Open Class Day; Behavior Curbing

I had my open class two weeks back. I was so utterly nervous when other teachers, parents, administrators, and principals filtered into my room. I thought I was going to lose the lunch I had eaten just before teaching - nackjee topbap - rice atop octopus, doused in spicy red pepper paste. Before teaching, I had to print out dozens of copies of my lesson plan, giving one copy to each guest. I wrote the lesson at the last possible moment, and I felt shaky and a bit tipsy with insecurity about what I had planned to teach. I knew that if my students were going to misbehave in front of these parents in the same manner that they had been misbehaving in my classroom the previous weeks, the open class day was bound to be a fantastic, disastrous failure.

My lesson covered different occupations. My fellow afternoon teacher, Nicole, was kind enough to lend me little flashcards that displayed pictures of different occupations on them, accompanied by the word for that occupation. For example, one had an illustration of a policeman catching a crook on it; beneath the picture there was written 'police officer.' I also had a flashcard for artist, cook, farmer, fisherman, teacher, doctor, nurse, teacher, hairdresser, firefighter, soldier, and singer. A few days before my lesson, I bought magnets and Nicole lent me a small magnetic white board.

During my lesson, I magnetized one flashcard to the board, held it up and showed the students, and asked had them repeat the occupation. We would chant, "firefighter" etc. together. Then, I taught them the phrase "when I grow up, I want to be a..." To illustrate this, I would crouch down slightly, then lift my arms and rise up as I said, "when I grow up, I want to be a..." I explained to my students that they are young, but one day they will be older and when that happens they will have a job. I'd have one occupation magnetized to my board at a time. I'd show the students the occupation, we'd chant the word together, and afterwards we would say, "When I grow up, I want to be a _______." After we practiced this phrase, I taped the flashcard to the big white board behind me, and occasionally we would review and repeat each occupation. It seemed to go over quite well.

Upon working through all the occupations, I handed out a worksheet that had 8 or so pictures on it, each picture representing a different job. For example, one picture was of a big red cross with a stethoscope inside, thereby representing 'doctor.' Next to that picture, the students had to write out "When I grow up, I want to be a doctor." After all the students had finished writing down every sentence, we chanted them together. Repetition is key, I've found. By this time, there was only a few minutes left in the period, so I gave them a word search that I made using a template I found online. The words they had to find were all different job positions. The students were to complete the word search for homework.

While teaching, my nervousness eventually faded. I got into a teaching groove of sorts, and the tension I felt inside slowly dissipated. I didn't focus on the glaring teachers in the background; I could only hone my attention on the students and what I was teaching. In my head, the atmosphere of the classroom was charged with tension and, despite being fraught with fear, I think everything went rather smoothly. My students were mini cherubims that day, perfectly participating, whilst sitting serenely still with hands clasped and eyes aglow. I had absolutely NO behavioral problems whatsoever. I guess my students were just as afraid as I was to have so many parents and adults in the classroom.

This became an annoying trend before my open class. My students started showcasing poor, disrespectful attitudes when I was teaching, but as soon as a Korean teacher walked by the classroom or popped her head inside the door, the students instantly acted impeccably. Why did they show such respect for Korean teachers but not for me? They knew exactly how they were supposed to act and they could, it seemed, easily act in such a decent and polite way, but they failed to do so while I was teaching. I eventually became very flustered shortly before my open class. I had been screaming and yelling for a few weeks. At first it worked well to yell. The kids would behave, but eventually my hollering proved ineffective. It didn't matter how often or how loud I screamed out, "Be quiet! sit down! Behave!" The students started to ignore my commands. I knew I had to come up with some way of threatening or blackmailing them into acting properly. At first, I was stumped. The initial thought I had was to call the folks of the bad students, but with my limited handle on Hangul, this seemed futile. What was I to do...call home and tell the parent (in English) how poor their student was? The folks wouldn't understand me.

The day after my open class, the poor student behavior continued. It seemed to me as if the students were unphased by the previous day's sound behavior. They went on being as wild and talkative as before. I had had enough. I finally thought of a good way to curb their attitudes. I proceeded to write down the name of each student on the board. I explained to them that if one student is bad, I'll scold he or she and erase a third of his / her name. If I have to say something to that student again, I'll erase another third of his or her name. If I have to do so once again, I will erase the entirety of the name and have the principal call home. That got their attention. Backs straightened. Pencils were torn out of pencil cases, poised rigidly upright - tense and eager to write. Ears practically jutted out, ready to pounce upon any word that seeped from my mouth.

For the past two weeks, I've had very, very few behavior issues. I can't help but grin.