The last day of November

Tuesdays are the longest days for me. I like them though because I like working with the 10th graders. They offer the MOST challenging situations because they have a really bad attitude about everything and lack respect for anyone. These are the students that I was warned about before I came to teach at the school. Fortunately for me, this will be my core grade level since CP doesn't teach the 10th grade and the other teacher will be leaving in a few more classes.
ES, is really starting to show she's preganant, which means her departure is coming rapidly.

Kinda scary for me since I'll be responsible for the 10th grade Education. And today she called in to say she'd be late, and we didn't have any plan for the classes today since the oral exams were the last class. Mrs. Hon.. had a plan for me to do a debate with the 10th grade, but I really wasn't ready to do something like that. It's too advanced for the students in my opinion, but since I was asked to do it by the level chair, I'd just have to listen and do the best I could with it.

I was so distracted by all this that I forgot that I had to teach the 9th grade today too. CP was waiting for me and I was like... oh yeah. So we went to do a shopping chapter. I could understand how the 9th graders felt because it was boring. And their attitudes weren't into learning either so it was a lose-lose situation. Sad to say and even harder to go through. They should be excited as hell since they will actually have to use what they learned in the coming months. The English Festival is in a few weeks and their trip to Santa Barbara will come at the end of the year. They will be going to America for crying out loud.

As it turned out, Erin S. came in time and her train wasn't that delayed so we went along with her plan for the final three classes. We did an activity today covering school uniforms and rules, and we listened to Last Christmas and the students had to circle the words that they heard in the song. But it was too difficult for them. The rules were easier for some classes than others.
Fuji class had a huge lecture the other day by the headmaster. I mean I've never heard him yell at anyone, but he was yelling at three girls for having a bad attitude toward teachers. It was kind of scary for them and for everyone to be honest with you.The club started off kinda weird because our Language Labratory was taken by another engagement. So we were class-less. And there were only 4 students too.

Two 10th and two 7th graders, who were the new comers to the group. Hopefully they'll come around more often. It will be good for the club. I played a memory game with the flash cards that I made, even though half the the deck was another color and had the answers on the back, it was still challenging. In fact, the strange thing was that the 7th graders performed better at memorizing the cards location and the object names than the 10th graders. It was really amazing, I gave the winners some candy pieces. The only reason why a 10th grader got candy was because she was partnered with a 7th grader for a round. Quite interesting I'd must admit.

The start of a brand new week

Mondays aren't so bad anymore. I look forward to going to school and experiencing the joys and the pains of teaching. I like mondays because I get a good mix of the teachers that I work with. Usually throughout the rest of the week I'm teaching with the same teachers, but on Monday, I get to work with some other teachers.

The first class was the 8th grade and we are just practicing their play for the school festival that's coming up. This class is doing the Sound of Music. It's really starting to come together, meaning they are actually memorizing their lines. But they still lack the emotions behind the words. I think they don't know the meanings behind them and therefore can't portray them. But other than that, it's pretty good. The songs are beautiful.

The next class was the 7th grade and we just dove right into Peter Pan. They are a higher level class so they have the ability to perform better than most of the other 7th graders. The students are also a little more motivated than the other classes too, so that helps with the teaching of the words and pronounciations.

The next class was 8th again, and it was the Blue bird this time. They really nailed it. They performed great. It was really enjoyable to see. They barely made any mistakes and they really get into it. I like to see that they are at least having fun with it, but joke around too much. But they are young so they are just doing what young people do.

We had our last senior class today too. We were listening to senior class graduation trips. They have much room for improvement and didn't score that high, but are by far the most fun senior group that I've worked with. Actually these are the girls that I taught first as a substitute when CP was absent.

So it was nice to see them speak.That was the day, but during 6th period me and CP were working on stuff for the English festival and also for English club. We put together a new game that we were going to try with the girls. It turned out to be a lot more fun that I had originally thought that it would be. So that was good and beneficial. Their English could get better too, but I think the game was helpful for them to ask and answer questions. I left kinda late tonight because they kept on giving me snacks to eat, although I'm not complaining, it would also be nice to go home earlier.

Rent, Bill, Clean, Laundry

That's all I did today. It took up a good chunk of time. I feel much better physically, but my throat is killing me. I'm not sure why, but I've got to remedy that soon because I don't want it to bother me anymore. My room is FINALLY clean, with the exception of my desk. But I'll organize that later. Now I'm done updating and will go to sleep now. Damn I'm tired.

7th Grade all day

Well I had 4 classes today instead of the usual 2. I taught all classes in the 7th grade in half an hour blocks from 10am - 1pm with little to no break. That's tough I'll tell you. It's tough because first, they are all 7th grade girls and second because I had to keep up the energy to get through the classes. I think 75% of the classes went well and smoothly. Which was good that the times it was good was when it really counted too. I mean for the my boss's homeroom class. The one that wasn't good wasn't prepared so I couldn't do the thing according to my plan, and it ended up being a waste of time. And they didn't care either.

They are considered to be the low class, and I was speaking too fast for them as I found out after the class. But that's something I'll have to work on later.The activity was a flash card recall. It was a dictation game to check for understanding. I called out a card and they had to bring it up to me. Sounds simple enough, but it got really intense because everyone wants to win, and how scary these little girls can be when they get excited. I'm glad I had to chance to prove I could do it, and I'm glad that things sort of went my way.

