Hi all,
I see these students once a week.  It's a very small school and there are only 4 students in the class.  They are very smart, and seem to be somewhat advanced, but I have been asked to teach from the textbook. 

This is all good except the Korean teacher also teaches grade 1 so when I come in, she takes the grade 1s to another class leaving me alone.

So as you can imagine, the students go from angels to full blown disrespectful jerks.  They talk amongst themselves while I teach, despite being very firm with them and telling them to listen.  They mock me.  They put the least amount of effort into the activities. 

The stuff in the text book is obviously too easy for 3 of the 4 students.  But I don't have much choice in what I teach them so i just try to inject interesting activities everywhere possible.  But even if they think some things are interesting they would never show it.  They poo poo absolutely everything and I have to be a dictator just to get them to play a game.  (that's never fun for anyone).

I'm not sure what I should do.  I could definitely make it more challenging if it weren't for the one student that is slowing everything down (I'm not sure if he is actually behind or if he's just the least motivated). 

It seems to me the biggest problem is that they don't see me as an authority figure.  Of course this is to be expected in our line of work but that is why we tend to have Korean teachers in the room to fil that role.

Any advice is appreciated.  Thank you!

That is helpful.  Thank you, Jay.  I was thinking about some type of way to bribe them.  But you are right it is hard to figure out what they like when I only see them once a week (or less if I'm lucky).  I do have a couple of my own games that have proved popular when I was doing private tutoring.  Now I've just gotta figure out when I can fit it into the class.

I do also have to agree a bit with Mr Stink Finger.  These students really need to be taught about proper respect.  But it really ought to be their Korean teacher that does this.  Also I think calling their parents will be a last resort since it will likely just make them more resentful.  Being honest with myself, I was a lot worse when I was their age and if any of my teachers (especially the foreign teacher who only came once a week) did something like that to me, any respect that I previously had for that teacher would have been lost forever and I would have tried even harder to make their lives miserable.

Well, if the textbook is really easy for them, why don't you zip through the chapter for the day and try something a lot more challenging. Too challenging, at times, can be a good thing. It makes them see that there's a hell of a lot they don't know, and they'll be impressed with your command of the English language. This usually helps in them giving you more respect and seeing you as a teacher.

If your CT isn't there, you can get away with a lot. If he/she brings it up that you should ONLY teach from the book. Tell the CT the truth, it's too easy the kids are bored etc. they should be willing to compromise.

Sweets should only be given to reward an effort. I think giving sweets to bribe them might work, but it'll make you look weak and almost submissive. As Shinigami said, kick them out of they're disruptive. If a student decides to call your bluff and refuse, take their name down and threaten to show it to the CT. You could also put your phone in front of the class and set it to film the lesson. First use the stick, then the carrot.

I have a similiar problem with a 5th and 6th grade afterschool class. I don't have to teach from a textbook. They are absolutely addicted to their cellphones, their levels range in the intermediate level but the students help eachother communicate to me. I've sat them down and asked them what their interests are in order to make activities that suit their interests (there is only 6 students total, 3 boys 3 girls). The boys only interests is phone games. They don't like watching movies, tv, or sports. The girls only interest is their cellphones as well, but more kpop. However the boys absolutely detest it, and will resign any participation if I include kpop into an activity. The students have become more disrespectful as this semester has progressed despite me disciiplining them with my mentor korean english teacher. I've done a variety of themed lessons including using superheroes, pirates, Dinosaurs, Travel etc but nothing seems to peek their interest.  I bribe them randomly so they don't expect it every single time but even that doesn't peek their interest either. Candy, snacks, videos, special activities, etc. I've asked other teachers about this, and honestly they haven't been able to find a way around it either. I read this post and figured I'd post it here to see if anyone had any advice. I want them to be able to have a good time, But they literally have no interests outside of their phones. When class is over they leave and sit outside the classroom until the teachers leave playing their phone games because they know if they go home they will be forced to study.  I want to make the class fun and enjoyable for them, its not that they aren't good at english necessarily either, they just have no interest in it.

I agree with EvilToast in that bribes could have the negative effect of making you seem like you're being weak; it's almost like since they've been bad you're rewarding them for your bad behavior.  I had a co-teacher that, when the students were acting up, would try to just skip to the game which didn't solve anything.  I have a reward system for when they volunteer or win at games, but generally I don't think it's too high of an expectation to expect your kids to be quiet when you're talking and paying attention.  I try as hard as I can to make the lesson interesting and fun and, although it sounds a bit cheesy, I think that in itself should be a reward.   

