Czech Students are Terrible
Sorry about the lack of posts, my faithful blog readers. However, as I noted in the last pseudo-post, I have been feeling depressed. It’s really been getting to me lately. It just wears on you when everyday you are treated like dirt.
The big problem I am having now is the lack of respect from my Czech students. I understand that they are middle schoolers, and that they simply don’t care and want to prove their “coolness” by defying the authority. However, they don’t even listen to me. I mean, at all. I say words, standing at the front of the class and yelling, and they don’t even look up. I tell them to be quiet; they don’t even pause in their loud, defiant Czech blabber.
This week I gave all my middle schoolers a test. I clearly said that it was a test. I went over the directions before handing it out to them (not that they could hear, because they were talking over me). Yet many of them didn’t even bother to fill it out. Some of them didn’t even give it back to me, instead opting to ball it up and throw it across the room at one another. Maybe they are under false pretenses because I didn’t give them a grade for the test they took when I first started – but they are getting a grade for this test. And making a projectile out of your test doesn’t really ensure you will get a passing grade.
Not only that, but they cheated, right in front of my eyes. I had to keep going around the room and saying “no copying,” even though I would think that would be obvious, since it is a test. They simply didn’t care, opting again to ignore me. Even if they don’t know the word “copy,” they should know that when I get up and tell them “no” when they are writing down exactly what their smarter table partner has written, that they probably shouldn’t do it. Context clues.
I don’t really want to fail everyone, but goodness, it would be so wonderful. Many people have already automatically earned a 5 (the worst grade, equivalent to an F) by not taking the test or not turning the test in (since I don’t know anyone’s name since I just got an attendance sheet a couple weeks ago, I will have to rely on their honesty and my memory to determine if they were here this week when I give back grades next week). I’m not sure what to do about the cheaters. Some of the work was actually good, and WOULD have been a 1, had it not been copied from someone. I suppose I will give them one number lower than they should have – or maybe just give them all 3’s, which is a C.
These Czech students need to start respecting me. They respect all the other teachers in the school, and instantly shut up and stand up as soon as a native Czech speaker enters in the middle of my lesson (which happens quite frequently here – the teachers and my bosses have no boundaries, much like the students they teach). They just think my class is recess, and that they can talk and say whatever they want because the teacher can’t understand. Fine, if they want it to be recess, it can be. I will just be giving them a test every week on things we never learned so I can be certain they will fail it.
I honestly don’t know if I can make it through another five months of this. It seems like such a long time. I can’t do anything during class without their attention – if I give them a worksheet, they won’t do it and will opt to tear it into pieces. If they do partner work, they will instead just talk in Czech. If I try to engage them as a class, they will just talk over me and ignore me. If I have them stand up so we can play a game on the board, they will just scatter into their groups and start talking. I am human garbage. And I am not getting paid enough for it. Such is the Czech Republic.
