Noisy Classes are Noisy

Today I brought the pain. But afterwords, I wished I hadn't.

One of my classes (the one with 39 students, not 41) talks incessantly. It's nearly impossible for them to be silent for more than a few seconds at a time. So, after a weeks' worth of frustration and threats, I finally did something about it. I gave every single student demerits. In hindsight, probably not a good thing. Not every student was talking (though most were). If they won't be quiet for class or for me, they'll hopefully be quiet for each other - that was my thinking. Still, it's too unfair, isn't it? So now I'm going to try to go the positive reinforcement route versus the positive punishment one; I'm going to buy a bag of candy right after I leave the internet cafe from which I'm typing. Next week, I'll use dimes. Hopefully that will work, because I'm running out of ideas!

I will be tutoring a few soccer players starting next week. They're failing English or math (or both) and therefore need tutoring in order to be able to remain on the team. I'm very excited, because tutoring will give me an opportunity to really develop my ability to teach kids reading skills. Once I find things that work with individual students, I can try to develop them into whole-classroom lessons. And the students get to (1) improve their language skills and (2) stay on the soccer team! It's mutually beneficial.

Last thing for today - I saw a rhinoceros beetle! Eddie found it near the school's field. It's monstrous. I took some pictures, and I'll try to get them up next weekend.