Students

Well, I got through the first two days without much problem. Like I said, things don't always work out and I was not going to worry too much about the problems. The way I saw it, all I needed to do was go over the rules and expectations with the students the first day and then find some kind of worksheet or something to do the second day. Which is exactly how it happened.

The first day was as most first days are in every school, I introduced myself and discussed my expectations of the students and what they should expect of me. I feel the first day went really well. I put the class rules up on the board and the grade breakdown for the class. These are things that I plan to put up on the board or on a bulletin board sometime. My class rules were short and positive and went like this...

1. Be Happy
2. Be Respectful
3. Be Positive
4. Be On Time
5. Be Prepared

I did explain what each rule meant to me and how it relates to the students and this class. I told the kids I want them to be happy when they come into my class and that should be the most important rule because that's the first thing I want to see from them is a smile. One kid did mention that being happy is more of a guideline, I agreed with him. Then I told the class I established these rules as expectations for how they should act and behave. Therefore, I expect each student to be happy.

The second day was a little bit of chaos to start, I wasn't sure what I was going to do in my any of my classes. Textbooks have not been distributed by then and as of right now, they still have not been distributed. That situation is another issue that I feel could be improved upon. As of right now, a teacher is supposed to take the whole class up to the library to get books for the students, but the students are going to get the books for all their classes while there, not just my class. So, if no teacher has taken students up to the library yet, the students will not have text books.

I am going to plan to take my homeroom students, who also happen to be my first bell students, up to get their books on Monday morning. My hope is that other teachers are doing similar things so I do not have to take all of my classes to the library. I have a feeling that if I want my students to have books, I am going to have to take them to the library to get them because I don't think any of the other teachers will do this. Monday might be a book day for all of my classes.

I think this process would go much smoother with a book day a few days before the first day of classes. The students did come in the day before classes started to pick up a schedule (but half of the schedules were not done by then, so many of the students did not have schedules to pick up). It would make sense to me to also give them their textbooks at this time, assign them a locker and collect any money they owe. I guess there was an issue last year, and apparently still is an issue this year, of students not paying for textbooks. Well, I feel this could be expedited by having a book day. I may bring that up to the management team.

Back to the second day. I decided to copy some worksheets and go over the first section in each class. Along with this, I was going to walk to the students through the process of note-taking in my class and what my expectations were for them taking good notes and thus being able to use them on their homework if they are lost. I told the students that if I write it up on the board, they should write it in their notes. I guess this was still an introductory exercise, but I feel it was worthwhile since it allowed me to introduce the first section and also outlined how notes should be taken and organized in my class.

After the notes were completed, I decided to pass out worksheets to the classes and have them complete them during the time left in class. Some students finished the worksheets and some did not. I told the students they did not have to worry about completing the worksheets over the weekend because I was not going to grade them, but I was going to go over the answers on Monday.

One thing I noticed during both days and especially when given the worksheet, these students do not say much in class. That can be good and bad. I had a hard time getting some of these students to answer my questions and interact in a class discussion. Sometimes no one would answer my questions and the class discussions were very one-sided. The aspect I did like about this is class work time was very quiet. The students do not get up out of their seat, they do not become loud, mean or disrespectful. They simply sit there and do their work. If they have a question, they will raise their hand and tell me they do not understand, but other than that, they work quietly. I did notice some students helping others out, which is great, but this was done very quietly and I could barely hear them.

My concern over this is the adjustments that I will have to make when I return to the US to teach. I am afraid that the difference in attitudes may be so different that I cannot adjust. I know some of the veteran teachers have already told me that they would never go back to teaching in the US just for that reason. They do have a valid point. Classroom management over here is definitely much easier than in the US. I believe social and religious expectations play a role in this difference. The Buddhist/Tao mentality definitely shows itself in the mannerisms of the students and how they act towards teachers.