Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Repeat After Me

I had three classes today and one of the hardest parts about it was to try to keep caring after repeating the same thing to each class. Every class goes about the same so when I get to the last one I just don't really care what they have to say anymore. On top of that it's still like pulling teeth to get them to say anything. I really feel like sometimes when I up there asking one of them a question it would be easier if I was trying to pull out a molar with a pair of pliers. I know sometimes maybe the activity is too hard for them but sometimes they really don't seem to be trying. One girl who insists on sitting in the back of the room talks in basically a whisper. I stopped her like five times to try to get her just to speak up. Never mind that what she's saying is only tangentially related to what I asked her, I just want her to say it in a audible voice. I just don't understand how after imploring her to speak up that many times she can't seem to raise the decibel even a little. I've seen American students asked to speak up get louder for a second then go back to normal, but she doesn't even give me that it's just a constant whisper. Sometimes I just say "fine, good" when I have no idea what they just said just to move it along to students I can hear. Also students seem completely unwilling to repeat themselves when I can't here them and will just stand there looking at the floor. I had an activity today that involved them coming up to the front of the class to talk about a celebrity who the rest of the class would try to guess. Some of them would basically run up mumble something to the floor then try to run back before anyone could take a guess. The effect of doing this three times in one day gives me feeling of being Sisyphus endlessly rolling the bolder up the hill.

1 comment:

Mom said...

You might want to check with your Uncle Tom about whether pulling teeth is harder. But that sounds really tough. Time to try a different exercise?