to use the Bagua system on them next week and I'll speak with the administration about being granted the authority to deal with troublemakers. It seems that no one is disciplining these brats (they don't even show respect to the co-teacher) and kids simply aren't going to listen to someone without fangs. If it's not going to be the Korean teachers, then damnit, I'm going to go all Vlad Tepes on them.
Showing Anger in Class
I used to think that showing anger in class was not a good idea. Now I think it is almost never a good idea, but that it can be useful in very rare occasions a s a last resort after you have gained the respect of the class.
A totally different monster
I don't ever show anger; whenever I'm displeased, I show it in more subtle ways. That worked with Namhae and it is also effective in Hallim. Gwi-il, however, is an entirely different monster. Many of the students here are simply flat out rude (which is pretty unusual for a more rural setting) and the English teachers have simply given up on them since it's become such a problem. My next course of action is to speak with the vice principal (who is a former English teacher) about the matter and see if I can be granted the authority to deal with troublemakers personally as I don't even have the power to eject repeated offenders in class and some of the worst cases simply are dismissive of the other English teachers. Some of the other foreigners here have some great ideas on how to punish the bad apples; I don't approve of physical torture (hands in the air, pushup position for a half hour, etc.) since they do nothing, but having offenders write a letter to their parents saying that they've disrespected the teacher is one option that seems very appealing now. It seems that the only way I can get order in the classroom is to be extremely firm and strict since they won't even take their own teachers seriously.
A variety of tactics
I've begun utilizing a new set of tactics to maintain some level of stability in classes. We'll see how this works out in the next few weeks.
Endless headaches
Gwi-il 2nd grade classes simply get worse every week. Second grade students at Gwi-il in class are like SoCal students in class - that is NOT a compliment. What's worse is that my co-teacher cannot do anything about it and apparently has no drive to help turn things around. She's a new teacher, so I suppose the students do not have much respect for her, which is bad for her and worse for me. In the end, we both wind up with endless headaches. I talked to the vice principal about behavioral problems and it seems that this has carried over from the previous year; he had similar problems with second grade brats as well and it seems my predecessor had one hell of a time dealing with them. Interestingly, of the 2nd grade class, none of the students seemed to like him. I doubt that they have a high opinion of me as well; the smiles seem more like lip service instead of genuine ones.
I do see much hope in Grade 1 classes, however. They are much better behaved probably because of the English teacher here is much more disciplinarian and instructs them more about proper conduct whereas the 2nd grade teacher simply allows blatant disrespect. My "special classes" are great. Unlike back in Namhae, the "special classes" are actually, well, special!
My headaches
Well, your stress generator school...that was my Monday/Wednesday school last year. I can totally understand and I know exactly which class is driving you nuts...and perhaps that class is worse than one full of SoCal students :) I hope the level 1's are hanging in there. During the spring semester I noticed their motivation in class sharply decline, especially the girls.
I too got angry at the students, and of course it wasn't a good solution. After a year with those students, I never found a good solution!
Also, I had special classes in the winter with the level 2's last winter break and it was a nightmare. Though during the spring semester the special classes with mostly level 1 students were great.
Crud
Unfortunately, a solution for my case remains elusive.
Today has been 80% crappy. Second grade classes are still zoos. I have only the attention of 1/4 of the class. The other 3/4 are either totally rude and obnoxious or they just don't listen at all. I've pretty much given up on them. I'll just hold onto the flock I have and leave the rest of them to the wolves instead of trying to gather all of them together only to have efforts completely disregarded. Can't say that I didn't try. My co-teacher was pretty steamed at the typical troublemakers this morning, but it was all too little and too late; they're all beyond the point of no return. I was hoping that I could maybe do some special projects with them, but just this week, some of the pricks tore up their classmate's posters to make paper airplanes to throw in the middle of class; shows how much they're going to respect each other for endeavors in English!
At least I have the "special class" and first grade classes to look forward to.
This being said, I really really really really really really really really really really look forward to seeing my Hallim students. I get nothing but headaches in the Gwi-il second grade classes, but Hallim is totally worth my time. The first graders are pretty OK as well.
Score 2 for the Bagua system
It's the second week that I've actively used the Bagua system of classroom organization at Hallim Middle School and so far it's still working. I use it as a means to select students to do tasks; since it's random, they don't seem resent it and are more accepting if their trigram turns up.