I work at an eikaiwa. For the most part it’s okay, but once a month I have a class that drives me absolutely insane.
Like, not exaggerating, everytime I have to teach these kids I end up spending the night getting drunk, writing/rewriting my resignation letter, or contemplating self harm.
I’ve asked my boss for help, but even after observing the class herself, the only advice I got was to keep them separated, remind them of the classroom rules, and she’d have a staff member talk to their parents. Which is completely useless.
There are 7 students in the class and 3 of them are awful. They swear at me. They throw things. They chase each other. They fight/wrestle with each other. They eat during class. They don’t listen to a single instruction.
Genuinely, I can’t help the other students or check their work because, the second I’m not looking at them, those three start shit.
I cannot stand these kids anymore. I honestly hope that they get sick, have an accident, or quit. Anything that means I don’t have to deal with them.
I don’t know what to do! Should I just quit?
29 comments
Either quit or kick them out of the classroom. If the secretaries or your boss complain, make sure to tell them that you’ve tried it all and nothing worked.
As long as the parents continue paying, you continue teaching. Really, the only thing you can do is either change companies or grit and bear until next year
Kick them out of the class. Threaten to call their parents. Step out of the room and bring in the manager.
Your management isn’t doing their job if these kids are disrupting your class that badly
Pull your phone out and record the class. (Even if you’re not) explain the rules of this class must be followed or there will be parent meetings. It worked wonders for me and tipped the balance of authority back on my side.
Honestly? Just ignore them. If their parents want to pay for them to fuck around then that’s their business. Teach the other students and go through the motions of telling these ones to stop what they’re doing. Beyond that it’s not your problem. Leave it at the school. They’re children being forced to go to a class they clearly don’t want to attend so don’t take it personally.
Also if there are Japanese staff around ask for one of them to sit in on that class every time. They’ll either help keep them from killing each other or at least be someone to deflect blame to if something happens.
Do they only come once a month? Or does somebody else teach them? How the fuck can anybody learn anything that they do for one hour a month?
Anyway, I would just quit. eikaiwa gigs are not hard to get. Start sending your resume elsewhere.
How old are they? Need more details on circumstance.
who cares man, you aren’t a public school teacher, most likely the parents are just paying to have an hour of free time and don’t give a shit about the results, just stand there and continue teaching the whole time they ignore you, and let the hour pass by every week
Gotta say, you’re sharing way too much info about where you work. I don’t even work for the same company anymore and I know exactly where you work based on all this unnecessary info you keep adding.
That said, you’re thinking about this way too hard. Ensure, to the best of your ability, no one gets injured. Fill out the two forms that you are specifically told over and over to fill out in this situation. Do so monthly. That’s it. There’s nothing else you can or should do.
If a job is making you contemplate self harm you need to leave. No ifs ands or buts. That’s a serious danger to your health and sanity.
If, for whatever reason you can’t leave, then just ignore them. You’ve done everything you can. It sounds bad, but it’s not your job to care about the outcome of these classes when you’ve highlighted that it’s impossible to teach in this situation. It’s not your job to care if the kids learn anything if you have gone to management and shown them the issue and repeatedly asked for help but been denied.
Just show up, do your thing at the front of the class and ignore the misbehaving kids. Once they see they are getting zero reaction from you at all they’ll probably get bored anyway.
Have the kids that do behave sit closer together and you sit with them, just focus on them. If it’s only once a month then they honestly aren’t learning that much anyway. So just play some games, out on some videos, don’t stress so much about 1 day a month when you’ve exhausted your options.
I don’t believe there’s no way you can remove them from the class either though. You are not locked in a room by yourself in a building alone otherwise that’d be a serious safety concern that you should be reporting. There must be another member of staff somewhere, just make the kids go out and stand wherever the Japanese staff are. You need to get firm with management and tell them that the kids are a danger to yourself and the other kids in the room if they are throwing things.
