He had the nerve to act surprised.

I told this student–let’s call him Akuma–last class that he was going to his speech first today. He responded with this usual performance of turning to the rest of the class and going “Okay! Okay! Okay!” to everything I said.

Then, today, I started to explain the next lesson (for various complicated reasons the lessons are overlapping) and several students were talking. I stopped, passed out the assignment, and told the loudest student (not Akuma this time) that he was second. I also told the class that they could refuse to do their speeches exactly zero times. “If I call you name and you say ‘no’, you get a zero and have to do your speech later anyway.”

After a 10 minute practice, I told Akuma it was time to do his speech. He said “Okay!” I repeated what I’d said and he said “No. I’m not ready.” I said “Then you get a zero.” He said “Okay!” and I called the second student.

At that point, someone translated what I’d said for Akuma. Suddenly it wasn’t “okay!” But I ignored him.

The guy who went second did a good job, though, and then others started lining up.

Akuma hasn’t done his speech yet, and the longer he puts it off the less time he has to do part two. It will be interesting to see if that’s okay or not.

Today I found something in common with my students.

We’re all happier not seeing each other, even if we’re supposed to see each other.

I should probably be more dedicated, but any chance to avoid my worst class is a bon chance (that’s French for “hallelujah”. Something like that.)

This means, that after having a couple hours off thanks to a sports festival, my first question to the vice principal was “do we have junior high classes tomorrow?” It turns out we don’t, which changes my day a lot, and made me do a little dance. Well, not really, and I didn’t even smile, but I was smiling inside.

In the past, we’ve not only had classes on the second day–if the students don’t do well in the sports meet, they end up having regular classes–we have, on occasion, had the first day of sports cancelled and had to actually do our jobs, which is kind of annoying when you were already thinking about doing something else.

Note: normally all you lose is a couple classes during a jhs sports festival, but if you have enough junior high classes, well, let’s just say things get more interesting…

Although I make out well tomorrow, I still have my evening class, which steals from the day.

That said, I’ll enjoy the schedule changes when they happen.

Today’s post is brought to you by WordPress image upload errors that have forced me to delay the post I’d intended. Note: that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

They may have reconsidered.

It’s always ego-boosting when your students admit that they hope you continue as their teacher after the term ends.

However, after today, I they may have a different opinion.

There are two classes left in the current term for the class I teach on Sundays. This means that the next class, which, oddly, is three weeks away, will be the day they present their final project.

After I explained the project and all the requirements I could tell that they were less interested in seeing me continue as their teacher.

However, one of the games we teachers play is to turn each other into bogeyman. Because of this, the other teacher’s class is afraid of me and my class is afraid of him.

However, now my class may be afraid of me.

Oh well, that’s part of the fun.

It says a lot about today that I was the good cop. Sort of.

During yesterday’s “bluff” my students discovered that 1) I don’t bluff and 2) their club coach (soccer) is an English teacher (and a former student of my colleague). He promised to make them run, once he saw them with me at lunch.Today, although I wan’t there, I heard they were shaking when they turned in the homework they didn’t finish at QAlunch. (Translation: I own them.)

Then, during my first class today, one of my 3rd grade students (9th grade) invoked the “I think it’s impossible therefore I don’t have to do it” rule. He failed at his first attempt to do his speech contest speech, then put his head on his desk and went to sleep. This mean the had a lunch date.

Luckily, his homeroom teacher is awesome and guaranteed the student would meet me at lunch.

The student showed up and did his speech.

I wish this meant I was done with speeches–and done with speech related posts–but there are two classes left to finish, and they are all bad.

Three students from yesterday’s post tried to call my bluff which meant I had a lunch date.

All three tried to make a joke of it in class and in doing so made enough noise that they almost earned the entire class more homework. Instead, I delivered a memo that looked as if it had been written in blood (gotta love the Chiller font) to their homeroom teacher and they arrived on time and managed to eke out a few sentences.

To show I can be reasonable, I kept them 25 minutes and then reduced their homework by a small percentage before telling them they had until 8:30 tomorrow morning to get the completed homework on my desk.

If they don’t, I might have another lunch date. We’ll see if they try to call my bluff again.

Any careful consideration of the situation will confirm that everyone is going slightly mad at the school where I work. This is especially true of the students.

It doesn’t help that yesterday I broke one of my rules–don’t bluff–by telling my 9th graders that they’d have to stay after school if they didn’t start memorizing their speech contest speeches. I didn’t even require that they memorize all of it, just the first half. Keep in mind, I couldn’t actually stay after school when I told them that. Luckily I apparently have enough of a reputation that the remaining students managed to finish their speeches relatively quickly.

Then, today, one of my worst classes had to turn in punishment homework from last week. After much tension, they finally realized I was serious about them coming in at lunch time every day until they finished.

Enough put in enough effort (after they finished work in my class) that I made them a deal: if I get their homework by 8:30 a.m. tomorrow, I’d give them points. If they didn’t, they’d meet me at lunch.

Once again, I have enough of a reputation that only a few students are in danger of having a longer homework.

I’m glad it all seems to be working out, but I prefer a little less stress.