Okami wrote:Wait till he gets disrespectful, take him to a set of stairs, make him go up and down them for 10 minutes and do not talk to him except to make him go up and down correctly. Once he starts sweating and he smoothens out his pace, then stop him and speak to him in Chinese and explain your side of things. If he grunts, then send him back up and down the flight of stairs 3-5 times. You want proper responses from him instead of grunts. Don't yell nor appear angry because you want him to see you as an authority figure he has to respond appropriately to that is calm and in control. After they get it, then they do another 10 minutes to drive the message home and you can talk to them during this time. I generally express regret that I'm not teaching my class but sitting there explaining to him how to act in class. Another particular favorite one is asking if he prefers being yelled at, or walking up and down the stairs, when he says being yelled at ask him if it changes anything and wait for a proper response. You should definitely work the respect angle.
Notes:
1. If he dawdles threaten to throw him up and down those stairs and DO SO!
2. Patience
3. For the first 10 minutes don't talk to him except to make sure he is doing it right.
4. I have them touch a wall at the top of the stairs and a wall where I'm sitting.
5. If he is really fast, don't worry he'll tire himself out and this is a great thing.
6. Make sure you are watching him at all times.
7. Explain to him that telling his mother is perfectly ok as long as he explains what got him into that situation.
I generally have to do this once a month, but I never have to do the same kid twice. By being calm and assertive plus working out there energy, you bring them to a peaceful state of mind where they can actually talk to you as a person. I usually get an a complete attitude adjustment out of the student. It's particularly effective with students who get yelled at a lot by their Taiwanese teachers.
YMMV, I know almost all 200 kids at my anqinban and have a good relationship with most of them. I only currently have one student who just hates me, but she's in my best Taiwanese teacher's class.
Actually his behavior
in class is OK. It what I am getting back from him outside of class that is the problem. He is only ten, but it sounds kind of junior high or high schoolish
. If I were to talk to him, he might give me a look like he doesn't care. I don't want to turn him over too much to the boss, because that is giving away your authority in the classroom. I think this child needs to have his mother sit him down and talk to him about his attitude.
I would ideally like a situation where if he has a complaint, his mother tells him to tell me exactly what he told her.
I wonder what the odds of that happening are?
! I have one class of children were one of the boys absolutely hates me. He says he has no problem with the Chinese teacher. He says he wishes the Chinese teacher were the ONLY teacher. He says that he doesn't understand me when I speak and thinks my activities are boring. He also thinks that he doesn't have to do the homework in my class, yet does it for the Chinese teacher. He has complained to his mother, who is on my side fortunately. But she has a limit to how much of his complaining he will take. He has tried to get the other children in the class to not like me. Fortunately, this has not worked on the girls who don't like to listen to the boys anyway. My boss even asked one of the girls what she thought of my class and she said it was fun.
