Just a while ago, I had a job test in some English course. It was a good experience. Actually I didn't really want to go in the first place since I kind of pulled myself out (and still) of teaching stuffs because of this and that. I also haven't brushed up on my English so I was kind of pesimictic about my result. After finally going to the place and taking the test, I didn't expect much about passing the test. There were some words in the test that I fully didn't understand (and still. I planned to look them up in the dictionary as I got home but I've already forgotten them, -ps. it happens often-) so I ended up picking random answers, lol. But surprisingly I did well on the first test which was a TOEFL test in which I then passed to the next round.

In the next round, I was quite nervous because I was only given 5 minutes to prepare my presentation, I'm never good at speed in any kind of stuffs except motor riding, lol.  To talk to the people who have better English skills always makes me nervous. Hence, my speech wasn't really good; I know I made many grammar mistakes and it took ages to find what were the suitable words for what I was thinking. I had to present my thought aboout how I deal with difficult students. My solutions of how to deal with difficult students were taken from my teaching experiences.

Most of students distract the teaching-learning process by chatting with the others, sleeping in the class, and playing with their gadgets or unrelated-to-the-learning stuffs. But we can't simply give warns to the students before knowing these three things:
1. Their names
2. What's their problems
3. What do they want

Knowing each student's name is very essential. You can't just say (or shout) "Hey, you, keep silent!". By knowing their names, you can start your warning by calling them first, like "Andy, Rona, pay attention, please." So Andy and Rona will know that you know them, I always think that students are being difficult in order to catch attention. So here they will understand that you know, recognize and regard them, not to mention, respect to them. Don't be arrogant just because you are older, more intelligence or more experienced than the students so you think you don't need to respect and know them. That's totally wrong!

Chatting with the others is maybe the less trouble some, what if the students are busy with their gadget or stuffs that have nothing to do with the teaching-learning process at that day? That's a problem, and the solution is actually simple: seize their stuffs. You just need the right excuse and reason why you do so. Say that playing with their stuffs is not allowed during the period, (of course you have to make this as a part of your teaching-learning contract with your students in the beginning of the year) so you have to take their stuffs until they have well behaved. Simple, isn't it?

We sometimes call children angels, that's right! They're pure, cute, and innocent just like angels. But do you know the other thing about angels? They're never weary and they have no feelings. So don't think children are angels in that way. Just like us, they can also be tired, sad, or sleepy sometimes, somewhere, including in our class. If they're bored, figure out what they want. I don't say that you have to give everything they want. What if they say they want to go home? Or worse, they want the moon? Lol. Listen to them first and they will listen to you. You give, you receive. After listening to them, conclude what's the best offer you can give to boost their spirit up. Actually if students are bored, it means that they need some fun, try to ask them to sing, dance, or do some movements with you for some minutes. If they're sleepy, ask them to dance with you or do some stretching or wash their face, if they need to. Some lessons maybe are very tiring so never prohibit students to bring drink and drink during the session, choose plain water because if it's spilled, it's easy to mop up and less troublesome.

And those are my thought about the way I deal with the difficult students.