Discipline Problem

Had my first discipline problem today. If this happened in America it would be called "Monday," or perhaps "Thursday," but in Korea this is more of a big deal b/c the kids are a little better behaved. Anyway, here's what happened.

The rule in Topia is no cell phones during class, or on the stairs while we're walking them down. Monday a student pulled out their cell phone in class, while I was teaching. I took it from her and then gave it back at the end of class. Then, today, the same student had her phone out while we were walking to the stairs to leave, and I told her to give it to me. She refused. I was shocked. I told her to give it to me again, and again she refused and started to walk away. I grabbed her by her backpack and pulled her back to me and again told her to give it to me. I ended up walking down all 6 flights of stairs with her in tow, and when we got to the front door of the building I let all the class leave except her. I tried to turn her around and take her to a head teacher but she tried to get away. I had to use both hands to turn her around and she ended up scratching my hand somehow.

That is quite unusual, at least at Topia, but I've heard from some other foreigners that their students aren't well-behaved. Perhaps I lucked out. Other than that, though, my students are good. She is usually a good student, but for some reason she wanted to be a problem this week.

Another fun thing happened today. I had to take a student's book away from them b/c he had drawn on his book. In the book was a picture of a girl looking up at her mom, and he drew arms on the girl giving the mom the middle finger. I mean, it was the funniest thing I'd seen all week, but of course I couldn't laugh at it. It's tough working with kids b/c I just wanna hang out with them and play, haha.