the interesting things that happen in class

well, maybe they're not that interesting after all, but they sure make class time really enjoyable!

i sort of look forward to fridays cos that's when i have 2 of my most interesting classes. they're both senior high year 2 english classes with this particular teacher, and though we do the same thing for all 3 of the classes we have together (another one is on wednesday), it isnt boring at all cos the students in each class are bundles of fun.

one of the classes is enjoyable cos the students are so cute. actually, it's only a few that are cute, but they're the loud, noisy and chatty ones, mainly comprising 5 girls who sit in 5 different rows and talk across the classroom almost all the time. one of them is the cutest of the lot, and she tends to say things such as what she said today:

"I want Kit-to Kat-to! (i.e. kit-kat) I am smart student, so give me Kit-to Kat-to!"; "Joanne, I love you! Kit-to Kat-to please!"

written like this, she sounds somewhat obnoxious, but really, you have to listen to her voice and see her - not forgetting the curls in her bob that frame her face - to understand what i mean. haha. there're also 2 boys who are quite nice, in that you can always count on them to answer your questions. that has got to be one of the best ways to make teachers like you! things got competitive today, such that when i asked them how to spell some words - 7 in all - some of the noisy girls and the two boys sort of competed to see who could spell the fastest in the loudest voice. oh my. it was SUCH FUN and they are SO endearing!! i see quite a few kids in this class twice a week*, and i think that helps in the dynamics with them too :)

the other class is really interesting and fun too, but in a different way. while the girls 'dominate' in the previous class, boys in this class are more 'prominent', though in a different way. basically, there are about 6 boys here, all of whom are either manga addicts, arent very interested in doing their work or a mixture of both. and they're rather blatant about reading manga in class too, partly because teachers here are rather 'soft' on students who dont pay attention in class***. because there's a significant number of them - and some are rather tall - it's so obvious when you have all 6 of them with their heads bowed down and reading at the same time.

so last week, one of them went to the manga stash next to his friend - A-kun - at the back of the class to occupy himself when he was meant to be completing his worksheet. another friend saw that happening and asked A-kun to pass him a few manga. now, the manga stash was in the middle of the aisle right in front of me, meaning that i had a clear view all the way to the back of the class where the 'action' was happening (and classrooms here have a raised platform where the teacher stands, which means an even better view from which to observe students!). deciding that enough was enough, i walked straight down the aisle all the way to the back and took away the plastic bag that contained the stash of manga...

... and i couldnt believe how just easy that was! A-kun didnt even notice me approaching even though it's soooooooo obvious what is going to happen when your teacher walks purposefully straight up to you.. it was only when i reached down AND had the bag grasped firmly in my hand did he let out a shout of protest.

my goodness.. he was super S-L-O-W can... i would never be able to pull off something like this back in singapore, unless i've improved a lot since my stint in -cough- "singapore's premier institution" back then, which i seriously doubt.

and today, two of the kids - who happened to be sitting next to each other - were reading manga again. one of them was asleep last week (over these 10 or so weeks, he has been awake only at the beginning and end of class to say hi and bye to me, so it was rather surprising that he was awake during the ENTIRE lesson today) and so probably didnt know what happened last week, while the other simply doesnt care (one of the few things he says to me is "-pointing to himself- english very goot-to!")

i gave them quite a few warnings, as did the other teacher, but they continued reading, so i tried to take away their manga but failed the first time round. the guy who doesnt give two hoots actually said to me - in japanese, of course - that i have to be quicker if i want to succeed, which made me want to slap him even though it's a fair and true comment. haha. but he stopped reading his manga - though he still didnt do his worksheet - so that meant only the sleepy one who still insisted on continuing his manga reading.

and woohooo! some time later, sleepyhead was reading while his 5 friends in the seats directly adjacent and around him - all boys i think - were slacking off. i headed towards his table ready to snatch away his manga, while looking at his friends who were watching me approach, expecting them to nudge him any time now to alert him that i was reaching his table, cos that's what any kid back home would do right?

but no, they just sat there and didnt do anything, perhaps because they wanted to see if 有没有好戏看. that was Unexpected No. 1. Unexpected No. 2 was that sleepyhead was sooooooooooooooooo slow as well. i actually paused for a moment when i was AT his table before reaching out to grab his manga, and he didnt even notice me!

my goodness. of course, i succeeded in taking his manga, which made me really pleased, cos i've been itching to do something like that ever since i saw them reading manga in class a few weeks ago****. and his friends whom i'm sure enjoyed the 'show' actually said that i was "as fast as the wind", which definitely made me feel even better about myself. -beams-

hahahaha. it's times like these that make me really like working here, in this particular school, with these particular students. some classes arent as great, but others, like these two especially, simply rock.

i do think though, that japanese students, or at least those whom i teach, are a bit slow on the uptake when it comes to hiding their actions from their teachers, and sort of lack the teacher-radar - which allows you to detect when the teacher is in your vicinity - that singaporean students i've encountered possess. besides the two examples above of really my slow students, i've also experienced kids here exclaiming among themselves that i "いきなり来た" - approached out of a sudden - to check if they're doing their work when it wasnt sudden at all, or i can stand a little behind students and look over their shoulders at what they're reading - while trying to decipher the japanese - for like 5 seconds before they realise with a slight start that i'm there. (5 seconds doesnt seem like a long time, but try counting 5 seconds to yourself now while imagining having a teacher looking over your shoulder!)

also, there're things like handphones.. while we were able to type messages under our desks or behind our chairs while looking straight ahead at the teacher, kids here look down at their screens while typing, and then give a guilty smile when they're caught at it. perhaps that they've gotten very good at appearing guilty in order to appease their teachers over the years, or that they dont care at all.. but either way it's just very interesting how things are.. :)

i realised that i havent actually talked about the stuff i do in school and the classes that i teach - and yes, there had been a request to describe that aspect of my life here - so maybe i'll do that sometime soon..

 

*: the kids in my school - i dont know about other schools - take "credits" like how we do in university, so a class for a certain subject** would comprise students from various homeroom classes.

**: even this term is misleading, as a subject like english would have classes like "english II", "english conversation", "L.L." (which is listening i think), "writing class" and so on.

***: being 'soft' is how things are in japanese schools, because of the way the relationships between teachers and students are. teachers are meant to be like mother and father figures, which affects the attitudes adopted towards kids sleeping, not doing work, doing work unrelated to the current lesson and so on in class.

****: plus i've never succeeded (and i dont think i've actually ever tried) in taking things from students. besides, i think my stint in -cough cough- "singapore's premier institution" probably shaped the 'evil teacher' in me considering i dealt with classes of teenage boys who think that just because you're young they're gonna be able to walk all over your head.