You might already do this but I first of all use attention getters (such as clapping my hands twice and they say 'Attention!') so they know that I'm about to speak.  Then if that doesn't work, I ask them politely to be quiet and pay attention to me (which usually works with fifth grade as even if they don't understand English they can understand your tone...this may or may not work with 6th grade).  Next I'll tell them that I'll do the attention getter twice and if they're not paying attention they have to write a sentence three times.  I also have to make sure I reinforce this, even just doing it once is incredibly effective as they know that you are serious about this.

Depending on if it's the class or one student, although since you only have a group of four this might not be a problem, I will have them write sentences, such as copying the lyrics of a song.  I'll also make sure they have to show me before they can leave. 

As it's a group of boys it might also be that they're not necessarily trying to make life hard for you, they're just showing off for their friends.  In that case maybe just put them on opposite sides of the room, or at different tables.  Otherwise if they are all grouped together it almost becomes an 'us v. the teacher' sort of situation. 

Honestly, I've found writing lines is the best as they generally will all do it without question and yet they're still learning while they're doing it.  I've had co-teachers who will just yell at them which doesn't help as they can just zone out.  I also disagree that you should just let your Korean co-teacher handle it.  You are their teacher and should respect you as such. 

Either way, good luck!!

I have a particular grade 6 class that are so unruly I may refuse to teach them at all. I'll stick at it until the summer but in September or October if they haven't improved (I suspect they'll only get worse) I'll possibly tell my VP I'm not going to deal with them any more, and if they want to fire me so be it.

I don't know how the school will react but if I'm happy to leave anyway it's either that or I get an easier second semester.

i know that feel man, i know it all too well. i have one 1st grade high school class at the moment who's behaviour is absolutely atrocious. this is honestly the worst class of students i've ever taught, and in my 16-odd months here in Korea i've taught around 40 different classes at 7 different schools. i teach 20 different classes at my current school, and the behaviour of this class is 10 times worse than the behaviour of the next worst behaved class, that's how bad it is.

i've tried every behavioural management technique in the book with this class and nothing has worked. so earlier this week when i was teaching them i got so fed up that i just walked out of class half way through. so yesterday i spoke to my main co-teacher about them, and apparently they have been giving every teacher that teaches them the same problems, no matter what the subject is, and no matter how experienced or good the teacher is.

so today i arranged to go and speak to this class about their behaviour with the homeroom teacher. before today i had no idea who their homeroom teacher was. once i met her, i now have an extremely strong suspicion that the homeroom teacher is actually the reason this class is behaving so badly.

she's a 25 year old female teacher straight out of university in her first year ever of teaching, here at an all-boys high school. she has absolutely no control over this class whatsoever, and i honestly think they're eating her alive. it took her a full 10 minutes to get them to sit down and shut up before i could speak to them.

the homeroom teachers here in Korea seem to have a huge influence on the students' behaviour. last year i had one 6th grade class of monsters at the beginning of the year. luckily their homeroom teacher was awesome at discipline. it took a while, but after a few months of the homeroom teacher consistently working on their behaviour it improved ten fold.

 if you have a homeroom teacher who's willing to work with you to discipline the kids, it seems to make a huge difference. if you have a homeroom teacher who couldn't care less about the way their kids behave in their and/or other teachers classes, or who is just incapable of controlling their kids, or who actually laughs off and undermines any of your attempts at discipline (this has actually happened to some friends of mine), you can find yourself fighting a losing battle very quickly.

Are you allowed to take their phones away? In my schools, they have to put their phones in a bag or a box during class and, if they snuck it away and another teacher sees it, they can take it from them. This may be different, especially if you work for a hagwon, but it's worth a shot.

Also, if they don't pay attention or if they won't participate, I make the whole class stand up and do jumping jacks while listening to opera and they have to keep doing them until I tell them to stop. Even if it's just one kid misbehaving, they all have to do them.

If they are so interested in cell phone games, you could try to theme your lessons around them. I use backgrounds and gifs using Kakao characters that my students really enjoy. My 6th grade boys really love Minecraft, so they get really excited if I do a Minecraft bomb game that someone created. It isn't always possible, but it's worth a shot.

Good luck.

Sometimes, you just gotta bite the bullet :( Some kids just don't want to learn English or anything else for that matter...

Anyways, I've found that quick, fun activities coupled with a teaching style that is funny to kids helps a lot. Instead of long lessons, break up the important stuff into smaller sections and use things that aren't hard for them to focus on. I'll attach a few that I use.

I hope that these help you. I don't spend more that 5-7 minutes doing these activities... however you can definitely take about 20-25 minutes on some of these