Overall, it wasn't a horrible experience and I learned a lot in the process. Although I know there is much more to learn that I still haven't. So I will have to start making the lesson plans for the 8th graders in January so things will be optimal when I teach them. I feel bad for the teachers because they still have school tomorrow Sunday. The school will have an Open School to advertise to elementary students and parents we will have new students next year.

Today would be Thanksgiving in the U.S.

I wished some people happy turkey day online. I didn't have turkey... I'm sad. I think this is the first time I didn't have Thanksgiving with my family.

I was grateful that I didn't have class till later today and to give my body more time to rest. Although I think I caught a cold or something. My body hasn't been working the same since Wednesday. I was still sore and walking was even more difficult than I would have liked. I only had two classes today. The first was an 8th grade class. All we did in there was have the students give their self-introductions, which took the whole period. Next week they will practice The Blue Bird for the English Festival.

In the 11th grade, a class with Ms. Asada, we prepared them for the Oral Test the following week. Which in opinion seems pretty sudden. We were introducing the material today that they have to give next week. It's the same oral exam as the 12th grade final, but the 11th graders are more advanced than the seniors. They have had an opportunity to speak more because they have had more oral communication classes. Actually by the end of the period, most students had finished, so I had to add a few things to make it harder for them. It seemed as if it was too easy for them, but I'm not sure. We will see next week. I stuck around after school, putting the final touches on my lesson plans for Saturday 7th graders. I also wanted to get some of my elective class's material finished and out of the way too.

So I had talked to Ms. Sakai the teacher who sits in front of me about an NHK show called Eigo de Shaberanaito, which means you should speak English. We might do something fun with that. And then I was waiting around for another teacher to talk with too. She had another class afterschool, so I couldn't meet with her till around 5pm. And by the time we finished our discussion of our lesson plans it was already 7pm. It's mostly finished too, and we didn't even finish all of it. But I think it will be fun and good for the seniors. It will require a lot of work on my part though, although it will be good since I could get started now, and not get bogged down later.

The day after

I was sore as hell. That sums up the day pretty much. Walking was an extreme painful thing to experience. And I realize the cause. I didn't stetch that much before playing the games. Which is a great reminder to you that you should always stretch before any strenuous activity like volleyball. Walking around to the different classes was difficult well, because of the stairs. I only had 12th and 7th grade today and all I had to do was listen to their final oral presentations... kinda sad that I won't have any more 12th graders anymore for oral communication. Although I will be teaching them for their electives in January, that's different.

I don't even remember what I did in the 7th grade class.. oh wait, all we did was rehearse for Peter Pan because the English festival is coming up quite rapidly. Next time they will have to remember their lines for the performance. I stayed afterschool a little while just to make sure that I had things ready for Saturday. There was another Ms. A appearance. She had invited me to the staff end of the year party at a hotel on December 6th. In addition to editing more papers for the menu for the day of the event. It's really strange in my opinion, but greatly appreciated.

Yakumo Sports Day

Well, two months ago we had a school sports festival. Today we had a sports day at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. It was an all day event, and I mean ALL day event. For teachers the day started around 8am, but that's when I left to get to the Gymnasium. I didn't arrive till around 10am when the event started. I walked in right about the time they did their opening ceremony. I felt very awkward because I was wearing a suit when everyone was wearing their warm-up outfit.

I had a change of clothes so that was fortunate, but I didn't have a jacket, which wasn't really needed, but would have been nice. It wasn't freezing, but a tad bit cooler than I would have liked. I didn't really do much the first few hours, but watch the different classes play basketball. Then I moved on to watch a little volleyball. I got stuck there watching till around lunchtime. Then I had a boxed lunch and went back to watching basketball again. But this time, one of the 10th grade teachers had asked me to help her coach her class as they played basketball. Which was nice because I was just standing watching, but as a coach you get a chair. I was helping with 10th grade Fuji class, which is known to be the rowdy loud class. They are rowdy and loud, but in this case it was ok because it was in support although the people at the desk keeping score and all the other fun stuff told us to shut up.

The first game when I helped out, we won. It was amazing to be honest with you. It was all on the shoulders of one girl, and she happened to be in the English club, so that made it better. She used to play basketball in Junior High School. I would have never known either. We ended up beating 10th grade Yuri in the first round. Which made me feel kinda bad because I like that class. They are a fun class.

The next round we played some 12th graders, and ended winning by a point in the final seconds of the game. We eeked by in the semi-finals to make it to the finals. I really hadn't done much coaching at this point. I just watched and cheered with the students... sitting on the bench of course. This semi-final game was very exciting to watch too. It was going back and forth for a long time and it was always exciting to watch.

In the finals, the homeroom teacher came back to root for her team. She was surprised that they had made it this far and we were together rooting for the team. During the break I had given some of the players some advice on how to win and how to play the next game. Because I was watching other games earlier I had learned how to pick apart the teams and see the weaknesses and the strengths. I had told some of my team members how to play the next game. But did they listen... of course not. And as a result we lost in the finals. It was heart breaking too, the star player on our side kept hesitating to shoot and that's why the team kinda fell apart. The star player on the other side was creaming everyone in points. She made the most points in the school and I had told my team to ONLY block her forget about everyone else, but the odd thing was NO ONE BLOCKED HER! Pissed off I was, but we ended up losing. But it's ok, it's only a game. We lost to 10th grade Ran, so the other teachers were coming up to me to rub it in. .... Yeah.

