This week we have about 40 "special needs" students attending our school. "Special needs" means their family can't afford tuition so it's been provided by the city council and the student attends for free. Understandably, if the family is low-income the children also have little-to-no english as the parents probably aren't able to afford the after school english programs that the typical student at our school attends. We often teach students with very little english, which is fine, but these students have very little english PLUS a mean streak. This week we are teaching inner-city kids raised on the mean streets of Suwon.
I have 15 students this week and 8 are "special needs" (in contrast, Mel only has 1). Most of my kids were trouble from the first hour. Before I'd even taught them two of them ripped a plastic "S" of one of our "Happy Suwon" signs and drew penises on the Hospital classroom wall during a tour of the school with Melodie. Then in their very first class Jo had to break up a fight between two of the boys. Fighting is pretty much unheard of at our school so I couldn't wait to meet them! They are exhausting. The classes are short- 45 minutes at a time- but I am constantly telling students to sit down or to stop speaking to the point that I can barely get through 1/2 the lesson I would with a typical class. I had to break up a fight first period this morning too, when two of the boys just l-o-s-t it.
On a whole many of the kids are nice. That's me confiscating a gun of "Superman" (my favorite student of the week) on Monday morning. Although even if they are nice, if the kids understand no english it is really hard to organize a drama play and explain any games or activities to them. Sometimes I feel like I may as well conduct the lesson in french- they'd understand just as much I'm sure. My kids this week really seem to like the "name game" so we play that every day and they think it's off the hook. I also think a lot of them may not get the attention they need at home. I can't walk through the hall without being hugged by little people! 6 of them hugged me after my last period class today. It's cute, but makes it slow going when you're just try to get down the hall. I think our graduation might be kind of tear-filled tomorrow (tears of sorrow from them, tears of joy from the teachers).
As per usual the main trouble makers have ridiculous names. "Happy" is anything-but, and was the central thug in all of my team's fights. There's a boy named "Suwon" on Jeannie's team that is giving his town a bad name, "D Undertaker" is a bad ass (he and "Suwon" are cronies), and there's a girl named "Sina" that is just wild. So what's in a name? I'm hoping for some "Jack's" and "Susie's" next week.
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