the giggler

The concept of classroom cohesion in ESL classes is quite mind boggling when you really think about it. You're take 15+ students from different countries with as different backgrounds as you can imagine, stick them in the same room 4 hours a day, and tell them not only to work well together, but to be friends, ideally in and out of the classroom. And I, as the teacher and language expert, am the great friendship facilitator. Sometimes my job is easy--my students are actually interested in life outside of themselves, and I don't really have to do much to encourage them to expand their social circle to include each other. Their language skills improve rapidly because they're actually speaking English while living in the US. It gives my heart a warm glow when I see that they're actually voluntarily doing things with classmates, even the ones whose accents are seriously difficult to understand. It's so nice.

Alas, it doesn't always work out that way. I've had semesters where the students remained in isolated language cliques unless I force it out of them, only to slink back into their comfort zone the moment my back is turned. These students generally don't learn much English. I've thankfully only had a couple of (miserable) experiences where there's actual animosity between students. One was an issue of racism where the student quickly found himself kicked out into the hall. Another was chauvinistic bullying that was never fully resolved (too many deeply rooted cultural expectations) and continued a semester past mine. It makes going to class unpleasantly nerve racking for both me and the rest of the class.

But never until now have I had a giggler. Actually, that's not true. I had one really odd boy from some South American country who sat in the back and laughed or hummed or made other sounds on a regular basis. I think there may have been something wrong with him. But this kid isn't weird. He's just giddy. And he giggles like a 5 year old, so no one wants to work with him because he's too busy chuckling at...who knows what. I'm definitely a little hammy in class, but I'm not that funny.

So today he and I had a heart-to-heart where I told him that I expected him to respect his classmates and me by acting in a professional way and containing his laughter. He vowed to "refresh" himself (??) over the weekend and promised to return a new man boy (he's only 18). We'll see if it happens.