The job I’m doing requires me to also teach young learners. These are very young kids who need guidance from a Chinese speaker, and they have a homeroom teacher all day.
But when I enter the classroom, the homeroom teacher does her own thing and lets me teach alone. My problem is, my appearance is very interesting to these kids and they constantly want to play with me. So, it’s hard to fend off these playful advances and it feels like I’m being mobbed all the time.
The homeroom teacher is usually grading papers or doing other things. On the rare occasion I do turn to her to help explain something to the children, I get this odd look as if I’m doing something wrong. They are clearly unwilling to help, and it got me wondering if they might not be paid salary when I’m in the room. It’s the only way I can imagine being so unsupportive to a colleague.
I want to know if I’m being unreasonable myself. I think it’s unrealistic to expect me, who barely speaks any Chinese (and I was also instructed to avoid using Chinese to promote immersive language environment), to be able to control such young children.
It’s also a bad example for these kids. They mob me and see the Chinese teacher raising no objection, so they learn it’s ok to not respect me. You can imagine how that goes over time; my Nigerian colleague has a booming voice and speaks Chinese so they respect him, while I get playful laughter as if I’m a walking puppet show. It’s starting to become a problem, and I intend to tell this school that there should be Chinese language assistance or I’ll quit and find a place that does support me.
So, I’m just asking you teachers out there, am I being unreasonable? I taught in mainland China, the children there are much worse (coz of the anti-foreigner sentiment) but the teaching assistant made everything quite manageable. I’m getting no help here, but are they in the right to expect me to control young children with no Chinese language? I need assistance from a Chinese speaker in class, but it’s more like I’m being ignored by them while they sit there, and kids learn by example.
The only time they get involved is to cause headaches for you.
If they aren’t getting involved then you’ve got a good one.
If you have one that takes the naughty kids aside to teach them to behave appropriately then you have an AMAZING one. Although these are rare (I’ve only met one)
Learn to speak a little Chinese, you won’t regret it
give them things to play with that aren’t you. I have a collection of teaching tools that i use for different things that I teach. Sticky balls are apparently a popular teaching toy in Taiwan (all about that annoying alliteration!), and I keep meaning to get some but I don’t teach kids so i can use things like dice and mobile phone games
develop a system that rewards good behavior and punishes bad behavior. This is harder to implement mid semester, but for example you can develop routines (works well with kids) where if you come in and everyone is ready to do your fun class, the class gets 3 points. If not, no points. If someone touches you, -1. If you give an activity and they have 10 minutes to finish, 1 point for every one that is finished. Make a large and colorful whiteboard style poster thatvyou can blue tac to the classroom and keep track, but also can take away with you. If the class earns x points by the midterm, everyone gets an ice cream. You get the idea. Have a system and be consistent, have routines and reward good behaviour. I used to date a primary school teacher in Canada and she found this worked very well
SOunds like you need classroom management skills. Teach them some TPR, stand up, sit down, etc, and then all sit down, do the lesson. Have a sheet of stickers to give them when they respond.
The kids seem to like you. Use that to your advantage to assert control over the behavior.