A good day

I started off the day quite well. Even though I wasn’t able to get enough sleep, I still felt pretty good. I was able to get a few more minutes of sleep in the train going to work, so I’m happy about that.

My first 11th grade class was good too. I like teaching because of the energy that I get while I’m up in front teaching. I’m not used to teaching this class very well. I’ve had problems with them last year too. Not that they are bad students, but they are usually the first class I have to teach in the rotation and the introduction of lessons, so it’s always a little rough when I start something with them. But today was different since they aren’t the first in the rotation anymore. So I was able to get a lot more accomplished with them too. I think that they are really starting to learn and that they are getting to the point where they will be successful in my class. I like that very much and I think that they will need to get to a higher level and to another stage in the next semester.

The second class today was much easier for me since I didn’t have to do anything really. It was an 8th grade class that we were teaching. The lesson was getting them ready for their speeches by finishing up the chapters in the book. We were trying to get them going in a hurry and just sped through the chapters and the lesson. We wanted to give them an idea of what they would be expecting to do for their first oral exam. We got started with their show and tell speeches and had them writing a little bit.

The third class was fun since it was a10th grade class that I’ve never taught before. Because of a schedule change, I was going to be in the class, but not really doing much. They had to give their introductory speeches today. So it was another chill day. The test was really fast, there was still 15 minutes left after all the testing was finished. That’s really amazing and I’ve never had that before. So we started on the next section for them. They are the highest level 10th grade class, at least that’s what I believe. They did really great on their speeches and most of them can speak very well.

Fourth period I had off, so I didn’t have to worry about it too much. But there were juku teachers at our school that were going to see what we were all about. These are the people who introduce our school to the students that they teach at. It’s important for them to see what we do and how our school runs so we will be able to recruit more students.

Then 5th and 6th periods were with the 9th grade. Since we finished off the chapter of taking the subway last week, we were going to get them started with preparations for their final exam. They would have to give an oral exam, plus a listening exercise on directions. It might be difficult for some of them to do, but if we start now, they will be able to do it. So that’s what we did, we started a bit of review for them.