Discipline, or Lack Thereof

I was a little on edge today, so things that normally don't bother me too much grated on me more than usual. I have one student who is particularly rude and annoying. Most of the time, I believe I deal with this student well and ignore as much as I can, but today, I actually yelled in class. Normally, I think yelling is a waste of time and energy, but on this particular day, nothing else seemed to get this student's attention. When the rude, annoying behavior continued after repeated warnings, I completely lost my cool. The student was startled and almost in tears and the rest of the class just stared at me. "I think Ms EMH is serious," one of the kids whispered to another.

"As opposed to the times I'm not serious when I say this behavior is unacceptable?" I thought. In my mind, I could hear echoes of my mom saying to my sister and me when we were kids, "Do you think I yell because I like to?!"

Most of my students are sweet, but a few, like this particular student, have already bought into the aspect of Korean culture that essentially gives a foreigner no status in society. While most of my students are respectful, sweet children, it's frustrating to the extreme to encounter those who already view foreigners as somehow less deserving of respect than Koreans and who view foreigner teachers as having no real authority.

I'm not sure yelling earned me any respect in this student's eyes, but since nothing else I tried seemed to work, if this at least communicates that being rude and annoying is socially unacceptable, then maybe something important was learned this week.

I wanted to talk to this student after class and say something to the effect of, "We didn't do too well together day. Let's work together better next time," but the student was out the door faster than I've ever seen this student move. I sighed as I watched the little head of black hair disappear down the hallway with remarkable speed.

My project for the week: learn some new discipline strategies because what I currently know clearly isn't working in this case.