8a Troubles - No more!

I mentioned earlier that instead of teaching the 5th form, I was teaching the 8a and 8b classes and that I wasn't particularly thrilled about this. Well, this past Monday I decided I'd had enough. I taught these kids last year and they behaved awfully then, and I stuck it out. They started out this year the exact same way, and I decided that over six months of trying to stick it out and change it was a decent effort, and I asked/told my cp that I didn't want to teach them anymore. We compromised and now I'm only teaching the 8b class, which isn't stellar but also isn't atrocious like 8a. The best part of this being that I think I was supposed to teach the 8th form because my librarian is close with my school director, and her granddaughter is in 8a, and my librarian asked for it to be arranged like this. This is a student whose English is fairly good, but she starts fights with other students, plays on her cell phone, and then when I give her a low grade for doing nothing, she says, "But it's me," like I accidentally gave her a low mark because she's used to being handed grades. And yes, as it turns out, me asking not to teach that class caused me a bit of drama at school. I was almost surprised by this. My non-cp English teacher asked me the next day what happened, because apparently she heard rumors about it while she was at the hospital. I'm always amazed by how little time it takes (bad) news to travel in Ukraine.

In other news, I found myself irritated at my students this week for a reason I haven't brought up before. I'm understanding when students are lagging behind in their education because they face certain barriers or hardships; I'm not so understanding when it's their own low expectations or desires for themselves. Kids who are completely content to sit in class and not even open their books, or pretend to be trying, who think that if they merely copy a text word for word because I keep telling them they need to be participating, that they'll earn a decent grade, because hey! they actually did something today.

I was listening to "Get Better" by Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip and one part goes like this:

So it really ain't a case of rich or poor, It's a case of self-motivation and nothing more, Like Billy says, whether you have or you have not wealth, The system might fail you, But don't fail yourself

I would really like to make my kids listen to or tell them that, but I can clearly picture the facial expression that would evoke from them and well, I just don't feel like getting any more "She's crazy" looks because I'm doing something that's not Ukrainian.

I know I write a lot about things that frustrate me, but don't misunderstand. I've realized during the past couple of weeks that I really do like living in Ukraine, and I've learned to appreciate it for everything it is and accept it for everything it's not.

We're at a good place in our relationship, Ukraine and I.