You could maybe try and talk to the parents of the good kids, explain to them that because of what’s happening their kids are suffering and not learning, if management get more complaints from the good kids parents then they’ll have to separate them.
You should quit.
You can’t do anything about the eikaiwa industry being a completely unregulated glorified babysitting in English industry, but you can protect yourself from liability and you mental health from damage. If you want to work in a job that has standards, you’ll have to start having some yourself.
PKC just be like that.
¯_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯
Quit. If the managers aren’t doing anything to help you, just leave and get a job as an ALT or something. You’ll get paid the same and work less.
Fuck Eikaiwas like this
12-14 year old boys can be a nightmare. And it sounds rough not having any support. But that just means you have to discipline them. Get angry and get in their face. If they still talk back, drag them out of class by the arm and scold them in Japanese (if the parents are well aware of their kids behavior, they’re not going to sue you for pulling their kid out of class). The embarrassment may make the kids shut down and not speak/listen for the rest of their time there. So they may quit, but it will be good for you and the other students in the end.
Of course the better option would be to quit and find an eikaiwa that actually has some kind of support. But regardless, you should stand up for yourself, both to students and management.
As others have said, it’s quite easy to identify which company you work for. Thier rotation system is a huge giveaway. Just be careful on what you say.
For this situation, personally I would make use of the tables available. Sperate the problematic kids from each other by spreading the class around the room with designated seats. I wouldn’t start the class until they take their place, and then I would ignore their attempts to baffoon around. The rule you should enforce is the seating arrangement. It’s a first step in establishing order within the chaos.
If you have a working relationship with the JT, then I would ask them what they do and if they would also be open to having the same seating arrangement in their classes. The least it does is slow things down and put space between the kids.
I have a lot of sympathy for you though. Sometimes you just have one of those blocks that is horrible to deal with. The only other option is to just mentally check out for that hour.
I don’t bother with the crazy kids. I’m being paid to teach, not to rangle hellions.
I had a class like this once, seriously awful kids and although it never drove me to drink or anything I would dread it once a week. The thing is though that after a while I realized that the parents are more likely to get angry at the kids/perhaps the Japanese staff there than they are at you (and fair enough, they’re the ones messing about). When I realized this it helped me get through and after the year was done I never had a class that bad again. So I would say stick it though and try give it some perspective if you can.
Sounds like a normal friday to me. Cheers, hate my fridays too.
I have a class like this every Saturday. But they are only totally out of control when this one particular class clown student is there. When he is absent.they are almost angels. . What ive startd doing is just completely ignoring them and read the lesson into thin air as if im teaching a ghost student . Even if I shout they dont listen. Any effort I make to control the class is useless so I just ignore them.
I had a similar situation, so I completely babyproofed the room for that class. The only things out would be the absolutely necessary things, and they’d be within my reach. When a kid tried throwing chairs, we had a week where nobody had tables or chairs. We did our work on the floor with clipboards.
Once you’ve made it safe to ignore them, then that’s what you do. Do not look annoyed or angry. Actually, if you can, look mildly amused. They curse at you? That’s adorable. They try to eat? Nope. Food gets confiscated and put away until the end of class. They get pissed about that? Who do they think they are? Running around like fools, but they think they have food privileges? Hilarious.
They’re children. At the end of the day, as long as they’re safe, you’re in the clear. If they’re doing unsafe things, document and pass it on (to cover your ass if there a an incident later). But you have to remember that they’re children. Getting upset just empowers them.
I use to work at an Eikaiwa (PKC). I’m not sure if they changed it but the 2 months of parent observations were brutal. I recommend teaching in a high school over eikaiwa but if I was single I would try save a bit of money and go hard on Youtube or something online. The yen is weak so earning USD would be a good idea.
Either you quit, or you separate them from the rest of the group, and treat them like the kids they are, give them something else to do, coloring or just watching YT, see what I mean, let them do what they want, provided they keep quiet and don’t disturb the others, and only deal with the kids that really want to learn.
