Made a kid cry at 9:14 PM

Yep,
I made a kid cry. I still feel bad. So here's the story, I've spent most of my week having discussions with my classes on whether phones, video games, and mp3 players are good or not. The purpose was to tell them I don't want to see them on the phone anymore in class, ya some kids were on phones, some would listen to music, some would play video games.

It's hard to discipline a class when you're students don't have to worry about a grade. Since we only can teach each class once a week there's no testing or no grade for my students for my class. I got sick of kids saying they thought it would be ok to listen to music on their headphones in my class. I figure if I'm a good teacher, my kids will be learning english. So the lesson was meant to help kids understand I like phones and such, just not in my class. I told them that if I saw a phone from then on, or an mp3 player, or anything they played games on, I would take it for 3 days. I figure that's a good punishment, enough to help them know they shouldn't have it in my class. I figure it's nice since phones aren't permitted and i think most teachers here would either break the students phone or confiscate it permanently.

As of today, I have taken three phones and a dictionary/mp3 player. In the class I just taught a kid was very slyly listening to music and showing his friend. He had a headphone sticking out the end of his sleeve and when i asked him for his mp3 player, he acted like I didn't know what he was talking about. I pointed to the headphone sticking out of his sleeve and then he knew he was caught. He gave me the mp3 player and class resumed. Over all actually a good class.

After class the kid approaches me, his name is Duke (actually a nice kid, most of mine are, they're just punks sometimes), and tells me he's sorry and he'd like it back. Now he knew the punishment, so I told him I was sorry and I'd give it back on Monday (today is Friday). Then i left. He catches up with me and asks for it again. I say no. He then tells me that it's his friends and to please give him another chance. I say, we talked about this for a half hour, that's your chance. I'm not mad, I just want him to understand that this is not ok in class. I start to walk up my stairs, and the poor kid starts to cry. He's a bigger kid, my height, but easily has 40 pounds on me, and it's probably muscle. I was really surprised. He asked me for another punishment. Any student of mine that cries in my opinion has learned his lesson. I felt pretty bad. So I gave it back (first one I've given back since my new policy) and told him to write me 1/4 of a page in english about why he is sorry.

Man, being a teacher is crazy. I feel like I haven't been challenged like this in a long time. I can't get away with crappy lessons or half effort. I like it. I feel the need to become something more. I also think that if I do, my students will reap the rewards, and that's good. Most of my classes now aren't good or bad because of themselves, they're behavior is almost directly linked to my lesson. If I have a great lesson, usually I'll have a great class. If I have a bum lesson, it's pretty rough. There's nothing quite like a clear indicator of how well you're doing your job. Anyways, here's to being a teacher, and the lessons of life.