Some days, this job can be really frustrating. I'm not talking about teaching in general; I think that all readers can relate that teachers (qualified or not) struggle with teaching English to children who often don't really want to be there. The same goes for general education in North America; this can be seen in the high dropout rates all across North America (if you think that all the stats on high school dropouts are real, trust me; they're lower. My old high school in Chicago routinely brought in extra students to beef up the attendance stats, because with "more" students, your school gets more money...fudging is pretty commonplace, as far as it was explained to me right before I left my school.) Regardless, teaching's tough, especially when you don't get the impression that you're "appreciated" as much as you might want.
Take for example my last class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They're all there because their parents want them to be there; two of them however do their best to learn what they can, and they make most days worthwhile. The rest of the girls however just really don't care. They often speak Korean in my class, to which I stop them once they start. But aside from them knowing better, they still do it, because theirs not a lot I can do; their parents are too busy to worry, and as long as their child doesn't outwardly complain, then the parents are happy. So here's where things get frustrating.
One of my students doesn't take her 80 minutes seriously at all. She doesn't try; her two best friends are in the same class, and this is the only time she gets to spend time with them. So she has her friends, and also, her second best friend; her cell phone. Now, I have a pretty strict rule in my class that if you take out your phone in my class for any other reason than to turn it off if its ringing, or if we're disagreeing over what their cell phone's translation dictionary told them was really an English word, they don't take it out. Often I'll let it slide if they forgot their watch, but otherwise, they know that I'm liable to take their phone if i see it. I haven't had to actually follow through on my threat until today. Tonight, on of my students had her phone ring twice on silent mode, and the third time, she felt brazen enough, with my back to the board, to try to answer the phone. And if i didn't happen to see the whole thing after i turned around. I told her to give me the phone, which she does, after telling me that she wants it back at the end of class. I should mention this - my punishment? I hold the phone until their next class. They know this rule, and then, at the closure of the class, she realizes I'm not going to give it back to her until the following day, and she starts crying uncontrollably. Here's where it sucks to be a teacher in a foreign country where the kids don't care. Do i give her the phone, and let her win? She doesn't respect me; she can't stand me because of the homework i give her. (To her credit, she usually didn't do all the homework before, but once i started teaching the class, she's done "almost" all of it..most of the time.) Or, do i keep the phone as a serious statement to the other kids that I am serious about this?
In the end, I somewhat let her chose. She needed her bus-pass tied to her cell phone, and i let her take it off. She held onto her phone for almost ten minutes and contemplated leaving with the phone (and i wasn't planning on stopping her.) To her credit, she left the phone with me, and for that, even though she'll never understand it, i give her credit - she showed respect to my rule (which shows that although she might hate me, she does in fact respect the profession and rules...) But if i don't feel like the biggest jerk right now as I'm typing this....
Sometimes, I hate this job....