Battles With T7

7 doesn't appear to be my lucky number, when it comes to teaching classes at least. First it was M7 that caused me hassles (they're tamed now) and now it's T7.

T7 are a class that have been getting gradually worse and worse. There's a bad chemistry in that class and they're not the most charming of kids. About 8 years old all of them, Matt is the worst. Cheeky, know it all and unfortunately much brighter than the rest.

The class have become a running battle, but for from being a pain, I'm actually beginning to enjoy my twice weekly confrontations. Teaching as in life, I'm pretty laid back, but you push me too much and eventually I'll lose patience. T7 have pushed me and now I'm laying down the law.

Esther got it yesterday. There's 7 students and 6 desks and each kid takes a desk to themselves. And so Timmothy was left standing in the middle of the class, like some kind of retard, just standing and unwilling to sit anywhere. Esther happens to be his cousin and they've sat together in the past so I told Timmothy to sit next to her.

And Esther grizzled and shook her head and refused to let Timmothy past. So I let her have it. Her English is poor but she understands "Are you a baby?" and "Out?" Very reluctantly she let Timmothy past and proceeded to burst into flood of tears that took 20 minutes to subside. She gave me a look of pure hatred, one of the most evil looks anyone has ever given me (no exaggeration).

And I smacked a kid today. In gym, one of the new kids got into some nonsense fight with another. It was clearly him to blame and him just being selfish are kids are inclined to do at that age (about 4). So I pulled him away and scolded him. He tried to hit the kid again so I pulled him back and told him again. And he started trying to hit me, over and over, so I grabbed him and walloped him on the backside. Not hard, but enough for a warning.

They don't hold grudges though. 10 minutes later he was running around, as happy as anything.

So gradually I'm becoming a hardass teacher. Only with a couple of classes. I treat each class as they deserve to be treated. Most are nice kids and as a result they tend to enjoy the classes. But asshole kids have got to learn that if they behave like assholes they'll get treated like asshole.