And yes, I still have a cold.

I still have a cold. It it is a little better but my throat is hoarse from a combination of the cold itself and the fact that I'm a teacher. My second grade middle schoolers were particularly nasty today. I generally start off each lesson with a hangman game as sort of an introductory activity. Most kids like it, especially when there is candy involved, and it gets them warmed up for the lesson of the day. Well, tonight we didn't get past hangman. Today's class was an endless game of hangman, constantly being interrupted by cackling girls, cell phone (in korean, hand pone) sound effects, and screaming, which altogether sounded something like a train derailment. Speaking loud, if you didn't know already, doesn't do a thing, but for some reason it always seems like a necessity. Nothing I tried could curb their behavior. None them, especially the girls, would shut up long enough that the game could progress so what was supposed to be an introductory type thing became the entireity of the class. My other classes are quite manageble. Sure, they're all adolescent punks raging with hormone but they are not demon children like these kids. They can't even be bribed, they can't be disciplined, but these 2nd graders disregard everything. They don't want to even try to learn or even have fun. They disregard any discipline I try to enforce. Pushups just don't matter to them. The are impudent little brats and pretty unmanageable. I grit my teeth and just attempt to present my lesson, hoping that a few get something out of it. What else can I do with these kids. It's something like the myth of Sisyphus, where I am constantly rolling a boulder up hill, never being able to reach the top.