Behaviour problems

Today, there were lots of behavioural issues. (But at the beginning of class, 2 students gave me candies that their Chinese teacher gave them. =P They said they saved one for me hehe. ^^) At the end of class, I took 10 minutes to talk to them. I asked them to think silently and try to think about our lesson today -- Why are we so chatty? Why are we distracting others? Then I told them that if it's something that I did or didn't do that makes them difficult to concentrate and pay attention, they can let me know. Is it because they don't like to work in pairs? They don't like their partner? The format of our activity? A few hands raised up~ A girl said that some people might be slow and they might find the word problem activity difficult. So I told her that maybe next time I should explain more and give them more guidance before starting it. One boy said that the activity's different from what he's used to doing. I accepted his response, and said that maybe I should do some warm-up with them before doing the actual activity, so they're more comfortable about it. The "trouble-maker" of the class said that it's boring, so I asked him to tell me what's not boring for him. He pointed to the hands-on manipulatives that I made and played with them for a couple of classes. And some other boys said "Jeopardy!" So I told them that if they love to learn in those ways, I'll plan my lesson so we'll have more fun next week.

I thanked them for their suggestions, and let them know that I'm learning with them, and I might not always know what's best for them. They seem to understand. ^^ Then I added that we don't always get to do what we want to do, and sometimes it's hard to avoid doing something that we think is boring. But that doesn't give us the right to disrespect others and make the classroom disruptive, because other people are trying to learn too.

A boy said that he hopes class is over soon. I asked him if he's tired, and he said yes. So I started asking everyone about what classes are they taking other than Math. Lots of hands went up, and these kids are just tooooo busy. Swimming, skating, art, piano, Taekwondo, Urdu, Mandarin, etc. Some of them even have to go to classes on Sundays. I showed them that I understand how tired they must be. I hope that by doing so, they'll know that I do respect them as individuals, I know how many things they need to do, and that I trust them for behaving and learning in class if I do my part to make the classroom a more comfortable and fun learning environment.

I was hoping for a peaceful lesson this morning 'cause I was so tired. Although it didn't turn out that way, I wasn't feeling frustrated. I'm actually pretty happy and satisfied that I got to have that talk with my students, because it's a learning experience for both them and me. =)