Sometimes students learn the wrong things.
No, I haven’t been inadvertently teaching my kids how to swear. They don’t get (or rather, haven’t gotten) me that worked up. They are picking up on a lot of stuff I say though.
Some of it I don’t even realize that I’m saying as often as I am. Until it comes back at me.
I’ve got this one kid in one of my sixth grade classes, who’s taken on the role of my assistant, without being asked to. He’s a good student, so I let it slide. There are a few phrases I use a lot, and he’s gotten to where he can pretty much tell which one I’m about to use, and he’ll look at the student who needs correcting and say the line. For example, if somebody’s goofing off and singing (yes, some of them do that sometimes), I’ll say, “hey, this is not a noraebang,” (If you don’t remember what that is, refresh your memory with this past entry.)
I didn’t think I said that one all that often, until the first time he said it for me. Another favorite is, “this is not a race.” That one gets used when students hurry through their assignments in order to have a little free time at the end of class for hangman, or some other game. The newest addition to the list is, “BACKPACK!” The current favorite (well, my favorite) method of classroom discipline for unruly students is to make them hold their backpacks in front of them, arms locked straight out. They have a lot of books, and it’s rare that any of them can go more than 10-15 seconds like this. I view this as my drill sergeants did – it’s not punishment, it’s physical conditioning. See? I’m doing them a favor!
Really though, I’m just trying to make them tired so they’ll calm down. It works some of the time.
In another class – one that gets a bit rowdier – I found myself telling them to “stop yelling” quite a bit. Now, all I have to do is say “STOP!” and I’ll get a chorus of “YELLING!” in return. Sure, they’re still noisy, but they get a laugh out of it and it breaks up their conversations.
The odd thing about this is that they get a huge kick out of it when I say one of the lines. Kind of like watching a Schwarzenegger movie and waiting for him to say, “I’ll be back.” If I tell somebody “BACKPACK!” I get cheers, laughter and clapping in response – even from the kid who has to do backpack drills. It’s rather strange, and probably not good for my mental health. I just know it’s going to end up like the “I didn’t do it” episode of The Simpsons where Bart became the catchphrase boy. I’ll have to keep innovating and coming up with new things to say, just to keep them on their toes. But I have no idea which phrases they’re going to latch on to until they’ve done it. There must be a way to figure this out.
Any suggestions for new/different/unusual things to say to a room full of Korean teenagers?