English Awards

More on Harbin later...my posts are a little all out of order.

So I started choosing the students for the English Awards this week! I have to write down three students' names from each class to give to the school. Luckily, it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be because I've been doing it at the end of class and the other kids are usually not paying attention or don't understand what's going on, lol. I did have a few students ask if they could write their names down though and it broke my heart having to say no!

The criteria I've been using for choosing the top 3 students has been quite sub par though.

For example, in one class I was really having trouble deciding between two boys. Finally in the middle of class I made my decision. But then....at the end of class I always show a video, and I played the music video for "Baby" by Justin Bieber (LOL) and the boy that I decided not to pick apparently knew the song and was singing it like he was a total rock star. I immediately changed my vote to him. If only he knew...lol.

In another class I still had not decided on the last spot by the end of the class and I was deciding between 2 girls and a boy. Well, the bell rang and the two girls were not paying attention and being a little naughty, and the boy was just sitting there quietly, so I decided that it would be easier to get his attention so I just chose him. Haha...

I also couldn't bear not give Jessica, the girl who talks to me all the time in English on QQ, the award, even though she is not very vocal in class. I felt bad, another boy really should have gotten it over her, but I couldn't do it. Her class is truly a pain in my butt and she and two other girls who have excellent English always try to help me silence them so I just gave it to the three of them.

I also thought that giving the English award to 3 girls in that class would make up for giving it to 3 boys in one of my earlier classes....the girls were absolutely LIVID. I probably should have swapped out one boy for one of the girls, but I couldn't decide between the girls, they were all so good. So I picked the third best boy...that was really my bad. I think those girls hate me now!

Another case where I changed my mind in the middle of class- I had decided on 2 boys and a girl for the award, but all of a sudden during class the girl went absolutely crazy on this one boy. She stood up and started shrieking at him, I mean seriously she looked like she was about to beat the crap out of him. He looked terrified! He didn't stand up to her at all..probably because she is the same size as me, and he is of normal 4th grade proportions. I ran down the aisle and one of my students stopped me and said "teacher, she is very, very mad. she is always mad. she is crazy!" I had to agree. She had stopped screaming at this point, so I tried to talk to her and tell her to sit down and calm down. I know she could understand me, but she just stood there staring down at this poor boy, ignoring me. Finally, I grabbed her arm and tried to pull her away since another boy had kindly agreed to switch seats with her. I couldn't get her to budge. She was still towering over him, and still ignoring me, so I put both hands on her arm and started trying to gently tug her away but to no avail. Then she started ripping off tiny pieces of paper and throwing them at him a fairly nonchalant way considering the look in her eye. It was really creepy. I think the little boy and I were both very afraid that this whole scene was like the calm before the storm...I was truly expecting to see the boy flying across the classroom at any second. Finally, I told the boy to switch seats with someone since the girl was obviously going no where, and he was so relieved. However, all of the boys were too afraid to sit next to her as she had not relented her position and they started to wrestle. I was like oh good lord now I have completely lost control!! Finally, I looked at one of my good students who is of slightly mature proportions (so she would not be able to hustle him) and asked him if he could sit down there. He looked really hesitant and said no, but I gave him a puppy dog face and clasped my hands together and he sat down for me. Point of the story, I ended up giving him the third award instead of the girl. Haha! He deserved it anyhow, I just wanted to throw a girl in the mix, but she definitely lost her spot after that little show. I feel sorry for whoever ends up being her boyfriend....lol. This is not the first time that I have seen her seek vengeance against a male class mate, another time she made several hurtful sentences directed at the boy who told me she was crazy. He did not look nonplussed at all, he just sat there and took it.

By the way, I asked one of my students after class why she got so mad, and he said it was because the boy mistakenly thought she had put a bunch of paper on his desk and so he put the paper on her desk. I really question the validity of this, or, I really do not understand Chinese childrens' psyche.

Finally, the best moment of doing this was when one of my second graders asked why he was writing his name down (even though I explained it to his class like 50 times) and I simply told him, "because you have good English", and he bent his knees all the way down to the ground, jumped as high as he could while shouting "YES!" SO GREAT. I still don't think he understood that he was receiving an award lol. Most other kids just said "thank you teacher".

Well, I have about 60 more names to collect! So far so good- no tears!