After that there was the ceremony for the awards for the top of every grade level. That didn't last long. I didn't mention that there was Table Tennis going on too, but I didn't watch much of that.

After the students games was the Teacher versus Parents / Alumni games. Most of the students already went home by the time we started playing, but some stayed to watch their parents. I was playing volleyball on the teachers side. In the first set, we did a pretty good job as the teachers... lacking in experience and coordination prevailed over the moms. It was close though, but it also wasn't fair because I was a guy. I was the only male playing volleyball at this point.

In the second set, I sat out and let some of the other teachers that were sitting out to come in. This time there were two other male teachers, but the teachers lost bad this set. So I jump back into the tie-breaking set. But we ended up losing. We didn't have the best people in the middle. I was set up in the position to spike and block the ball. But I never had an opportunity to spike it because the ball never left the court.

At this point the teachers would have lost, but the parents insisted that we play some more, we were like... ok. Only because they were parents, you know. After that we played 3 or 4 more sets with the teachers winning all of them. And by this point I was tired as hell. The volleyball teacher kept making me play, saying that she wanted me to be in front and spike and block. I got tired of jumping up and down so much. I was so tired in fact that when I served my last time up, I hit the ball and it barely made it over the net... too bad it went out though. But we ended up winning anyways.

I tried to play basketball a little, but I decided to bow out since I only made 2 baskets out of 14. Not the best percentage in the world, but I never said I was good at basketball.

After the event, of course is a dinner party. But this time, the parents and alumi were invited. The tough situation was that there were only enough chairs for the parents, and the teachers had to serve the parents drinks and such, you know to be polite. Fortunately for me, I don't speak Japanese and I wasn't expected to do anything. I was mingling with the English Teachers all night. It was quite fun actually. I was glad that I had the opportunity to talk with them. I mean, I was talking to some of the teachers that I have usually been getting along with, but with an addition of a few more. I need to be able to get along with other teachers too. I need to get to talk to everyone if I get a chance.

So on the way home, I hitched a ride with Yaya sensei since he drove. It was me, Yaya, and two history teachers. We live the furthest away from the school in Kanagawa. It was a fun ride home too. I felt a little bad that I was picking on Yaya sensei a lot about getting married next month, but he's one of the few male teachers who isn't married. Granted that he's only 25, he's still fairly young. But he said that it's possible in the next year or so to get married with his girlfriend. But would only leave me, and another 10th grade homeroom teacher, actually the one from 10th grade Ran who aren't married. Talk about pressure. I arrived home around midnight, with school the next day. Why the hell would they want to have an event like this on a Wednesday???

Holiday - Labor Day

Today is a holiday for labor day, which is really needed in Japan. But I spent most of the day doing research for Ms. Asada. I really want to make a good impression, but I really am unable to find anything. I went to some places that I thought might have some stuff, but they didn't. I will check the embassy when I have time, but I doubt that they would have anything too specific. I have already looked at some of the travel agencies, but I guess I'll have to dig more to find some good stuff. I gave her a recommendation to go to the Shibuya Tower Records store. They have a large selection of foreign books there, but that was about it. The Embassy was closed today because it's a national holiday. In fact they have more holidays than most other agencies since they close on American Holidays and Japanese Holidays. So They will be closed again on Thursday for thanksgiving. How lucky of them.

It was a beautiful day

At first when I woke up, I was feeling energized. I don't know why but on the train, I was feeling pretty good. Then when I got to school, I started to get a little sleepy, which was weird since I got enough sleep. I always make sure I get enough sleep because I work longer hours and I need to rest.

The classes today were pretty chill. I enjoyed them and it didn't require too much work on my part. But I'm glad that I'm there to help. The 8th graders were going over their skits for the English festival next month. One class is doing the Sound of Music, and the other class is doing the Blue Bird.

I really have no idea what the Blue Bird is about, and it's very intriguing. They really got into the acting part. Especially with all the expressions and the enthusiam with it. But the background people are way too loud that sometimes they drown out the performers, which was a surprise to me since they were also loud. I had the honor of watching the Blue Bird twice today. Since I didn't have a 6th period, I was asked by the teacher who sits in front of me to watch them and correct their English. I started off slow because I seemed a tad disoriented, but after awhile I was correcting things here and there. I think some had gotten worse since the 4th period when I saw them. They were starting to use their scripts when in the other class they weren't using them as much. It was fun watching them, and the songs are sung so wonderfully. It's really amazing... even though they have no idea what their singing.

I stayed after a little bit because of the English club, but it seemed so stranged that today I was actually fairly busy. There were a couple of teachers who had asked for my help all at the same time. I'm glad that I'm finally being included and I don't want to let them down, since this could be the only opportunity I have to get some brownie points with the other teachers. So I'm doing the best I can while I have many things to do.

Club finished around 5:30pm tonight because everyone needed to leave and do something else. The girls were extremely dead today, could be because they got their results for their tests back... I would imagine they didn't do so well. I know only because I scored them... and it wasn't so favorable. I expected more, well actually I expected something, but their speeches weren't all the great, and one of them didn't give one...

Anyways, I finished around 6:30pm, with writing in my journal and all the other things. I was just about to leave, when The Chief of Staff asked me to do something, of course her English is completely non-understandable and she knows it. In fact I think she does it on purpose. The "idea" was that she wanted me to go buy some batteries and a snack for the staff, but I knew that she really didn't trust me to go get it, but no one else wanted to go. I understood what she meant through her horrible explaination, but I didn't want to go either.

So I played dumb and she passed off the duty to someone else. I mean time flew by fast because as I was leaving, the food was arriving and of course they forced me to eat it before I left. Meaning I had to sit and eat because it's not a Japanese custom to eat and walk. So, by the time I finish, I have everyone asking me how was it. It was just a cream filled custard... nothing incredibly special, in fact the ones at Ranch 99 in San Diego are much better. Of course I didn't tell them that. Then after I finished, I was approached by many teachers again asking me about different things.

But to my surprised, Ms. Asada asked for my help. This is actually a rare thing that she asks for anyone's help. But it dealt with the history of California, and well I'm from California, so I would be a good candidate to help. She wanted to know if I could get some posters, or pictures or a video advertising the beginnings of California. I said no problem, I'll do some searching and see what I can pull up.When I got home, I started doing some research. But nothing. There aren't any places in Japan that have much stuff on California. Much to my surprise. And if you are still reading and have some available resources to help me. It would be GREATLY APPRECIATED if you could do that for me. I'm still doing a bunch of research and I've found nothing.

Stayed home and talked to some old friends

Today, I just stayed at my computer. Pretty much all day, but I was glad that I had the opportunity to talk to some very old friends. They were in my room in the States, so it was strange talking to them since they were there and I was here. It was nice though and then I was talking to some other people online that I haven't talked to in a long while. It was pleasant and I'm finally working on my website again. I think I've decided which webhost I want to use, but I'm having difficulties getting it to work, so I might have to go use the runner up just in case.

Saturday School

On my way to school I was feeling pretty good. I was going to do a good job today. I felt it, I was reading on the train. The chapter was really good and really felt good reading as I was going to work. Before I got to work, I had realized that I didn't know what time I started and who I was working with. My schedule seems to always change.

When I arrived, I noticed the note that was under the plastic covering in my desk. It told me my schedule for the day. Which gave me relief since I already missed the first period when I arrived. But I still had to wait around for another hour before class began. The first class that I had today was 7th K. I felt pretty good going in, but didn't feel that good coming out. I was partnered with the former English Department chair. She's a nice lady and extremely helpful, but in this class we were both struggling to get control of the class. You know 7th graders will be 7th graders. I altered my teaching style a little because I will only see this class once and only teach them once this month, possibly this year. So, I tried to maximize what I did, but it seemed really scattered. As I was leaving the class, it was very discouraging and I had to recollect myself for the next class, another 7th grade. So, as I was sitting at my desk thinking about what to do next and how to fix it so the next class won't be as bad as the last class.

I modified a few things and the approach that I did. When the next class was about to begin, the other teacher came up to me and said that 7th grade is always the hardest. Don't be so hard on yourself, but she said that in Japanese as we were heading to the next class together. I had hoped that my plan was to work out better in 7th R. And IT DID! I went with a different approach and the students loved it. They were very responsive, and participated. They were WAY more controlled and were receptive of the material. It was such a great relief that it worked out, because the other classes were shaky on the material, even though we've been working on it for 3 weeks in the other class with CP. Everything went very smooth, that I finished even before my time was up. The other teacher was very surprised at the results, I'm sure, but I didn't have a chance to ask her about it yet. I just wished at all my classes were like the last one. I stayed around for another few hours to help around with English tasks and took off early. I got home and then just relaxed a bit since I wasn't needing to do anything.

Chill Day

Today was a pretty chill day. I didn't do much since it was my day off. This really is a day off too because I would normally have two classes today, but I didn't have them today. So I was planning to meet up with my friend today, KHma. We were planning to meet up at 4pm at the More's Department store.

I went to pick up my package from next door that my family sent me. Then I hurried to Totsuka Station to look at some Vodafone phones. It was more expensive than I had originally thought, so I went to Yokohama station to meet up with KHma. But I didn't see him. I had waited for him for about 45 minutes, I went around the building and still couldn't find him. He said that he was there for 30 minutes, but I didn't see him at all. Since I was already at Yokohama station, I decided to go to the Vodafone store and get my phone.

They still had my application from yesterday, so it didn't take too long to get it online. But they made me wait 1.5 hours to activate it, so I went to Yoshinoya to grab some dinner. When I came back I picked up my phone. Quite nice since it was really inexpensive. I'm glad that now I officially have a cell phone and it's good. I provided a link of the phone that I bought for your convenience http://www.vodafone.jp/english/products/kisyu/v801sa/index.htmlThen I came home and got ready to go to school the next day.

Teaching Seniors

Today was pretty chill. I didn't have to do much today. I woke up late since I was cracking codes till the crack of dawn. But I wasn't late. It was a little disorienting because it was testing week and that means most students only have two periods, while today I had three. Seniors have regular classes while the rest of the school only had two. So it's weird that kids were cleaning up and it was still early and I was like, what's going on here...

The seniors were working on their final drafts for the test next week, so most of the work was already done, and I was just checking it to make sure it made sensed and flowed. Some classes were behind while others were finished as I walked through the door, once again, my comment about the slow pace. We've got to amend things to keep the students engaged.

I got to work with one of the English teacher today working on a manuscript for a senior speech that the student wil be giving at an informational session. It turned out much better than I thought. My brain was working for once, and the English that came out of my mouth was good.

So that worked out for me. And then I talked to another English teacher that I normally don't talk to. She's actually the wife of the teacher that I speak with most, the history teacher that sits behind me. She's very nice and they make a cute couple, although you'd never guess that they're married. Still, they don't act like a married couple, actually none of the couples do. I think its for the bosses though so they don't get fired. But she helped me with the copy machine even though I knew how it worked from two weeks prior. I just wanted an opportunity to speak with her since I haven't done so yet.

I brought out an old book to read. I've read this book a few times already, but it never gets old and actually it's good to refresh. I like it, but it's not as powerful as it used to be. I'm feeling more drained than usual and usually this will fill me up. But I guess today, I've just got to get through it on my own.

I took a trip to the Vodafone store today at Yokohama station. I looked at the phone I wanted and saw the price being 500 yen, that's about $5. I was like OOOHH !! I'm buying it. It's about $40 cheaper than the website advertising it, and much cheaper than all the other places I've looked at. For all the features that comes with it, IT'S A STEAL! So I signed up, only missing one piece of information. So I had to go home to get it, but when I got to Totsuka station, not my normal path home, I noticed that there was another Vodafone store. So I go upstairs and see the price listed as FREE... I was like are you kidding. You've got to be kidding me. The deal got better and better. One of the ladies walked up to me and spoke in Japanese. I didn't understand everything she was saying, but I could get the gist of it. BUT if I heard her correct, she had told me that I should go buy a NTT DoCoMo phone because Vodafone wasn't good in the area... I was like, "do you work for Vodafone or DoCoMo???" She was selling her competing company.

And the phone that I want was free... I mean come on, it's a world class phone that I can use in the states, and all over the world for that matter. Vodafone is a huge carrier in Japan, and a big player on the worldwide market. The payment plans could be better but it's still not bad at all. But she was selling me a DoCoMo phone... so I decided I was going to go home and get TT to come with me to hear her. But when I got home, no one was at the house. So I got some food and just went home. I didn't get a cell phone today, but there's always another day.

Book of the Moment - Dr. John C. Maxwell - 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

MHda's Birthday of Kyoto

I got another day off, which was nice. But I was awaken early to go to Costco. I love that place. We had lunch there and I packed myself with a TON of food. I had a pizza, clam chowder, hot dog and soda. I really couldn't take all that in since I was stuffed from the night before... so it was quite difficult walking around Costco. We all split up, and I was feeling pains in my stomach because I ate too much. But I liked the American food aspect... But I can't do that again. Next time I'll go for something else. I didn't end up buying much. I just bought a bag of mini snickers, I was planning to use that for my class, but I started diving in it for dinner last night. Definately not a good thing.

I cracked open the Da Vinci Code and finished that sucker. It was a good ending. I had stopped the previous night at a very good spot and then the plot twisted and I was surprised. Dan Brown is one hell of a writer, I'm afraid the movie won't do it justice. And now I can understand the feeling when people read books and then see the movies and know what's missing. Since I've only been avid reader for only 2 weeks...

I checked out the website, and was engaged in breaking codes. It was fun as hell and actually I'm still working on one of them. I'm stuck at a point where I need to use the phone. Problem being, I don't have a phone... But I'll find a way. That's how I ended the night.

Dinner with the Boss and some teachers

I didn't have class today, so I slept in and didn't do much. But I had to leave to go to school. It's kind of weird that when I run into students when they are leaving, and I'm just now arriving since it was dark by the time I just got there.

I only came for one purpose, and as you can see, it's in the title. I was going to have dinner with the top people in the department and in the school. Sounds fun doesn't it? It wasn't at first since I was sitting near the Chief of staff, all the while having her patronizing me. Oh, yes extremely fun. Here's a secret though, I can understand what she's saying in Japanese, even though she's saying that my Japanese is horrible... actually it's kinda working toward my advantage, but not liking the condescending talk that's all.

Plus there was a coordinator for the school trips there having dinner with us... a tad on the snobby side. Of course, I would imagine he gets it from the facade that he portrays that he's a rich folk. Anyways, I had to sit next to these two people. And another English teacher as a semi-translator. She could only translate when the Chief wasn't looking, and she wouldn't translate the whole thing because the coordinator understood English... It could be desribed as "taihen" which means tough situation.

Anyways, as the night wore on, so did the food. Execellent sushi, even though I didn't know what I was eating, I knew I wasn't paying the bill. I get the, I like it but I don't feeling. Anyways, I was saved though. About half way through the evening with not much to say or anyone to talk to, the Chair of the English department invited me to sit with them in their little cubby hole arrangement, which was spectacular for me. Not only was I taken out of a bad position, I was able to be more free without having the watchful eye of the bosses.

In the little cubby hole seating area were 6 teachers... made to fit 4, but we squeezed. They were a little buzzed as I could clearly see. That's what made it more fun since everyone was happy and the atmosphere was more vibrant. We had talked about a lot of things and I was able to enjoy myself as were the other teachers around the area. We were actually starting to become quite loud because of our laughter and conversations. It was great! We were even playing some drinking games and I was surprised I was able to handle a lot of sake, I didn't even turn red. I didn't feel anything at all. I'm grateful for that. It was as if I was drinking water, but I'm going to be sure that I don't make a habit of it.

Then afterwards we all left and crammed on the train, it was good to talk to teachers that I rarely have the chance to speak with. It was nice, although I'm sure there's one teacher that has me on their black list. She actually sits next to me, but NEVER talks to me. And I don't think that she liked that I made that public, although the rest of the teachers seem to pick on her. I feel sorry for casting a bad light since I know she's a good person, just has no English speaking ability. She lives much farther from the school than I do, and it's about a 2 hour trek for me. I really feel sorry for her.

YYto's Birthday

I actually called him today to wish him Happy Birthday until my minutes ran out on my pre-paid cell phone. Which forces me to either renew the pre-paid or buy a REAL cell phone. Right now I've been doing my research on the different cell phone companies here in Japan. I've narrowed it down to Vodafone (a Brittish company) and NTT DoCoMo (my favorite Japanese company). I'm looking at the prices and seeing which one takes a big hit to my wallet. I think the Japanese cell phones are the best in the world, with their high tech gadgets and stuff like that. I'm looking to get a video-streaming phone, one of the most state of the art piece of machines.
Anyways, this will be an easy week for me because I get a lot of days off. I stay home more than I have to go to work this week, so obviously that's good.

Today I have a full day of work. The lesson plans for today was watching students give self-introductions. This is the 8th grade we're speaking about. Once again, I can see that there are glaring flaws in the system, when they struggle to talk about themselves. But that's that I get paid to do, fix them.

For the 7th grade, we played a game where we were learning about the things around the classroom. CP wrote the things on post-it notes and the students ran all around to post things on the item that was written on the note. It was fun, although short lived. I'm going to be teaching this class on Saturday, but I really didn't prepare for much. I think I'm going to do the same thing I did last week, but I know it might be repeative since CP and I are relatively doing the same things... she's making my job harder than it has to be. But I've just got to get creative about it.

The 12th grade was working on their vacation presentation again. I think one of the flaws is going to damn slow. I feel we give the students too much time to carry out simple tasks. Although some of them really might need the time. I think we should move faster to encourage them to catch up faster and therefore learn faster. But what do I know, I'm new at this. So I could, perhaps, be wrong. But I would like to try it out anyways. Since I feel as if there really isn't much to lose if I do, and things can only get better from my standpoint.

The plot thickens in the Da Vinci Code. Starting to get juicy good, which is weird since I'm over half way done with the book. From what it seems, it's all in a span of a day too, just like Angels and Demons. Seems pretty dense for a book of 500 pages or so.

Book of the Moment - Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code

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Yoke Meeting

Today there was a meeting with all the members of the exchange, but only 6 of them showed up. They are all busy people. I didn't understand much, but they all took pictures of the event and it seemed as if they had fun in San Diego, even though it rained. It seemed interesting how everything came together. They are working on putting together a booklet about their adventure. It should be pretty good.

Afterwards, the guys and one of the girls went to get something to eat. There was little festival going on outside of the Pacifico Yokohama so we decided to take a look. We all bought some furaku curry, and it was really good. Since it was warm and on cold day. We ate it on the seaside so we had a great view of the bay. It was nice. After lunch we went back towards Sakuragicho station, and stopped off in the Landmark tower to look at a Book store. I was thinking about buying the next Dan Brown book here, but they don't have a hard back copy. I'm running out of hope of buying a hard back copy and I think I'll have to go back to buying it paper back. From there we split up and went back home.

One of the members was going on the same train as me and actually lives one train station away. He works in Hongodai as a cram school teacher. I found that very interesting and cool. We tried to communicate as best as we could, since his English was limited and My Japanese is worse. It was good because it was actually the first time I've even talked to him.

When I got home, I just relaxed a bit and then I started to cook. I made a nice noodle dish with shrimp, carrots, scrambled eggs, and bak choy. It was really nice and I'm surprised I made it. I'm also surprised it was good. I didn't expect to cook, but since I had the time, I did it anyways. I need to get rid of all the things in my refrigerator or it'll all go bad.

After dinner and shower and everything I called up YYto. It's his birthday in a few days, and my phone will expire so I won't be able to send e-mail or give a call so I decided to give him a ring. It was nice to talk to him. After we hung up the phone, I started researching which new phone to buy. I decided that Vodafone V801SA would be the best, but I'm also looking at DoCoMo to see how much it will cost me. Either way it's going to be about $70/ month out of my pocket for something I hardly even use to begin with. Since my pre-paid phone costs only $30 for 3 months. But then if I'm going to get a phone, I think now would be the best time, since I have to sign up for a year contract. But I'm going to explore my options.

