A day before Golden Week

Today was the last day of work for me before it was Golden Week, which is a week in Japan that is called Golden because of many holidays in a row. Many families and people take a trip abroad or do something because there is about that a week that is all holidays in a row. I think that we as teachers were operating in vacation mode and getting ready for that to come. I had 5 classes today, which was a tough task to get through. I started off the day very strong and getting one of the best classes to start the day. I had to teach the 11th grade for the first period and they really did exceed my expectations. It was fun as I had promised some of the students and everyone was speaking English. It went like clockwork and I was happy with the results.

The 2nd class I had today was with the highest level 8th graders. They were pretty good too. The topic of the day was the Self-Introduction. Since we didn’t have a CD for them to listen to last week, we introduced it to them this week. We got up to the point in the textbook where they would write their own introduction speech substituting words in a script for their own real answers. I think that they added higher level content in their speeches, which really changed the dynamics of the speech. The hardest word that we had to deal with is the word introduction. It is a fairly hard word for 8th graders.

The 3rd period class today was more alive than they were last week. They were able to participate a lot more and weren’t asleep. We had talked about a more interesting topic than Free Time, but it could have been just because they were out of it. I’m not sure, but that’s what I believe. I think since they watch a good portion of TV and there are only a few main channels that everyone watches, it was fairly good. They were more opinionated and we were able to get them interested in the topic for their mid-term speech. I think that we needed to expand on it a little bit more, but it was a good start for them. The textbook hasn’t been used that often because it doesn’t help us with the way that we want the class to be structured. It breaks the rhythm that we have started teaching them up to the point we are now. They were at least interested and we have to think on our feet in this class.

I had 4th hour off, which was a nice break since I was getting really fatigued. It was pleasant just to sit at my desk and really just kick it and talk and even have lunch early. During the 5th hour, we started the topic of directions with the high level 9th grade. But I think we really affected them because they weren’t able to follow along as well as I would have imagined. It does go a bit fast, but they were introduced to new words and they came so fast that they just immediately got distracted and couldn’t follow along.

The same thing happened in the 6th hour too. The class that I was leading usually gets really into it, which they were today. I think they understood the material, but were getting distracted with the vocabulary words. I went slower than the other class, so I think they were able to pick it up better. We really broke it down, but my drawings didn’t help too much either. But overall, I think that the lesson went very well. They weren’t as energized as they were last week, but one of the students was missing who usually provides the energy. They really want to learn the material and I think that they are doing their best.

After school I was working on some things that I needed to finish before I went on my little vacation. There are things that are right after the vacation break that I will take another trip to Hakone with the 11th grade girls and then while I’m there, I will go to a facility near Mt. Fuji because the next day I will go on a hike there. And later that evening I’m in charge of the games that will be done in English. So I will need to be there to lead that. I think it will be fun and exciting since that activity will be done with the 9th graders.