Using the Dumptruck

Not that anyone probably cares whether or not the kids have to pay for the summer camps, but it turns out that they actually have to. Apparently its a pretty small fee, and much cheaper than the private academies.  

I've got one day of classes left with the summer camp.  Normally I would be upset, because the summer camp has been a lot more fun than the regular classes, and I get to go home early.  This week though, I have a few shit disturbers, and Im not really in the mood for it.  They're in grade 6, and think they are way too cool to be in school.  The first day of classes, they said they had to leave 20 minutes early (around 11:45 am) because they had to go to an academy.  I thought it seemed a little suspicious, but my co-teacher said alright, and we let them go.  After they left, one of the girls in class told me that they didn't go to any academies.  My instincts were right!  I went outside to play baseball with a few of the kids after I finished work and who do I see out there, but the two little jerks who left early (around 1pm).  They're outside kicking a soccer ball around.  They started to run, but then came back because they wanted to play baseball with us.  If your going to skip school, its probably not a good idea to sit in the school yard after you leave.  I called them out on it. "No, no, no, we go Tae Kwon Do, chin cha (Korean version of "really").  Sounded like a crock of shit to me.

The next day, they're loud and obnoxious in class, and while everyone else is working on a group project together, they were going around bothering.  At one point, a girl got up to get some markers, and the two boys went and sat in her chair.  She asked them to move, but they just laughed at her.  I went over and asked them to move and they said no. I gave them to the count of  five to move, or I'd move them myself.  Sure enough they didn't move, and I implemented Brian Mann's dumptruck maneuver .The dumptruck involves lifting the back of the chair up, so the kids slide out like a dump truck.  They fell on the ground harmlessly and moved back to their tables. Problem solved.  Well the problem was just postponed for 10 minutes, when they decided they would try the same thing with another student.  I thought about taking a different approach to it this time, embarrassment.  The two boys won't go anywhere's without each other, and in this instance, one was sitting on the others lap in a chair.  I asked one of the boys if him and his girlfriend would please get out of the chair because your slowing down everyone else.  After a laugh from the rest of the class, I thought I had won, but they didn't budge.  Plan B...."Get outta the chair or your getting the dumptruck and its not going to be a nice landing". They give a little chuckle, I whip the chair out from under them, they have both hit the floor hard and after laying around for a few minutes on the floor, finally go back to their chairs and shut up for the rest of the day.  Likely your thinking I'm a cruel bastard, but it wasn't as bad as it sounds.  Were in a Grade 3 classroom, and the chairs are tiny, maybe a foot from the seat to the floor, so they were fine. I promise.

Both boys are very weak in English, and after asking for some translation from the other students, they come up to me and drop what they think is a bomb on me. 
"Teacher John, we tell someone". 
"What are you going to tell them?"
"You take chair, we fall"
"Who's chair?"
"Ummm, Yoo Jin's", pointing at the girl who's chair they were sitting in.
"Yes, Yoo Jin's chair, not your chair. So, you tell someone I took Yoo Jin's chair. Tonight I'll tell your mom about the chair too".  They quietly go back to their chairs and keep quiet.

Game over, I finally win.  No little brat wants his Oma (Korean Mom) to find out that hes been a little shit at school.  I never actually called the parents, obviously my Korean couldn't get me through a lengthy conversation.  Since then, they haven't been perfect, but things have been much better, but I'll certainly be happy to not be with them for 3 hours a day once all the students return next week.