A New Term

My Form 2 class is divided into two sections, A and B, with around 70 students in each. For some reason, Form 2B has always had more discipline problems than Form 2A. It’s like B is A’s evil twin–while the students are the same age, the classes are seriously like night and day. I even tried to have a discipline contest between the two sections to encourage B to behave better. During their last class before the holiday break, we actually had a brainstorming session in class about why they are the worst behaved students at school (they suggested reasons such as lack of discipline at home, poor listening skills, and general disrespectfulness).

On Mondays I have Form 2A followed immediately by Form 2B. I wasn’t sure what to expect today since it’s the first day back from the holidays, but I figured there would be some disorder, lack of focus, and since my class is first hour, the first 15 minutes would be spent wiping dust from the benches so the students won’t dirty their uniforms. After they were finished dusting, and I got them all seated and paying attention, I began what I had planned for the day. We started by reviewing the class rules. I had the students look them up in their notebooks and take turns writing them on the board. They were eager to participate, yet very well-behaved, raising their hands and not shouting out answers, not disrupting when a student was writing a rule, and not talking when I was talking. It was like a textbook example of a great classroom experience. I had those who participated write their names on the board to receive extra credit. We went on to review the definition of the internet and parts of a web browser, and when I told the students that we were out of time and would have to continue tomorrow, they were disappointed because they didn’t want class to stop. But I had to go quickly to Form 2B so I gave them their homework, filled the cahier de texte and walked over to the neighboring classroom…

…where I discovered when I looked down at the teacher’s table where I usually put my things, that it was covered in excrement. Seeing my facial expression in reaction to this discovery caused the students to erupt into laughter and disorder. Several eager-to-please students raised their hands and shouted “Madame, there is shit on the table!” Another student added “Madame, someone has shitted the board too!” I looked at the blackboard, and sure enough, there was more of the lovely brown substance smeared all over it. It was quite dry, having been applied perhaps a week ago. I asked the head boy to go to the discipline master and get something with which to clean the board. He returned a few minutes later saying his office was closed. So without a chalkboard, I tried to do our review of the class rules and the internet orally. They had trouble with the concept of raising their hands and waiting to be called–they were just too eager to shout out the right answer, though most of the time it was clear that they had not even heard the question. A couple of students raised their hands to wish me happy new year and then ask me for money. I reminded them a few times that they had lost three weeks of lab privileges but could earn them back with good behavior. At one point a student stood up and announced that the classroom was “full of shit”.

So I’m going to discontinue the discipline contest between the two sections because it just isn’t fair. I’m not sure what it is that makes Form 2B so unruly while Form 2A is close to a model class. This will be an ongoing anthropological investigation.