The class is every Wednesday at 7:00 PM. If you see me writing on the white board, I’m trying to regroup and come up with what to do next.
The students don’t pay attention. They talk to each other throughout the class. They tell me no. So I white board.
Should I just let them all talk to each other, and I’ll continue “teaching” in the background? If they don’t want to pay attention, maybe I shouldn’t either.
I want to blame the craziness on the recent teacher swaps. Over the past month or so, this class has changed Korean teachers twice. And I only teach this group once a week, which makes it hard to enforce anything regularly.
Still, when it’s my class, it’s my class. I should be doing a better job.
I’m not. It’s a catastrophe.
The hardest part is that while I’m trying to quiet the chatter, while I’m trying to get their attention, while I’m trying to build up some participation, I’m wondering to myself, Why would they want to care? This is so bad, I wouldn’t pay attention either.
I’m not writing this to complain. I’m writing this because I don’t share a lot about failures here. Most of the time, I talk about the stuff I’ve learned, the stuff that seems to work. Or the fun stuff. Or the interesting stuff.
I’m writing this so no one, especially me, forgets: I fail all the time. This one’s on my schedule.
