Last day of the first month of the year

This month went by fast. I hardly realized that one month already passed since the New Year. I’ve got a lot of shit to take care of to say the least. Final exams are coming up and I’ve got to prepare what I’m going to do after that, but it doesn’t sound like I have anything else to do for the rest of the semester. Which could be a good or bad thing, but I’m not sure about that yet. I haven’t made any plans for my classes after the 8th of Feb, so that means I don’t know what’s next for my students. Last time I had a full three weeks to prepare for my 10th grade students for their debate, which finally in the end worked out. Because today was the day I was finished correcting their papers and told them how I wanted it done. They each had to come to me and I explained it to them. It turns out that they misunderstood my directions and it wasn’t my fault since other students in the class were able to understand and follow them. It’s a big burden off my shoulders since I had help from another teacher who felt as if she was responsible for it, even though she is. I didn’t want her to be all stressed out, but at least she takes her work seriously.

But that was at the end of the day. Let’s rewind a little bit and start with my first class. I’m lucky that I start the day with 3rd period, which gives me an extra hour of sleep. So I really like it. It was a 7th grade class and we just did what we did with the other class, which was the hobbies activity. They are a very energetic group and have a certain spunkiness to them. Some of the students in this class are really smart, and some are incredibly lazy. This is one of the higher level classes, so I really didn’t have much to worry about. Since there are two other teachers besides me and they are well experienced with handling a loud class. Come to think of it, it was the first time I saw them all year. Since I was teaching the 12th grade classes, I haven’t seen them since the end of the session in December which was over 7 weeks ago.

The same could be said for my 8th grade class. I haven’t seen them in a long time. I realized that this class is the highest level. Before I didn’t really notice, but I could really tell today. I was standing in the front corner with one of the best English speaking students in the whole school and yes, she’s in the 8th grade. The lesson of the day was Fast Food like it was in the other class. We did our schema activation activity to get the class started, but they nailed it. I started to notice that doing the same approach doesn’t work with this class.

They need a more challenging stimulating activity and they should be treated differently than the other 8th grade students. I would probably be the only one to say such a thing since everything is based on equality in this country. Everyone values being fair for everyone, which is a problem I ran into with the 10th grade classes and having them graded at different times was a big no-no. But I think since next year, most of the English teachers will be leaving and I’ll have more control of what I can do next year, I will try to implement something to challenge them more.

I had noticed that the advanced students were getting bored with the lesson, so I offered a little side lesson. Since we were talking about fast food, I asked her if she had any idea why they call French Fries, French Fries. She didn’t, so I decided that I would give her some trivial knowledge. Most people believe that it originated from France, and in a way it did. Thomas Jefferson, one of the most famous Americans, actually was the inventor of French Fries. So you could blame him for the horrible health conditions in the United States. He was on a trip to France because he enjoyed their culinary arts, and learned how the French cook their foods. They use a pan to fry items in oil. But the way that they cut their potatoes is what they call frenching it. So it actually refers to the way they prepare them. Now you have more useless knowledge to fill up some of that much needed brain space of yours. This is from what I’ve heard on The Learning Channel way back in the day when I watched a lot of television. See, you can learn something from TV.

Anyways, back to my life. After the 8th grade class finished, we had lunch. The 5th period 8th grade class was cancelled because there weren’t any afternoon classes. The school needed to prepare the classrooms for the next weeks’ entrance exams by prospective students. So it was a pretty chill day. I took my time to leave and studied Japanese a bit, and learned something pretty interesting that I tried with the history teacher behind me. It helped me with particles more, even though it was a bit more confusing, some how it just made sense to me. I left work earlier than usual; it was actually the first time all month that I had the chance to go home before 5pm. I took my time to go home, and bought some stuff at the grocery store before I actually arrived home. That way I would have food for the next few days. I opted to get a healthier meal for the next few days. I was planning to watch another movie, but got so interested in researching for a shorter way to learn Japanese, and I think I’ve found it. Something that at least will work for me, but I won’t share until I actually learn it. But I think it’s much faster than the way that I’ve been doing it. I practically spent the whole night researching it till I fell asleep.