Just sitting here in my study, staring out of the window at the slightly misty grey Zhejiang landscape, a thought just occured to me:-

"Any teacher who has difficult students in their classes should shake their hands, pat them on their backs, and thank them profusely!!"

I've just realized that the young man in one of my freshman classes who wrote "I thought the concert was S#*#!", in large untidy letters on his writing paper, after I told the class to review a "concert" they watched on CD in my class, is helping me. Yes, the same young man who missed three consecutive classes near the beginning of the semester is good for me. Then, when this same young man, when told to assist in returning the AV equipment to the media equipment room after class, tried to run away like a little child, he was doing me a great service.

Sorry, I know there are many experienced teachers out there who are much further forward on the evolutionary scale of their devopment than me and probably realized this point years ago, but I have to admit, it's only just clicked with this mere babe. Students like the above help us to develop and progress as teachers. It's part of the challenge of teaching. It was the following quote from Martin Luther King that I recently came across on an EFL site that helped clinch it for me:-

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Although the challenges that your average EFL teacher faces may not generally be in the same league as the challenges King was talking about, how true that is of teaching. I have often complained to FT colleagues that I prefer teaching college students as opposed to children because I generally don't have so much bad behaviour to deal with in colleges. But, Now thinking about it, if all our students listened to everything we said and never put a foot wrong as far as discipline is concerned, although we would still have challenges, our development would be considerably less than if we also had to deal with problem students. I've realized that I should stop complaining and instead start developing and meeting the challenge.

Because of a few students in one or two classes who are not pulling thier weight, I'm beginning to think of new strategies to help knock them back in line. For instance I now intend to start using a system based on a rubric where I will arm each writing student with a checklist, where they will have to tick each component/requirement after every assignment as a self-assessment and reminder of what is expected in each writing assignment. I will also tell them to use this system in groups to assess each other's papers. This will hopefully iron out the faults of the few stragglers, and also stop them affecting other students who might be influenced by their apathy.

So there are different challenges involved in dealing with problem students and without a few of these our development and growth would be a great deal less. This knowledge can also help us realize how much we really like teaching. If we are not that motivated we might think "what's the use, I can't be bothered with those who don't seem interested in learning". On the other hand, though, if we really enjoy teaching then we could use such students to motivate us to find new and different ways to connect with and inspire our charges.