Lunatics

I've got a class of young students, just about my youngest in fact. There are three of them: Mini, Tommy and Jeremy. They have real names of course, but the English names are easier, and it's how I refer to them in class. Mini is a tiny girl who wears a lot of pink. Everyday she wears pink, though somedays the only pink things she wears are her pink framed glasses. But because of that, there isn't a day that passes where I don't see Mini in pink. Jeremy is a smart younng boy, seemingly typical, though tired often. Tommy is the newest to the class; he's been with us about 2 months. He's gone from shy to never shutting up in that time period.

Today was a day that is becoming typical. The kids shouted for most of the class, I got angry, and thus very quiet. I've learned that it does little good to shout all the time with kids. They merely mimic the behaviour or the grow immune to it. Rare surgical use is OK. They liked the song they sang yesterday, so today after the test, instead of starting the new chapter, they sang the the song over and over again. When they tired of that, they repeated whatever I said, fast and slurred. Then Tommy began to use the trick I taught him. The "what's that" trick where you point to someones chest until they look, they you bring your hand up to their face. Except he just just "look at this," and hits me. He does this repeatedly until I pick him up and put him in his chair. Then he does is some more. It's really cute, but very counterproductive to even the most minimal of lesson plans. Today Jeremy hungry for attention or fearing the load of homework threatened (it didn't stop the other two, nor did they blink when I assigned it) tried to do the exercises in the book alone with me, yelling be quiet every when Mini got real loud. I wonder what anyone outside the classroom thinks of it, screaming kids and a teaching begging for a bolt of lightening to bring an end to his suffering.