Stick a Fork in American Eagle

       January 19th was the last day this term at American Eagle. While other teachers continue to slug it out with little discipline or pedagogy, I am adorning the stairway landing bulletin board between the fourth and fifth floor with the children’s compositions and isolating children who can’t obey class rules outside my classroom door . In the rest of the landings, and in the classrooms, there is no student work displayed; only copies the liaison put up from years past. Most boards have nothing but shabby construction paper on them. My class is working up to the last day; no party because I want to set the tone for next term; I was asked by management to return again as their teacher.

   

     After the last day of class, management at American Eagle changed its mind about asking me to return  next term. The management liaison told me the news when she came up after my last class; she explained that only three children wanted to continue the class so it was dissolved. She said the parents were fed up with all the teacher changes. The class was out of control. The discipline I gave for some children was unbearable to their parents, but it proved something could be taught and learned in class with it. I was surprised but not upset about the news. Originally I was only going to stay until January 19^th. They’re sorry they asked me back. I didn’t mean to sabotage the class, but so be it.

      Thinking about American Eagle, how I should have quit instead of slugging it out in their chaotic atmosphere; it would have been that way next term, too. The little children, like J, would still be smiling through the discipline. Delicate flowers would wither to know they weren't as perfect as their parents let them believe. Children on the verge of fluency would fail the final exams. Some would stay in their own little worlds. But some children would get the message that they are capable of more, and shine. My favorite kids benefited the most from good pedagogical practices.

     There are a few classroom management techniques I used the last two weeks of class that I had not used before. In leading up the final exam, I still used a point and minus system to modify the behavior of the disruptive kids in class, but it was no longer working for a few who continued to call out, use Chinese, draw pictures, dawdle, lean chairs, and stand without permission. Instead, I used -10 to remove the disruptive student from the room, a point a minute. When a student, Jason in particular, talked back to me, I talked loudly to him and admonished him to show respect when talking with a teacher. 

      I mentioned the regression in school atmosphere in our school meeting on January 9^th. I explained how it had deteriorated over the last four years I was employed there; that it had contributed to my leaving in September 2016. It was not the children’s fault but the fault of the management for not keeping high standards. The school rules were not being followed and so the quality of student behavior dropped dramatically. Without management leading the way, no improvement in class atmosphere and academic progress was possible.

At that meeting, I suggested management encourage parents to monitor their child’s behavior by rewarding them with discounts for each week their child was polite; I flippantly said 100 NT a week discount could be offered, a possible 2000 NT discount over the term. I mentioned how the students should be expected to speak English in the hallways as well as the classroom; that would go far in creating an atmosphere for learning. Certainly, when I started at the bushiban, the children did sit on the steps and floor in the halls and play up and down the stairs, but they were spoken to by staff and told not to not only because it is dangerous, but it sets a poor tone for the school. Finally, the teachers should be monitored, assisted in the classroom, and required to have the students produce quality creative work worthy of being placed on well-adorned bulletin boards.

My shouting back at a student talking back and isolating him outside the room were techniques I had never used before at American Eagle. The management was aware of what I was doing because I asked permission in advance and was not told not to do it. They heard me talk angrily but did not ask me why, tell me not to do it, or send assistance. I explained how I’d put construction paper on the classroom door so isolated students couldn’t distract the class. I was not going to work there under other conditions. I was hoping my measures would be temporary once the class was controlling itself. My plan was working, I got many nice compositions and discussion with Community Curriculum material, but a few parents balked at their child being disciplined. They were rightfully fed up by so many personnel changes; at least three in the three months before I came in.  

I am glad to not have to work with children without good bushiban atmosphere. It would have been bad for my health and aura of calm to have to do that, but that was the prospect I was faced with. I’m glad I won’t have to do that, but no teacher or student should have to suffer chaos and no learning for the sake of the school survival. “Immersion” is a sham when every child uses Chinese in the bushiban.

I had conflicts whether I should continue working at American Eagle or not. I like the rush of riding there and back on the bike, of being in the classroom for ninety minutes, and the regularity of it; it paced my week and separated my day from evening nicely. 

Stick a fork in American Eagle; it's cooked.

     Off the hook now forever from American Eagle, my commitment complete, just a day after, when last evening, I got a call to sign a contract to be a publisher’s English as a Second Language resource person for Central Taiwan with additional contracts for the 7^th grade textbooks I edited last summer, with 8^th and 9^th to follow. I assume with it will be more responsibility that would make being tied to a crappy little bushiban a hindrance. Today is the day I would have started the spring term. It feels good to be home studying Mandarin instead.