Growing on me.

My B level boys have mostly been without me, due to several scheduling issues over the last two weeks, and when I got back into their classes this afternoon, I was sorely disappointed with what I found. Not surprised -- not in the least. But disappointed.

I wasn't going one toe deep into that shit without getting a few things straight. I pounded my palm against the podium until their little devil heads spun around to face me: "SIT down. Now. Listen to me. Give me your eyes. EYES. Thank you ............ No. Do you understand me? Crazy -- no. Just no. Understand?"

You gotta keep it simple with the B boys, you know. They understood anyway, and mostly reigned it the fuck in after that. Daehee, otherwise known as The Artist Formerly Known As The Student With The Punchable Face (which is just entirely too long, so I decided to just go ahead and learn his name) carried on a bit. This is what he does when he has a teacher he doesn't like. In fact, this is what he does for most of his teachers. But. I had already been on that three weeks ago when the change was made, and I had been anticipating this. I grabbed him out from class and said, "What's wrong with you? You're being bad again."

"No like teacher. Teacher changee why?"

I told him then that that had nothing to do with me, I wasn't the king of everything, and he shouldn't punish me for it. Today, I referred back to that.

"Daehee... remember we talked before?"

"Yessuh."

"Remember? This is not my fault. So why are you being bad in my class?"

He looked genuinely ashamed of himself and gave a wee little embarrassed smile: "I'm sorry teacher. I no changee. Promise."

"Okay. I believe you. Don't disappoint me Daehee."

He did good after that. The class more or less hinges on his guidance, so if I can keep him under control, the rest is basically in the bag. As far as truly nuclear threats go, anyway.

I grabbed Jae-in, another student I've always been closer to, and asked him why the class was being so crazy today. "Oh teacher changee now everybody bad! Oh crazy!"

"Is it like this everyday?"

"Teacher... oh. You come.... and...." He held his hands far apart and then moved them close together.

"You mean everday it's WORSE than this?!"

"Teacher... very worse. Very very worse."

Oh god. It's only a matter of time now. But I seem to have worked myself up far enough in their esteem that they're not going to be too awful for me. Famous last words and that. At any rate, I've only got these boys for another five or so weeks before they're on to high school prep and I'm moved down to the firsties. Which is quite sad, actually. Which I never in a million years thought I'd say about this nightmare group of absolute hellions. But there you have it. Even the worst ones grow on you when you give them enough time.