You just can’t beat the person who won’t give up.

“You just can’t beat the person who won’t give up.” - Babe Ruth

Here I am again.
I am happy to say that my classes from last week have improved. This week there was no violent occurrences and no instances of nasty nicknames for either teacher in the classroom.

As I stated last week, my coteacher and I had a long meeting that resulted in this plan:
1- Watch a bullying video
2- Reflect on bullying video
     - How does the bully make you feel?
     - How does the bullied person make you feel?
     - What would you DO in this situation?
3- Discuss the answer to questions, focus on question 3. 
4- Give the students strategies for how to help as a community in bullying situations.
5- Move on to new rule for bullying situations: 3 strikes and you're out. 
     - First warning 
     - Second warning
     - Student goes to homeroom (or little room, depending on homeroom teacher) and completes a paper (depends on homeroom teacher and coteacher's previous decision for the lesson)
     - When the student finished the paper, they come back to the class.
6- What can get a strike, discuss and explain questions that can't be asked and what sentences can't be said.
     - Had to focus this as an American culture unit to satisfy the administration part of paperwork.  
     - Age, weight, money, politics, appearance.
7- Why we learn English
     - Due to students complaints about why we learn English I made a PPT about why we learn English and had them follow along filling in reasons on a worksheet. Then they glued the worksheet into their books. 
     - When they complained about why they learned English at all later, I could tell them to reference the sheet.

I had to spend an entire 40 minute lesson doing this. It was very interesting to see the student's reactions to question three. 
Most students said they would do nothing or ignore it. They said it was none of their business to become involved. Some students said they would tell a teacher, but not talk to the bully or the bullied person, but they were a minority.
I talked with the class and I discussed how the classroom is our community and we should help one another when there is a bullying situation.

The students seemed very shocked that they should be held responsible for each other. I told them what I would do if I saw something bad happening outside. I would call the police or offer help if it was safe.

The student's were also shocked at what I would find offensive. It was a large discussion and many questions were asked to me about it. 
I told them that constantly asking the weight of a person was seen as very rude AND that offering "advice" was also seen as rude. (You should cut your hair. That skirt is ugly.)

During the why we learn English part of the lesson, students where extremely surprised to see how MANY people speak English in the world. They also learned of all the different jobs that require English.
One of the most surprising and asked about was the fact that K-pop stars usually know a good amount of English. (Even if it is scripted)

Many of the students seemed to enjoy the lesson and many students had their preconceived notions challenged. 
I did have to use the strike system for 2 of the students, and the first time it was interesting, but once the student was out of the classroom for a short time, it gave the rest of the class time to reset back to normal.

The next class I had with my biggest challenging class was much better! 
The students told my co-teacher and I that they decided to assign someone to "be in charge of" the biggest bully in our class. If the bully hurts another student then the one in charge will scold them and take care of it in the homeroom after class.
I was shocked they discussed my class in their homeroom and decided to do that on their own.
As I said to Kevan "I put my faith in them, but I was worried my risk wouldn't pay off." 
My faith in myself and my classes ability has been renewed and I couldn't be more proud of my classes. 

Now that I have tackled the beast that is classroom management. I will move on to the next challenge of ever changing paper work in my admin. work. But that is for another blog.