Committed
I caught two kids cheating during a quiz today. One of them was using his smartphone to look up the answers on the Internet, so I took his phone away, which made everyone else in the class laugh at him. He came up to me after the quiz and was all, "I wasn't cheating, teacher. I was playing a game." To which I replied, "A game that has labelled diagrams of skeletons in it?" (it was a quiz on the bones in the human body). And how is playing a game during a quiz all that much better, anyway? Then he tried to blame the kid next to him. I gave him his phone back at the end of class, but I wish now that I'd given it to Chester, the head foreign teacher. If we confiscate a phone and give it to Chester, he won't give it back to the kid until they've come to him and explained why their phone was confiscated. A typical conversation goes like this:
Chester: Why do I have your telephone?
Kid: Mr. Derick took it.
Chester: And why did Mr. Derick take it?
Kid: I was texting.
Chester: WHY WERE YOU TEXTING!?
Kid: ...
Chester: ARE YOU SAYING TEXTING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAT MR. DERICK'S CLASS!?
Chester is a retired Air Force guy and is used to intimidating kids. The kids never seem to get that all he wants is for them to say, "I'm sorry, Mr. Chester. It won't happen again." They always stand there like they think there's a correct answer to this question, and they just need to think of it.
The other cheating kid was one who's a constant thorn in my side. I'd cautioned him numerous times during the quiz to stop talking, and every time he would just blame some other kid, all "He was talking to me!" I'd always say, "I don't care! Just stop talking. This is a quiz." Anyway, I caught him letting some kids behind him copy off his sheet, so I took his quiz away. He denied it vehemently, so I impersonated him crudely and everyone in the class laughed at him too. He started swearing at me in Thai so I just laughed. Such a brat, this kid.
Plane tickets home to Vancouver are purchased. It's Bangkok --> Seoul --> Vancouver. We have a long layover in Seoul, 6 am to 7 pm, and ICN may have been voted nicest airport in the world multiple times, but nuts to sitting there for 13 hours. I'm going into Seoul for the day, damn it. I never wanted to come to Southeast Asia. I always had more of an interest in East Asia, so hell yes I'm going to see the tiny part of it that I can while I'm already in Asia. I say "I'm going" because Scott says that he'll come with me but I suspect that once we get to Incheon he'll feel more like taking a nap on an airport bench and playing with his laptop than navigating a foreign city's transit system and taking pictures of me in front of the Namdaemun Gate.
I asked this on FB, but I'll ask here, too: if you've been to Seoul and have advice on must-see or must-avoid stuff, throw me a comment.
We're going to spend a few days on an island near Cambodia (Ko Chang) before we go, and hopefully get to go scuba diving a couple of times. Also, our friend Ben, currently in the middle of a round-the-world trip, gets into BKK, like, the day before we leave, so I told him we'd take him out for a bucket when he gets here. All in all, I'm not looking forward to going back to Canada, but I am looking forward to the week or so before we actually get there.
Chester: Why do I have your telephone?
Kid: Mr. Derick took it.
Chester: And why did Mr. Derick take it?
Kid: I was texting.
Chester: WHY WERE YOU TEXTING!?
Kid: ...
Chester: ARE YOU SAYING TEXTING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAT MR. DERICK'S CLASS!?
Chester is a retired Air Force guy and is used to intimidating kids. The kids never seem to get that all he wants is for them to say, "I'm sorry, Mr. Chester. It won't happen again." They always stand there like they think there's a correct answer to this question, and they just need to think of it.
The other cheating kid was one who's a constant thorn in my side. I'd cautioned him numerous times during the quiz to stop talking, and every time he would just blame some other kid, all "He was talking to me!" I'd always say, "I don't care! Just stop talking. This is a quiz." Anyway, I caught him letting some kids behind him copy off his sheet, so I took his quiz away. He denied it vehemently, so I impersonated him crudely and everyone in the class laughed at him too. He started swearing at me in Thai so I just laughed. Such a brat, this kid.
Plane tickets home to Vancouver are purchased. It's Bangkok --> Seoul --> Vancouver. We have a long layover in Seoul, 6 am to 7 pm, and ICN may have been voted nicest airport in the world multiple times, but nuts to sitting there for 13 hours. I'm going into Seoul for the day, damn it. I never wanted to come to Southeast Asia. I always had more of an interest in East Asia, so hell yes I'm going to see the tiny part of it that I can while I'm already in Asia. I say "I'm going" because Scott says that he'll come with me but I suspect that once we get to Incheon he'll feel more like taking a nap on an airport bench and playing with his laptop than navigating a foreign city's transit system and taking pictures of me in front of the Namdaemun Gate.
I asked this on FB, but I'll ask here, too: if you've been to Seoul and have advice on must-see or must-avoid stuff, throw me a comment.
We're going to spend a few days on an island near Cambodia (Ko Chang) before we go, and hopefully get to go scuba diving a couple of times. Also, our friend Ben, currently in the middle of a round-the-world trip, gets into BKK, like, the day before we leave, so I told him we'd take him out for a bucket when he gets here. All in all, I'm not looking forward to going back to Canada, but I am looking forward to the week or so before we actually get there.