Classroom management strategies - sublime to ridiculous

I can’t remember where I found these, but they’re on some site belonging to a foreign teacher here in Taiwan.

Emphasis mine.

[quote]Playing with the furniture is very useful in drills as well. Pick up a chair and point the legs at the students

From Michael Turton’s Teaching English in Taiwan Web Pages.

Ah, that’s the one! I first read it before I came to Taiwan, and thought it was mildly outrageous (if amusing), and undoubtedly exaggerated. :noway:

After 6 months here, I’ve realised how accurate it is. I’ve also decided he didn’t tell the half of it. :astonished:

Isn’t he a poster here onForumosa?
He seems to find the psychological abuse of children to be a rich vein of amusement.
Also seems to possess a midly disturbing preoccupation with classroom furniture.

Probably.

I don’t see anything resembling psychological abuse there. Kids are tough. And Taiwanese tough are very tough.

That’s one of the best parts. :notworthy:

Probably.

I don’t see anything resembling psychological abuse there. Kids are tough. And Taiwanese tough are very tough.

That’s one of the best parts. :notworthy:[/quote]

Yeah, how many of us had our teachers pretend to shoot us when we didn’t know the answers to a question? How many of us had teachers who would randomly hurl furniture or use threats of violence (even if in fun :unamused:) based on whether or not we could answer a question quickly and accurately? How many of us had teachers we liked who would torture a slow student simply for the amusement of others?

I sure didn’t. Then again, I had real teachers. Take Michael Turton’s website with a grain of salt…even if it doesn’t make the bullshit less difficult to swallow. Thank goodness this brand of “teaching” is becoming more and more outdated.

When we had teachers who did this stuff when I was growing up, we loved it. Couldn’t get enough. None of us thought of it as ‘threats of violence’ or ‘torture’.

But then I’m Australian. You’re not Canadian are you?

For the record, I think Michael Turton’s right on the money. :sunglasses:

Yep, I had to 13 year tough street smart old boys who had a hate hate relationship. I made them sit together. If one acted up they both got it. Theys likes dogs, after getting beat a few times they start to smarten up. By the end of 4 weeks they were actually starting to learn something other than being dumb muderfookers. They often lost their chairs and tables. Sometimes one had to use the others back to write on. If it was ugly he did it again. Soon they learnt that co-operating was far better than being snotty nose tossers. All the other kids drew tickets with a chair number on it for each class. Never knew which classmate they were going to sit next too.

I always had some background music running when doing the writing component, Dire straits, Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, Queen, and Monty Python. Music is a great boredom beater. My boss thought music was the best thing introduced to her Behai school.

LMAO :laughing: