ALTInsider052 : English Club Conundrum

Today it's me answering a question I received about how to make your English Club rock. As usual, fun is of the essence. Thanks to "Charo" for the question, and if you have one, let me know: james@ALTInsider.com Right click here to download the MP3 Expand to read Full Question Hi James, First, let me thank you for all the great articles on your website! They've been quite helpful to me in getting adjusted to being an ALT. However, there's still one place where I feel I'm drastically falling short, and I'd greatly appreciate any advice you might have on the matter. As the title says, my problem is with the English club at one of my schools. I switch every other month between two junior high schools, and only one of them has an English club. That school has a good reputation for smart, well-behaved students and I really enjoy classes with them. However, the English club has two of the most misbehaved, bad-attitude kids I've met. They treat club like their study hall/living room and often do things like throwing balls (which wouldn't be a big problem if the classroom weren't a specially made language lab with lots of expensive equipment), refusing to clean up after themselves, breaking pencils given as rewards and throwing them at the girls, and refusing to participate in activities. The JTE in charge of English club rarely comes to meetings, so running club is up to me. However, I have no power to discipline the kids when they misbehave. I have to go down and call the JTE, which usually results in the kids getting her on a tangent and leaving before she can give them any kinds of punishment. Pretty much the only thing I've found that works with them is letting them play cards or watch movies. The rest of the students usually enjoy participating in things, but with the two boys and their posse running the show, members have started to be absent from club. The additional problem is that the boys are also badmouthing me to their friends at the other school I go to, saying I hate the town and I think the kids at the other school are delinquents. I do remember them asking me about what I thought of the other school, but I never said anything negative. I know I'm guilty of bad planning in the past in regards to English club, so activities were sometimes boring or poorly executed, but I don't know what I've done to earn this level of petty dislike. I'm not hoping to make them love me, but I'd really like to improve the relationship to where they'll at least listen to me. I'm going to be trying out a new style this year wherein I give the monthly schedule for club to the kids so they can know what's going to happen each day, but I'm still worried about the boys causing trouble and ruining things for everyone else. I don't want to play my final card, which is going to the JTE with a spine and having them kick them out of club (or just refusing to go myself). What can I do to improve this situation? I want club to be a place where the kids can enjoy themselves and do cool things with English. I don't want to be dreading it from the moment I get to school. I'm sorry for the long, negative info dump, but I would greatly appreciate any advice on this matter. Even just general tips on how to run an English club would be invaluable! Thank you for your time, Charo Hi James, First, let me thank you for all the great articles on your website! They've been quite helpful to me in getting adjusted to being an ALT. However, there's still one place where I feel I'm drastically falling short, and I'd greatly appreciate any advice you might have on the matter. As the title says, my problem is with the English club at one of my schools. I switch every other month between two junior high schools, and only one of them has an English club. That school has a good reputation for smart, well-behaved students and I really enjoy classes with them. However, the English club has two of the most misbehaved,