"That class has devil eyes!"

If I could magically erase the last period of today, I would be pleased. I’ve often had problems with the group of students I teach from 4:40-5:30PM on Thursdays (as I’ve mentioned in a number of previous blog posts), but their behavior was so awful today that I almost dismissed the lot of them and cancelled class. I think their negative attitude stems from too much stress, a lack of interest in my class, an overbearing head teacher, and many other factors. I am sympathetic to their plight, but I still have to teach the class. 


I practically had to physically remove two students from the classroom because they refused to follow directions. (I had to scoot one chair -- with a student in it -- out from behind a desk because the two boys weren’t moving and I needed to illustrate that I was serious when I told them to leave the room.) 


The situation will change soon. It must, or else I’ll be sent one of two places -- a mental institution, or a Chinese jail. I’m currently devising a strategy, so I’ll let you know when I put it into practice.


Other than that, it was a great day. Here’s a cute story to balance the negative one about “hell class”:


Me, to a female student: How was your vacation?
Student: Terrible!
Me: Oh, I’m sorry! Why was it terrible?
Student: Because I missed you! (She then was so embarrassed that she covered her mouth with her hand and started giggling.)


See, my Chinese students can be extremely sweet, too. Truthfully, most of them are wonderful, and it’s only about 5% of them that frustrate me. Isn’t it sad how easily the 5% overshadow the 95%?


Here are my photos from the day. Somehow “laundry” became the theme. I’m not sure how that happened...