Yesterday I met the devil children I had been warned about. 6th grade at Nampeidai. I had 3 classes today, in order 6-1, 6-2, 6-3; feral, bad, pretty good respectively.
The first class was really hard. It would be so hard to be a teacher and be given a class like that for a whole year, one lesson a week is going to be a real challenge for me.
There were several noisy trouble makers. and several "I'm too cool for this" girls. There was absolutely no enthusiasm in the class. The kids who would have been keen and enthusiastic were too afraid to show it, because there were too many cool kids around. Unfortunately, the sort of activities that we do with the kids need a critical mass of enthusiasm, or the whole thing flops. You just can't do songs and dances half-heartedly. Argh! I feel so sorry for the good kids, it takes me back to primary school, though it was a little worse than Gowrie.
I tried to introduce the "hand up = not talking" rule that I've always found frustrating, particularly recently, when applied to groups of mixed adults and children, but I was desperate, and determined not to shout. It was marginally successful.
The second class was much the same, just not quite so extreme. Still easily the next worse class I've experienced though.
Fortunately, the last class of year 6s was pretty good. About normal levels of enthusiasm, and noise, which was just wonderful by comparison.
I am going to need to work out some strategies before I next visit that school.
As an upside, the principal let me go home early!
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