FOTO: ok, though it's nothing exciting, I've finally gotten one secret-spy shot of kids during class. You can see book reading, random wandering, group talking, and girl reaching for cellphone to write email. prelude to the list...
Over the last few days I have compiled this list of things that my students do in class while the teacher is trying to teach. Mostly, I tend to enjoy the wild abandon of my classroom environments. It livens up my day. Something to keep my attention. How many paper projectiles can i catch in mid-flight this morning? etc. Ive come to enjoy the chaos to such an extent that i blush to say, I drag myself with heavy feet to all of my well-behaved classes.
Almost as fun as going to crazy classes is walking down the halls. Each grade has a hall, and the tracks are ordered numerically by classroom. The walls are sliding windows, so you can see the whole classroom walking by, like a circus show. After a while at school, you get to know your classes by their personality: first year computer track is XXX, second year international course is YYY. Today i was walking down Senior Alley. First up; 3-1. The Sleepers. Sure enough, 80% sleeping... walking walking ...3-3 the Industrious Workers (relative), taking notes quietly...walking walking... 3-4. oh, 3-4! As i approach 3-4, the floor begins to vibrate, the music grows insistantly louder, until i arrive at the classroom windows and YES! 3-4 never lets me down. There they are, boombox on the teachers podium blaring loudly, a slap in the face to the Establishment. Half of the class is playing poker and sitting on their desks, the other half is wrestling, and there is no teacher to be seen. It may seem odd to you that there was no teacher, but I find that this sort of thing happens frequently here. its all the same! teacher, no teacher. class, no class.
Ah, it brings joy to my heart. A jaunt down the hall here makes me feel like im at Rydell High. Anyway, here is the list of things my kids do in class while i am teaching:
1. Sleep.
(Sleeping in class is by no means a furtive act here. Its actually welcome, because otherwise you would be talking with your friends, thus creating more obstacle for those actually trying to learn something. At my school some kids bring pillows from home, so that they can sleep comfortably during classes. I have 2 boys who bring large, pink pillows everyday. sleeping is probably our number 1 school time activity at Ginowan High.)
2. sing in chorus while sitting on top of desks.
3. take off their clothes. (not all of their clothes, just a random piece here or there, changing into their gym shorts or something).
4. Last week while we were teaching, 2 boys were (very noisily) sticking coins up another boys nose. The other boy was just sitting there doing nothing. (Update: it has come to my attention that this boy is constantly getting things shoved up his nose by other students. He never complains.)
5. Today, one of my students had a clothes hanger wrapped around his head. He was going about business as usual, other than that.
6. stand on the window sills.
7. give each other haircuts.
8. lay on the floor.
9. tear pages out of their textbooks and use them as projectiles.
10. walk around aimlessly.
11. pick their noses and stare into space. (or try and pick other kids noses using any long thin object that they can reach across an aisle)
12. read novels.
13. throw around rolls of toilet paper (has happened in 3 classes so far)
14. play cards.
15. write emails on their cellphones.
16. One day last week when I entered the classroom, my 3-4 boys were blasting music from a boombox, had cleared all the desks to the periphery of the room and were practicing a complex dance routine reminiscent of the Japanese twist on michael jackson in the 90s. My teacher told me we`d better have class for just 15 minutes so that we could let them get back to practicing their dance for the second half of class. what? [Later: I found out this dance routine was something they were creating for the school festival, so it was school-related.]
17. try to convince me to go on dates with them.
2 comments:
i understand the difficulty involved, but it would be totally suteki if you could get photos of some of that behavior. this may require james bond-esque spy photography, but i think you're up to the challenge. if i could see a kid with a wirehanger wrapped around his head aimlessly wandering the classroom while others look on bemusedly, i know i could die happy. i'm not dying, though, as far as i know.
I heard it was bad, but that picture is unbelievable. You would never see that in Canada. So different from my school.
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