Difficult Children

I would like to take the time to explain about a difficult child in my class. If you ever pursue a career in teaching you too will eventually encounter children who are hard to deal with. This child is the only kid in my class who's Chinese name I actually know, because every time he shows up late for class the other children say in Chinese 'He's here he's here.' Or when I have to give him to the CT's because he's being impossible to deal with, they'll sigh in frustration, say his name, and go not you again.

When I first arrived the CT had him pretty well trained, and although he was a bit crazy he would follow classroom instructions. She went away on her honeymoon for a week, and during that time he's become out of control. I think he was also ostracised by the other kids in the class as the naughty kid, so he's given up trying to behave. He jumps up and down during class, annoys the other children, hits the other children, and even hits me now too. I've tried ignoring him to a certain extent, but because he's distracting the other children every five minutes someone is telling me "Eddie hit me teacher, Eddie is stomping, Eddie scratched me." It's impossible to teach when he's being like that.

To be honest I feel a bit angry at my CT and the school for this situation. Apparently the CT is supposed to remain in the room during class (because they're only 4 for crying out loud). But my CT is absent for most of the lesson. I'm not going to lie to myself, I'm not a real teacher, I've never studied teaching before and my experience accounts for a total of three weeks. To be honest I like to think of myself as an English instructor, because all I'm doing is following the guide written by HESS. How can they possibly expect me to be able to deal with this kid. I have zero qualifications.

Yesterday I had enough and removed him from the classroom and gave him to some of the other CT's during a meeting. I really need to discuss this with my CT, if she's not going to be there the kid also can't be there.  It's difficult because most CT's don't speak very good English. So communication can be difficult.

To be honest I do understand that it's not all this kid's fault. Apparently his parents are quite young, work all the time, and he lives with his grandmother. He's late for class almost everyday, so I don't think this grandmother cares too much about raising him properly, or maybe she doesn't even try. It seems that a lot of children in Taiwan live with their grandparents, and most of them are misbehaving brats with attention issues.