CANDY!

Oh, Tuesday's seventh period...you drive me crazy!

Tuesdays are by far my busiest days at school. I teach five classes, and during my free periods, I have to finish my lesson plan for the following week and get it approved by the three JTEs (Japanese teachers of English). Sometimes, I have a stack of papers that needs to be graded. Usually, I have one or two students that want to chat with me after school. Always, I have to make copies of the printouts I just finished preparing. 忙しいですね。

Despite the fact that I'm busy, I see some of my favorite classes and there's never a dull moment during the day. In fact, the day is often too eventful. Or should I say, it's end with a commotion thanks to my seventh period.

My seventh period has about six talkers in the class: the “talker pack.” What I mean by this is that they always want to be heard. They are the ones that participate the most, because they want to talk, but this doesn't mean that they're quiet when they're supposed to. They're the kings and queens of multitasking, so they can get away with talking and understanding the class material. It drives me nuts, because it distracts the students that can't multitask and are unable to focus. As a result, it's hard to move the class along.

Luckily, the “strict” teacher is in charge of this class with me, along with another teacher. I put the word strict in quotations, because she's as strict as many American teachers, but in Japan she's considered a very strict teacher. Since she doesn't tolerate any rude behavior, the students behave well for the most part, and if they don't, she stops the class and scolds them for about five minutes. This has happened a couple of times.

At this school, I work with two teachers in every class. This is because they have combined two classes into one, so that I can see all of the students at least once a week. I always wondered what would happen if the “strict” teacher was absent. Would the other teacher and I be able to control the class? Well, I got to find out last week, and the outcome was not pretty. The students kept on interrupting the other teacher and me, and kept on talking over their classmates during presentations. While explaining activities, I would refuse to talk if they weren't completely silent. I'm normally more lenient, but if I show any leniency with this class, they walk all over me. It worked, but it took up a lot of time and we didn't get through all of the material. I kept the class after the bell, and had the other teacher translate how disappointed I was in them, and warn them that I would give them more busy work if they didn't appreciate the activities. The lesson plans aren't the most interesting things in the world, but I do give them some time to do pair work, and I know that they take this time to talk with their friends. I don't mind, as long as the work gets done. So during my talk, I could tell that they didn't want to sit there any longer, but they did hear me through.

Today, I was very grateful to have the “strict” teacher in class. The class was running smoothly, until the “strict” teacher stepped out to take care of something in the hallway. The students were in the middle of answering some questions, and when they saw her leave, they jumped at the opportunity to be loud again. There is one student that is especially loud and rude: the leader of the “talker pack.” Last week, he had a verbal showdown with the other teacher. I couldn't understand what he was saying, but judging by the atmosphere of the classroom, he was being very rude. His behavior is what prompted me to give them my speech about proper behavior. So this week, I was observing his behavior in particular. He seemed to be in a better mood, and he wasn't interrupting as much. When the “strict” teacher stepped out, I expected him to take advantage of the situation and lead the bandwagon of talkers.

The “talker pack” did start to speak out of turn during the next activity. They wanted me to call on them to answer the questions. The noise level was starting to rise, and when I looked down at my paper to verify an answer, I heard one student call out, “candy!' I looked up to see who it was, and it was the leader of the “talker pack,” and he was looking straight at me. I must have looked really confused, because the whole class started looking confused, and then the student himself looked confused. The class got quiet, and the student spoke again. “Candy,” he repeated, “Candy-sensei!” Then the entire class, the other teacher, and I started laughing. The student thought my name was Candy. I corrected him, and someone told him what the word candy meant. He started laughing at his own mistake, and went off in Japanese about my name. The class reacted and quickly started getting noisy again, and I didn't want the atmosphere to turn sour again after it had just been so funny, so I was getting ready to quiet them down. I didn't have to say anything, because the leader of the “talker pack” did the talking for me. He yelled, pointed at me, and said to the class, “listen to Candy-sensei!” Some students chuckled, but soon the whole class was quiet and alert. Not even the “talker pack” made a commotion. I guess they didn't want to disappoint their leader. Class politics, you know how that goes. We continued the activity we were working on, and the “strict” teacher walked into a quiet and well-functioning class. Halleluiah!

And that my friends, is how a class of students that always gets you mad because they won't cooperate, makes it out of your 'black list” and onto your “like” list. This class owes it to the student that had been thinking for the last five months that my name is Candy.

Vive le mardi!