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[ahimsa114]

I've had a strange couple of days. I was supposed to have four classes both yesterday and today. Yesterday morning, I showed up (a little late, because the classes don't actually start on the hour, which I was never told) and tried knocking on the door. No answer. Then I tried opening the door, which was locked. After a lot of confusion,

Comments

[sadiespaetzle]

Dude, that sucks. It sounds like you handled it with as much grace as possible, though.

As for the discipline thing, you're a new person, so of course the kids are going to sort of test your limits. It won't last. You just gots to show 'em yer business side. Then you can go back to being way too nice.

Hope things get less confusing.

[ahimsa114]

Lol, you're very kind to describe me, sitting on a desk, listening to Bob Dylan as "handling it with grace"!

So far, I haven't had any discipline problems. I just need to make sure that they know that any problems will get back to their regular teachers.

Thanks!

[krsnas_favorite]

That sounds incredibly confusing and really frustrating. I'm sorry darling. =(

[ahimsa114]

It's alright. I'm kind of used to feeling completely out of control of my actions when I'm abroad. I just hope there won't be any consequences of my not knowing anything...

Miss you lots and lots! What're you up to these days?

[krsnas_favorite]

I miss *you* lots and lots!

I am still freelancing in Charlotte while waiting to hear back from people. No word from the astrology website yet but they said they will let me know this week. Also, there is an unpaid internship with a vegetarian magazine that provides housing that I really really want. But I won't know until Nov. 1. Meh. Everything is very slow going. . .

Also, when is a good time to call you?

[ahimsa114]

Well, I'm free now and all day tomorrow. More in the long term, you'll have to wait until I get around to sending you my schedule. Which should be today or tomorrow.

Good luck with all the job stuff!

[raisingirl99]

Ugh, all that confusion sounds awful. :(

Also, I think I might have some discipline problems, because I'm way too nice, and they're going to take advantage of me, I can tell.

I completely feel your pain. I had some trouble with that when I taught high school, although not quite as much trouble as most people (myself included) would have probably guessed. So maybe it won't be as bad as you think. One of the principals gave me the advice "never smile before Christmas," to keep them intimidated, which sounded kind of mean to me... but I don't smile a lot in general when I'm trying to focus on work, so maybe that helped me.

And there was the one guy that everyone teases. It's kind of horrible.

Yeah, there was that one guy in one of my classes, too. :(

[ahimsa114]

It's alright. It means that I have less work! ;)

I'm...a very smile-y person. And have no way to actually discipline the kids. I'm going to make it clear that any problems I have with them will get back to their real teachers, which will hopefully work.

What, if anything, did you do about the teasing?

[raisingirl99]

I'm...a very smile-y person.

That's really cool, actually. I wish I was more like that.

What, if anything, did you do about the teasing?

Not much. Most of the time, when the other students would start teasing him, he'd respond back -- or he would have been off-task in the first place -- and thus punishing the teasers would have also meant punishing him. (He was very bright but both easily distracted and also not modest about his intelligence, which only made things worse.) I felt like it was best to try to move on with the class and take the attention off him, which may or may not have been the best approach. A couple of times or so, I tried to talk to the class in general about teasing, the school's policy on bullying (as that was the big topic that year), etc., but it pretty much fell on deaf ears.

I don't know. I really didn't have a good way of dealing with it. I wish I could have handled it better, but I'm not sure what I would have done differently.