Open School Day Two

Today, I only have two classes, so I arrived later than usual. The first class was 8th grade, with two parents watching. This class isn't the greatest to work with, but they were better today. They always finds way to cheat and get out of doing things, so I've got to be aware of that when I start teaching this class solo.

The second class was with 11th grade. They are actually fun to work with. They are bright girls and funny. But slack off too much because the material is too easy for them. But it's fun to watch them work. After my classes though, I stuck around to study some Japanese. I figure Fridays are a good day to study for myself. But I didn't end up leaving till very late today. I was about to call it quits around 3pm, but then the Japanese Langauage teacher gave me another book to read about Japanese festivals and a tad bit on Japanese culture. It was interesting, although it took another 3 hours to finish it. Teachers started coming up to me to talk about it. It's the same book they use as a text for visiting American students from their sister school. It was insightful, because I learned why they have so many festivals and why it came to be.
After that I went home, completely exhausted.

Open School Day One

Today there was open school for Junior high school. I only had one Junior high class today, so I really wasn't affected by it. Open school is when the school opens to parents who wish to watch classes. The first 3 classes I had today were all seniors and we were just working on our class graduation trip presenations. Me and CP gave our speeches, which was fairly good.

The 7th graders were better behaved today than usual. Probably because there was one lone mother in the back of the room watching. It was kind of nerve racking because you didn't want to mess up in front of a mother you know. Well things went pretty smoothly with the class activity, but 7th graders will be 7th graders. We ended the class with a reading of their drama skit, Peter Pan.

I left school earlier than usual so I could walk around some places and do some shopping. I needed to get some more clothes hangers and I went to get some grub at Yoshinoya. It was a pretty good day because I could spend some time for myself and looking around city that I live in. I've finished half of the Da Vinci Code already, and it's starting to get pretty interesting. I still like the other book better, and I'm looking to buy another of Dan Brown's book.

Rest

It was nice to have a day off today. I just went to go pay off some bills since the due date is nearing. I have concluded that the new shoes I bought suck. They cut into my feet and the skin peels off. I've tried using something to prevent it from happening, but it doesn't work, so I have to resort to using bandages to prevent further damage. I'm glad that I stepped outside today. Usually on my days off I don't do much.

10th Grade Oral Exam day

The first class that I had today was 9th grade, and we were preparing to go to America. In March, the 9th grade takes a school trip to Santa Barbara, of course all expenses paid. There they will spend about two weeks in a Residence that would put houses in La Jolla to shame. There are plenty of pictures around the school to remind me how humbled people should be. The residence sit at the top of the mountain with a long road leading up to it. It comes with a tennis court, pool, and a view of Santa Barbara that would make it seem that you're flying in an airplane. It's the only house on the mountain too. And there is enough space on the residence that each girl will have something to do and a nice room to stay in. When I saw the picture, I was impressed.

Anyways, back to the students. The lesson was preparing them to go shopping while they are in the States. We were covering things like taxes, traveler's cheques, money, colors, and anything else they would need. The class though seemed as if died or something. Everyone was just staring off into space. The teachers were wondering what was going on, but we assumed that it was because of the testing next week that has everyone on the verge being brain-dead.
10th grade: These classes were more interesting since I was grading speech performances. I don't know about you, but if you've ever talked to a Japanese international student, you know that the ability to speak English is quite a difficult task. Well teaching in Japan and listening to these students is roughly the same. But the standards of the tests are made for people who are fluent, so therefore, the grades aren't going to be so high. The other teacher and I are nice though, and we understand that we can't fail everyone, so we have to decide amongst ourselves, what's going to be the average.

The first class: Yuri. They were pretty good for the most part. The class was slow to present, I mean there are 35 students and only 40 minutes to present after all the instructions have been explained. So we have to shoot right through them. The first students are always the most scared because they don't have anyone to follow, they actually set the standard of the class. She was ok though. We have to grade on Pronounciation, Intonation, Smoothness, Loudness, Eye Contact, and expressions. The main areas that are difficult for these students are smoothness and prounounciation. I would have to give higher scores for the other section just so they don't fail. But they did ok.

Kiku: the next class was much smaller and Ms. Asada cracked the whip so we had more time to deliberate on scores, but still we had to rush right through it. They were much better, but more quiet. They all have room for improvement.

Fuji: This is a huge class, and most of them are considered the worst in ability. So this was going to be fun. They had some of the better speeches of the day, but also had some of the worst scores too. I mean a couple of them failed because they refused to finish or even start. It was bad because one of the girls was in the English conversation club. That was tough...

Ran: This was the last class of the day, some of the best speakers were in this class. I enjoyed this class because they actually got into the performance was speaking from the heart. You can really tell. But the members of the English club in this class all cracked and didn't recieve the highest scores. That was incredibly disappointing. But at least I know what areas they need to work on to improve their English skills.

After classes, I was talking with the other teacher, Erin Su. She had talked about the schedule for the next section and we both realized that there will only be few more classes before the winter break, which means that they will be her last classes. She's pregnant and I will be replacing her, but it's going to be awkward if she leaves right in the middle of the chapter, since it's her lesson plans, but the other teacher who was in charge of the grade level was absent. So we've got a few things work out. I imagine that I'll be teaching very soon and I will be teaching many grade levels.

