Dartboard

I just turned into the school martinet. Some of my first year students haven’t been taking my homework seriously. Today I gave them a little incentive! No club activities until they are completely caught up! I didn’t even know I had the power to do that!

About eleven students hadn’t turned in their English notebooks regularly (okay, eight students had not turned in even ONE of the four assignments in the last month) and I finally asked if I should just give up on this. Hatakeyama-sensei found out one of his volleyball club members was blowing it off and he said, “Okay, he doesn’t practice volleyball until he turns it in.” I was like, yeah, way to go Hatakeyama-sensei! Then Sasaki-sensei said I should do it with all of them. Huh? Can I do that?

I asked their homeroom teacher, Tsuchiyama-sensei and he said, “Of course! School comes before club activities. Inform their club advisers they won’t be coming to practice today.”

Then I had to do the dirty work of informing their club advisers I was keeping them from practice today. Ouch! But each time I told a teacher and apologized they would say, “No! This is important! They HAVE to do their work. Keep them as long as you have to!” Everyone was so supportive. I was so afraid to tell Takeda-sensei because there were three of his table-tennis boys, but he said to me, “Do whatever you have to do to get them to turn in their homework.” This coming from the guy who told me over my radio show he didn’t think it was important to study English!!!

Wow! I don’t WANT to keep them from their club activities, but how else can I get them to do their homework!! So, in homeroom after school I marched my black list up to class and read their names off. No club activities until I see ALL your assignments. Seiya’s face was the greatest. Mouth dropped open—completely shocked! I’m sure he was thinking the same thing I was thinking a few moments before, “Can she DO this to us?”

But it sure got them moving. Kids were “Sierra-sensei shitsureishimas-ing” me constantly from 3 o’clock until the time I finally left school at 5 p.m. I’ve never gotten so many apologies in one day, but it felt good to be getting a little respect.

Seiya was grabbing an attitude because I wouldn’t accept his two sentences as a completed assignment. He obviously wanted to get to track club with his friends. Finally I said to him sternly, “Seiya, you’ve had four weeks to do these assignments. You can’t write two sentences in three minutes and expect me to accept that!” I opened a notebook on my desk and said, “Your peers worked hard to get these turned in ON TIME. Look how much they’ve written. Now don’t come back to me until you’ve written that much.” I even got some of the teachers around me to watch that display. I think he understand less than half of my words, but he knew I meant business.

Then his track teacher said, “Seiya, you don’t participate in the Prefectural Sports Competition next week unless Sierra’s satisfied with your work. Now go!”

Holy shit! Until I’M satisfied? ME? I’m just an ALT!!! This is the biggest sports competition of the year!

After he left Hatakeyama-sensei said, “You’re turning into a Japanese teacher!” (Because I’m always really worried when teachers yell at students in the office, but now he implies I’m doing it myself.) I certainly didn’t yell at Seiya, but I was serious and he knew it. I was already letting him off too easy, but I was still unsure about how to execute my new-found power.

Another smart and outgoing (but lazy if he thinks he can get away with it) student who I taught at Wakamatsu last year came in and gave me his notebook and apologized for being late. As I flipped though his notebook I saw he wrote “I like dancing. I dance a lot,” so I said, “Dance for me.” He froze for a second and then broke out in a cute little dance for me! I softly hit him over the head with his notebook and said, “Get out of here. And next time, turn your homework in on time!” He smiled and agreed as he ran off to soccer practice.

There were plenty of other students who spent the rest of the afternoon coming in to ask me, “Is THIS enough? Is THIS acceptable?” And most students are much more respectful than Seiya was. It was fun and exhausting—and I’ve got a huge pile of homework sitting on my desk to correct before I leave for my business trip on Sunday!

I think I’m gunna like it here.
Sierra “The Disciplinarian” Sensei

Middle Eastern readers, who are you?