Sending the bad ones out

Just over 3 semesters into teaching in Moldova, I am finally giving in to sending the kids into the hall when they are misbehaving or just plain don't give a shit about school, English, or me. Whatever. I'm over it! I'm tired of trying to get them to want to learn: they won't. I'm tired of getting them to like me: they won't. I'm tired of at least trying to get them to sit quietly: they won't. So, I'm giving in.

Besides giving students bad marks due to their behavior in lessons, there are two other punishments I've noticed other teachers in my school doing. The little kids are told to stand up with their arms up above their head. This can last anywhere from 2 minutes to the entire class period, depending on the behavior of the student and the mood of the teacher. The big kids are usually not asked to do this. However, both the big kids and the little kids are sent out into the hall when they are misbehaving. Now, this is something up until this point I have been 100% absolutely against. I do not feel that it is a correct punishment to send students outside because I feel that they cannot learn if they are not in the classroom, and they obviously would prefer not to be there, so it is a form of reward to them to be sent outside... and I don't want to reward their disruptive behavior. Well, with barely over 4 months to go, I just don't care anymore. I'm tired of dealing with their shit. If they don't want to be there, I don't want them there either. At this point I am not going to convince them learning can be fun and English is important and they are lucky to have me (ha)... because if that was going to happen, it would have already happened. They are disruptive to my lessons and distracting to other students. So, I'm sending them out. It may be against what I believe, but I'd rather have a classroom where the kids that want to learn have an environment to learn.

The funny thing is that I started doing this today as I was covering a class for one of my partner teachers. When I told the kids to leave, they didn't want to leave... and actually kind of shaped up a bit. Hopefully this will help to keep the rest of this week flowing smoothly since I will be teaching every class alone in the place of my partner because she has gone to the capital to help her daughter, who just had a baby. Fingers crossed.