A regular week

Monday set the tone for the rest of the week. First since I finished off Angels and Demons, I started diving into the second adventure of Robert Langdon. So far from what I've read, I like Angels and Demons better. The Da Vinci Code starts off slower and isn't as dense as the Angels and Demons book.

I arrived at school at the usual time, about 30 minutes before class. I would take out my daily class journal and reflect on how to improve the class, and then I'd be off to class. The students this week seemed to be dead. They have mid-terms next week so they are busy cramming and therefore not focused in class. They all seem to take this class for granted because they feel it's not really important to them. Although I would think that it's quite the opposite. It's more important than grammar, since communication is the most relevant thing in their lives. But then again, I'm being biased.

Rest

Today, really wasn't a day of rest. It was more of a day of work since I was massively cleaning my apartment. Since I got new furniture, I decided to reset the places of all my stuff. I like the setup I have now, and I was also doing laundry and talking to the family. I even dove into to do some cooking too. I successfully made some mabo tofu. It tasted pretty good, much to my surprise. That's good that I can finally enjoy some cooked food instead of always buying.

Book of the Moment - Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code

Show time

Today, I had to put the ideas into actions. I think I did a fairly ok job. There was an open school today, so there were new people taking a look at the facilities as classes were going on. The first class that I did got me off guard. When I normally taught this class with the other English teachers, they would always be loud, noisy, not paying attention and seemed to have low retention of the material. So I took it slow. Unfortunately, I was taking it too slow. I should have kicked it to a higher level and explained things in a more clearer fashion. But all and all, it wasn't bad. I made all the students speak, and was able to grab their attention, for the most part. It's not bad for the first time. And for the 7th grade.

The second class was much better. I think it was because the other teacher offered more translations, but I only think that it was only to reinforce what the students already knew. I think many of the activities were recieved well and that they already knew most of the materials. But didn't know how to say it. It's an oral communication class so they had to speak in order for that purpose to be served. So I think the objectives were met and that it's just the first day. I think the next time will be better because I know to be a little more accelerated. Not to mention, classes were only 30 minutes long.

Afterwards, I stayed at school MUCH longer. I was talking with the other teachers much more. I was asking them about Japanese, and then others engaged me with English questions. It took a long time to get them to stop wanting to study. I was truly exhausted at this time. So I left after we had finished a studying session. I started reading a new book on the way home. It's Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" So far... SO good.

Preparing my materials

I've noticed that I've excluded my other classes in my entries. That's because it's just the usual class lessons. Nothing that really inspires me to write about. I started seeing things in a different light and stayed at school a lot longer too. I'm having more and more conversation with the teachers around me which is an incredibly good thing. I can sense that the barriers are falling down between me and the other teachers. I had prepared my materials for the next day. I had the assistance of many teachers in the process so that was good. I had been assigned to write a new Christmas card that would be going out to the students, teachers this coming month. That distracted me a little because of the added pressure of doing my own class. And I was still left with the cliff hanger for Angels and Demons. So I said, NO MORE. I was going to finish it tonight and clear my mind for tomorrow. So I finished it and it was DAMN GOOD!

The News

Well, I found out through another source that I was going to be teaching class on Saturday. I suppose that my plan was approved, but I hadn't had anything prepared. I was kind of thrown off since I knew I should have been prepared for that, but I wasn't. I didn't know why either. All the other teachers had my plan and it was approved 4th period during the English Department meeting. I sensed that some of my ideas were being taken by other teachers, but hey, I'm not complaining. If they are being stolen and used by other teachers, that validates that they were good ideas and the students benefit. Besides I always do things a tad bit different than all of them anyways. Everyone's got their own way of doing things. But then I needed to get started on my materials right away. This had taken much more time that I could have possibly imagine, only because I was going lazy about it.

I had taken the time to buy some paper with another teacher who gave me some insights on how she goes about teaching. I think it was very informative and I'll need to put them into action. Acutally, I need to put my own ideas into action too. I've always been creative, but sometimes lacked the capacity to be able to do it to the best of my abilities. I get a chance Saturday, so I'll see how it goes.

The last day of my vacation

I was so exhausted from staying up so late reading. But it was good. I left the book at another cliffhanger. But I thought that I knew where the book was going and things were starting to become settled. I mean, I usually sleep around 10pm so sleeping at 8am was quite unsettling. I decided to prepare some things for my class on Saturday.

My second day off

Once again I didn't do much. I built upon my city in Sim City 3000. I've found out a way to get more money without using any cheat codes which actually has helped a lot. I've got a lot of money and a lot of people in the city too. I really like this game and I don't even know why.
I started to get bored a little and the interest was too hard to resist. I picked up Angels and Demons and read. Little did I know that it wouldn't be till the next day at 8am that I would go to bed. It's an incredible story and it's really one of those you can't put it down novels. I shot through some 300 pages that night. By far the most I've read in a long time or ever.

My day off

I didn't do that much today. I only enjoyed my long vacation. The cultural festival was pretty good and now I've got a few days off. I played Sim City 3000 to take up my time. It's a fun game that I've taken a lot of interest in. That was pretty much it.

Book of the Moment - Dan Brown - Angels and Demons