Congratulations, you’ve handled this incident very nicely.

Strangely, your story and descriptions of the 不醒目肥仔 & 頭號惡魔 bought back some memories in my younger days and lead me to write this rather long reply.

First of all, let me (as someone who used be an unappreciative brat from one of those generic 惡魔 form 2 classes) apologize to you and all other teachers (past and present) on behalf of “students” (past and present). (big smile)

It, unfortunately, was/is in our nature to be unappreciative of insightful teachings from teachers who “扮惡潑婦罵街”. (smile) And creating 花名 for teachers (females and males) were also part of our rite of passage and made us felt fit-in with our fellow classmates (in the expense of our teachers).

Reading your entry, for some reason, reminded me of the child cognitive psychologist Jean Piaget. I think because I am not facing these 惡魔s daily , I am thinking it may be interesting to study them and the group dynamics between them. And ultimately, try to help a good chuck of them including the 頭號惡魔! I guess it is easier for someone who is an ocean and a few time zones away to think positive. (smile)

Dear 微笑女王, I’ve never studied education as a subject so please forgive my ignorance and allow me to share a story with you and then a small suggestion that may work or may backfire on you.

A story

Many years and blue moons ago when I was taking my first year psychology class, I had one of the greatest psychology professor in the university teaching us. Because of his established popularity, his classes were amongst one of the best attended in the university. And naturally he used one of the largest “classroom” available which was our beautiful & grant three stories convocation hall. I am still amazing when I think of a hall of 1,000+ students packing that space!

So the professor had delivered a few classes wonderfully and insightfully until one day that, to me, truly showed why he was the best psychology professor and really knows psychology!

On that faithful day, a paper airplane floated SLOWLY from the third floor right onto his lecture stage! Which made the whole class gasp and went silent and then laughed! And then a minute later, another paper plane floated from a different part of the lecture hall. The laughters were immediate and so loud that the professor stopped and stood on stage for half a minute!

Would you care to guess what the professor did? Did he tell us to stop? Did he scold us? Did he lecture us that these stupid paper-planes were wasting our time and his time? It still amazed me that he did none of these!

He told us to first, make sure we cleaned up after ourselves! And then he shocked us by giving us permissions to take a piece of paper and fold our own paper-planes! And then to fly the planes all together on his mark! Imagine, a convocation hall of over 1,000+ paper airplanes floating together! What a sight! And Prof. Gilmore’s brilliant solution emptied our collective urges & desires to fly paper-planes in the remaining classes.

A small suggestion

If there are too much foul languages being used in this “惡魔 form 2″ class, how about during the next outburst of “狂爆粗口問候”, stop the class and tell the class that this is disruptive and then shock the students by giving them permission to “爆粗口” for 30 seconds. You can then smile or laugh with the class and then keep on teaching.

The above is my general suggestion and idea, if you choose to give it a try, I am sure you will come up with your own creative ways of execution and implementation. Disarming the power and novelty of “爆粗口” in class by releasing their urges all at once.

I spent considerable time to write this comment because, I guess, I was one of those not-so-smart and troublesome students which gave my teachers some headache. I believe there are some teachers in students’ lives that can reshape the life paths of some of those “unteachable” students and turn their lives around. May be you can be that teacher?

Finally, may be this is my way of “paying it forward” to repay for the misdeed that I did (as part of my class) to one young, eager, and fresh CU grad that was our form 4 & 5 Math teacher. I am still saddened to remember his eagerness and youthful-dedication being drained and wrecked by our class’ heartless ways. His outlook in teaching was, unfortunately, shaped by us. I couldn’t go back in time to fix my part in the misdeed, which is why I am paying forward.

I wish you all the best in this Chinese New Year to remain a wonderful teacher. And I look forward to your future postings to tell us about lives of students you’ve turned around.

Regards,
Kempton
(someone who used be an unappreciative brat in one of those 惡魔 classes)

要你們叫我女王我都唔係幾好意思囉，呵呵。
但我會繼續努力的！(雖然仍有搞到一團糟的時候)