We Get on Swimmingly

My favorite class is composed of four glowing eight year old boys. Crazy, stupid, and irrepressibly cheerful. Matthew (who informs me that his English nickname is Matt) is perpetually at least ten minutes late for every class. Kevin, James and John light up when I step into the classroom, and wait for my perplexed, "Where's Matthew?" This is their cue to all begin talking at once. In Korean, of course. The gestures that accompany their words usually leave me in stitches. Each day there's a different reason for why Matthew is late. The first time it was because he fell and hurt himself. The next, it was because he'd been hit by a car. After that, he was shot. Each time something worse than the last has happened to him. Each time I reply, "Oh dear! Poor Matthew! Did he break his leg?" They nod enthusiastically, I laugh, and class commences.
We're still working on those first ten sight words that reduced James to tears several weeks ago. The boys don't take learning very seriously, and it's hard for me to press them, knowing that they've just come from school, and will be going back to several more hours of school when they leave. I used to snap their heads with a pencil when they misbehaved. It was pretty effective, I thought. But Joy, one of the Korean teachers, learned of my methods and put a stop to them. Next class, I told Kevin to stop clowning around. He grabbed a pencil from the table and handed it to me. I smiled and shook my head. He looked puzzled for a minute, then snapped his own head. It nearly killed me. Anyways, that method abolished, I racked my mind for another. It came in the form of a large jar of jelly bellies. I bring it to class with me, shake it around in front of the boys, open the lid and let them smell, then set it in the middle of the table. When one of them wins a game, gets a word right, or writes neatly, I make a mark on the board under his name. If he misbehaves, I take a mark away. At the end of class, he gets as many jelly beans as he has marks. It's great incentive, and we get on swimmingly.