I absolutely, unabashedly love my middle school classes here. The worst-behaved students I ever had were just quiet, in that “too cool for school” kind of way, but they never swore at me, or screamed in my face like American students I’ve had.
Currently, all of my middle school students are utterly delightful. They are kind, work hard, and we have a pretty good rapport with each other. Recently, I’ve managed to get a few honest-to-goodness laughs out of them.
This evening, we were engaged in a workbook activity focusing on “kind of” and “I like to ___” “Do you want to ___?” etc., centered around movie and television genres. As per usual, the illustrations in the book were totally stupid and low-budget, because the folks at the publishing company didn’t want to pay royalties for pre-existing movie posters, AND they don’t have the funds for an even mildly talented design team. I used to wonder if the middle schoolers thought the book was as incredibly idiotic as I do, but even the more ridiculous things illicit no reaction from them. Not surprising, considering most of my students are exhausted by the time they show up at 7 or 8 at night. I assume they just take it all in stride.
Students were asked to label the “movie posters” with their apparent genre:
This is a... piece of crap.
I asked one of my students a few questions while we were waiting for the other student to finish her work.
Me: What is your favorite kind of movie?
Masaki: I like action movies.
Me: You like action movies? What is your favorite action movie?
Masaki: [Here, he pauses for a moment, and then refers to his textbook] My favorite action movie is “Bye-bye, Bad Guys.”
Me: Really?
Masaki: [laughing] Yes.
Bye Bye, Bad Guys!
I thought I was going to pee my pants.
