Night of big news and English Fun

Today was quite an interesting day. From beginning to end, it was non-stop interesting. For the English Fun Faire, there are many native English speakers at the school. All of which were friends of CP. They were all paid a bit of money to participate, which would probably equivalent to about $40-50 an hour. It’s really a lot for not doing much of anything and not even having prior experience in teaching too. But I think that it was all done well. I mean the program ran well, but it seemed to me to be a bit unorganized. I mean it was organized, but it didn’t feel that way. I know it sounds strange, but it did go well, and that was the most important part. So I was grouped with the 7th graders and we were playing games in the gym first and then we went to a classroom. There were two other native speakers with me and they were working with their groups too. I think that they enjoyed their time, and since these students knew me, they took the opportunity to ask me some tough questions. Like whether I loved the other teachers or not, or if I have a girlfriend and things of that nature. They were doing it for fun, and I’m not sure why 7th graders are interested in knowing that anyways. I mean for the high schoolers that would be common, which it was when I was first introduced at the school.

There were like 50 different native speakers from all over the world, meaning from the U.S. and then Australia, Canada, New Zealand, England, and all over the place. I must admit that CP does have a nice niche of friends from all walks of life. Each was broken up into 3 groups, one for each grade level that was going to participate. It was only the Junior high school that was getting involved in this. I had some mixed reviews of from the participants, but I think they were setting their standards quite high for people who were learning a foreign language and are only in their first years of learning it. But I think the students overall did a wonderful job, and much better than I expected. Only one of the participants didn’t show up, so I had to fill in for him. But that was fine. I really got closer with the other English teachers at the school since they were the only ones at the school working on this project. We did everything on our own for it. So afterwards, I just hung around and did some Japanese coursework and to study from the Genki workbook. I was surprised to know that some of the Japanese language teachers didn’t know some of the rules that we had learned in the Japanese classes at Grossmont. I was asking some of them about it when we were walking to the Italian restaurant named Biffi that was underground and very near to the train station. The food was pretty good, small but surprisingly enough for me. It was possibly because I wasn’t that hungry though.

I learned that 3 teachers will be leaving, and it’s sad for me. It’s the two teachers that sit right in front of me and ones that I have close relationships with. They are the ones that I have conversations with all the time, and I could tell that it was tearing one of them apart. During dinner she had the look of melancholy. The third individual was cheery and glad to be leaving after being at the school for four years. Its ok, I don’t think that she will be missed by much of the staff because she wasn’t one of the most cooperative individuals at the school. But I have nothing against her because she’s actually helped me a lot in my classes. Not the most friendliest of people, but able to get her shit done, which I liked and appreciated. She’s opened up to me a little now and has started to talk to me more, but it’s a shame that it will only be for another month, and then she’ll be gone. Actually I only have one more oral communication class with her. And it will be this Tuesday. I don’t think that I even have any classes in March to teach. I have only a limited amount of responsibilities in March. Like the graduation ceremony on the first, and speech contest on the twelfth. I was told by my department chair that I do have classes in March, but she couldn’t specify which classes I have. At least not yet.

Afterwards, I had some tea with another teacher. The 10th grade department chair in fact. I would consider the person I have the best relationship at the school and one of the reasons that I’m working there in the first place. It was a great conversation that I haven’t had in a long time. It was really something that I have missed. Her English is almost perfect, and it’s great to have a conversation with her. She’s also one of the smartest people that I’ve known. She catches on pretty quick, and I mean really quick. She was starting to scare the hell out of me in fact. I’m also happy that I was invited to her wedding next week. I think that will be fun for me to attend. I think that it will be a wonderful ceremony and that she’s got some challenges in front of her. But I wish her the best of luck, she told me that only the best teachers get the hardest classes, so that would mean she’s an incredible teacher.