(j) Snowball
Morning classes. Several attempts at resistance from the more reticent students. "Why don't you give up?" - "We're not doing anything for you anyway." - "sds. Pah!" Some students in that particular class (the one with the bad math grades) have meanwhile taken to explicit language and recycling 3rd Reich vocabulary. "There are teachers and there are the really good teachers. But we've got to give you that: you've definitely consolidated the class spirit." Gee, I'm so glad.
It's not so bad, really. Or maybe it's just as of yet undecided. At any rate I get more of a reaction out of them than they get out of me and with far less of an effort to boot: "Hey guys, your snowball aim is as good as your math grades." - Oooooooh!
Of course I know what to expect at lunch break. I'm in a hurry to do some scans at home. So although a bunch of students have been lying in wait on the balcony, they don't get much time for a good aim. JP of course is an easier target. But snowballs don't make much of an impression once you found a way to laugh even about a stone. Not something I would tell my students, though. I heard the principal say they're miffed that they can't wear me down. :)
Return to afternoon classes. There's already a welcoming committee waiting on the balcony on the second floor. Later one of the students tells me that they had made 30 snowballs. Wow! I feel honored. Anyway, it's starting to border on the mildly over-enthusiastic. Looks like they're really putting some heart into it. I call up the "executive prinicpal" to kindly ask him if he could put a damper on the situation as I'm not quite sure as to whether this is still good sport. He's the guy who brought me into this place to begin with and to whom I also owe my car. He has a thing for politically incorrect language, telling people unflattering things straight to their faces and creative conflict management. He's been a bad boy and I have the impression he's getting some respect for it. Me on the other hand I have much yet to learn.
Once the coast is clear I join him at the entrance. He tells me with a sheepish grin what he did to get the situation under control: He sent the students of one of the advanced classes to go after the guys on the balcony - license to snowball all the perpetrators. They had been hanging around outside witnessing the barrage so they knew who to go after. However, my dear perpetrators must have gotten wind of it: I found them non-chalantly waiting in front of the classroom door. I put on a bright smile and unlocked the door.
As my junior students started walking in, their seniors stormed the classroom armed with snowballs which they threw or rubbed into the faces and colars of the not so lucky marksmen. In fact the executive principal oversaw the whole operation and in the end even went after a small guy who had thought it a good idea to attack him. Whatever else that little battle was, judging by the laughs I assume it helped everybody involved let off some steam. It didn't do much for the improvement of the sore loosers in class, who thought it a good idea to storm the senior students' classroom in the next break. I hear they lost again and that the teacher teaching that other class wasn't exactly thrilled with the intrusion. There even had been some rolling on the floor among three or four of the juniors on their way out. I bet that once they reach their retirement age they'll be talking of their little brawls as the good old times. One student came back for the second lesson soaked to his underwear. Talk about a snowball effect!
After the afternoon classes I talked to the vice principal. Out of 10 due assignments I had got 4 in that seemed serious, plus incomplete submission I knew from the day before, plus a meager exploit of the current topic, which however isn't what the assignment was. The vice principal told me to just go ahead and give an F to whoever hadn't done his/her job.
Once I was done the next lesson was on. Thus there weren't any snowballs to finish the day at school today. Boo-hoo! :p
It's not so bad, really. Or maybe it's just as of yet undecided. At any rate I get more of a reaction out of them than they get out of me and with far less of an effort to boot: "Hey guys, your snowball aim is as good as your math grades." - Oooooooh!
Of course I know what to expect at lunch break. I'm in a hurry to do some scans at home. So although a bunch of students have been lying in wait on the balcony, they don't get much time for a good aim. JP of course is an easier target. But snowballs don't make much of an impression once you found a way to laugh even about a stone. Not something I would tell my students, though. I heard the principal say they're miffed that they can't wear me down. :)
Return to afternoon classes. There's already a welcoming committee waiting on the balcony on the second floor. Later one of the students tells me that they had made 30 snowballs. Wow! I feel honored. Anyway, it's starting to border on the mildly over-enthusiastic. Looks like they're really putting some heart into it. I call up the "executive prinicpal" to kindly ask him if he could put a damper on the situation as I'm not quite sure as to whether this is still good sport. He's the guy who brought me into this place to begin with and to whom I also owe my car. He has a thing for politically incorrect language, telling people unflattering things straight to their faces and creative conflict management. He's been a bad boy and I have the impression he's getting some respect for it. Me on the other hand I have much yet to learn.
Once the coast is clear I join him at the entrance. He tells me with a sheepish grin what he did to get the situation under control: He sent the students of one of the advanced classes to go after the guys on the balcony - license to snowball all the perpetrators. They had been hanging around outside witnessing the barrage so they knew who to go after. However, my dear perpetrators must have gotten wind of it: I found them non-chalantly waiting in front of the classroom door. I put on a bright smile and unlocked the door.
As my junior students started walking in, their seniors stormed the classroom armed with snowballs which they threw or rubbed into the faces and colars of the not so lucky marksmen. In fact the executive principal oversaw the whole operation and in the end even went after a small guy who had thought it a good idea to attack him. Whatever else that little battle was, judging by the laughs I assume it helped everybody involved let off some steam. It didn't do much for the improvement of the sore loosers in class, who thought it a good idea to storm the senior students' classroom in the next break. I hear they lost again and that the teacher teaching that other class wasn't exactly thrilled with the intrusion. There even had been some rolling on the floor among three or four of the juniors on their way out. I bet that once they reach their retirement age they'll be talking of their little brawls as the good old times. One student came back for the second lesson soaked to his underwear. Talk about a snowball effect!
After the afternoon classes I talked to the vice principal. Out of 10 due assignments I had got 4 in that seemed serious, plus incomplete submission I knew from the day before, plus a meager exploit of the current topic, which however isn't what the assignment was. The vice principal told me to just go ahead and give an F to whoever hadn't done his/her job.
Once I was done the next lesson was on. Thus there weren't any snowballs to finish the day at school today. Boo-hoo! :p