Mean Teacher

Yep. That’s me. I’m sure I’ve been blacklisted by the kids- let me tell you the story.

So for the most part I have really good classes. But of course there are some trouble-makers.

In my last class of the day on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have a class of 12 6th graders. They are probably my hardest class. There are some really good kids in there- but they are in the awkward shy phase and don’t want to participate in class. And then there are some not so good kids in there with BAD attitudes. Classic bullies, the kind of kids that get away with anything- but that all changed yesterday.

I saw the main bully writing a note- I walked up to her to take the note- she quickly put it in her bag when I reached for it. I decided to have some mercy and give her a second chance. I told her no more notes or I would take it.

Fast forward about 20 mins later. I see the note is back out and about to be passed. I go and grab it as it is passed. It was being passed to once of my “good girls”. I pried it out of her fingers as she begged me to let her rip it up.

I could see fear all over their faces. I opened the note and saw everything was written in Korean with a few English curse words mixed in- think "the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the "F-dash-dash-dash" word " (A Christmas Story anyone?) . I knew this not did not say nice things.

Anyways I walked back to the front of class and carried on with class. The bell rang and instead of darting out of class 4 of the girls stayed behind.

They begged me for 5 minutes to not tell their moms and to rip up the note. (by the way- my Korean co-teacher calls their mom every night to let them know how their child was in class- crazy- I know). I listened- tears in their eyes they begged and pleaded telling me their moms would kill them. Then I told them to listen to me.

I said I was tired of being disrespected. I told them I was tired of them speaking in Korean all the time. I told them I know they speak Korean in class because they are saying bad words and bad things about me. I told them they make my job very hard and that I moved here, very far away from my family and friends to be their teacher and I want them to learn. I explained that I care about them and they need to learn a lesson- that you can not act this way in class. I told them they will live- their parents wont kill them and that I have been in their shoes.

They still begged me- I did not give in. I’m tired of bullies- I care about their character more than anything else- and I feel like this could be a moment to shape their character a little bit.

So they left and went home. And I went into the office and gave the note to my Korean co-teacher. I don’t think she is going to tell their moms but she is going to talk to the girls. I’m ok with her not telling their moms. It will kind of be a nice little piece of black mail that I can hold onto to keep them in line for the rest of the semester =)

Good thing I don't have a car here- other wise I'm pretty sure it would have been egged by my students last night ;)