Are you allowed to bellow like an ox?
I was gonna say just walk out like a bad dad, but the other students will suffer. So I would suggest group studies! Put the 4 in group A and those 3 together in group B and leave them to their own lesson after you tell them the task/what you’re teaching today and focus on those who actually want to learn (group A). If they want to continue to fuck around, let them. If they want to learn, good. It’s not your job to discipline them. That’s for the staff to do. Because the moment you do anything drastic to try to change the situation (slightly raise your voice, yell at them, speak very sternly to them) YOU’RE the bad guy!
It sounds like your school doesn’t have a formal discipline policy so I can understand it’s difficult.
I think all teachers have classes they don’t look forward to teaching, it’s part of the job, and it’s definitely easy to say ignore it but it I was you. I would do the following.
Implement a three strikes and a time out system for kids continuously breaking the rules, being explicitly rude to the teacher.
Start each class on a clean slate i.e. don’t hold a grudge against the kids (if they act as they are they probably have some trouble somewhere else in their life) so give them a fresh chance to behave every week.
Look at implementing activities that keep them engaged in pairs or groups so you can split up trouble makers or group them together so you can ignore them and teach those who do want to learn.
Review your teaching methods for this class. Is there anything you could be doing better to help these kids. If you are just going through the motions kids will pick up on this.
If you do all of the above and they still won’t play ball, give them silent individual work to do for the hour and just follow the materials rigidly. Make sure they know it’s their choice to do this due to their behaviour.
Also i find not shouting is very useful..in unruly classes I just wait for them to settle down. It can take 10 seconds or 10 minutes. Slowly the better kids tend to put pressure on the naughty ones to shut up as they are getting dragged into the trouble.
Anyway good luck!
You’re pondering quitting because of a rowdy class you see once a month?
Man… I work at a private high school teaching solo and I hate one class I see multiple times a week.
Try and find a way to deal with it, or just… ganbare… it’s once a month. I’m assuming this isn’t a 4-hour class.
How much disciplinary actions are allowed in your school? If they are three, make one of them sit in the most left corner of the room. One exactly in the middle, first row. Third in the most right corner. If they act up get the chair and stool and get it RIGHT next to you, barely facing you and no one else. If they still continue to harass other students, give them a strike. 3 strikes and they get picked up by the parents plus they have to finish what they missed. If the parents are pissed they have to get their kids, good. Then they will give them punishment you can’t provide.
In the end you can only give students as many chances as you can. You are not their special ED warden, you are your CLASSES teacher.
, everytime I have to teach these kids I end up spending the night getting drunk, writing/rewriting my resignation letter, or contemplating self harm.
this had me loling. no advice, sorry.
oh I do, as a matter of fact: don’t take up smoking. it’s a chain around your neck.
Even if you change schools, there will always be disruptive students and the students who are generally the “bad kids” are the ones with the most problems in life. Just remember that what a student experiences outside of school effects how they interpret things in school. Also, students often disrupt, because they can’t do the work and it’s embarrassing for them. Every single teacher has had a classroom control issue.
I have a school and even with total control of every decision, some classes still get stressful at times.
If it’s only once a month, look at it as an inevitable challenge. Try new techniques and come up with strategies. A teacher should never work harder or care more than a student.
If they’re throwing stuff, collect textbooks and notebooks before class. Have them leave bags outside of the classroom or collect them. Treat all students the same. No pencil cases or erasers either, just buy pencils and have them ask for one when it writing time. Instead of erasing mistakes, have them draw a line through them. If they break the pencils, tell your school to replace them. If they’re sneaking candy in, check pockets. You’re the teacher. Always stay calm, never look overwhelmed and if they’re running and wrestling, try removing the ringleader either outside of the class or sit them next to you. Reward good work at the end of class with a sticker or a piece of candy. Don’t look at them as good or bad students. They try or they don’t. Good luck.