Five on Friday

I have five classes today and for me the day started really early. I’ve been falling asleep much faster lately and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m tired or if I’m finally back on a more normal sleeping schedule. But this morning, I woke up at 4am and then went back to sleep until my alarm woke me up at 5:30am. It’s actually not that bad anymore getting up so early only because I’ve worked on getting up at that time. It’s also getting cold at night too. That’s something that I’m looking forward to, but I’m also a bit afraid of it too. I know that when it’s cold, it will be very cold.

It was a bit weird going to school and I was surrounded by students everywhere. I’m not very outgoing, when I meet students outside of school, but I should be and I know it. I just feel a little awkward, but I don’t know why. I mean they were two of my 11th grade students that said hi to me today on the train. They are nice and they have improved a lot since I started teaching them last year. Anyways, I arrived to school a little late, but a little early too. I mean, I wanted to get to school before the teachers’ meeting in the morning, but I didn’t make it on time, but I did come early enough for the morning assembly out on the field today. So they were getting ready for the sports festival at the school by doing some drills and their warm-up routine. I’m not sure if I’ve made a comment about that before, but I’ll make one now. When I first started working at this school last year, I was shocked that everyone knew the warm-up routine, and I think it’s because they’ve all grown up to it. There must be a famous person who started it, but EVERYONE in this country knows the routine, well except for me. Even though I’ve done it a lot of times, I still haven’t been able to remember it, and I just have to follow the person in front of me.

Class started late because of it. But I wasn’t prepared like I usually am. Since it was Friday and this class has the fewest number all semester long, I had to readjust the schedule to fit it accordingly. But I didn’t have any of the handouts ready like I usually do. So, after the class started, I started scrambling to get all my stuff together. This is where a partner teacher comes in handy. CP took over at the beginning while I and other teacher were making copies of the handout that they needed. I felt a little embarrassed since I’m usually on the ball with these things, that I don’t know how I suddenly fell behind on it. I ended up going to class 13 minutes late. But the class paced very well and it was actually very fun to teach. They are a high level class and a fun class too. I’m sad that I only teach them 12 times this semester while the other classes get 16. But I think everything happens for a reason.

The second period was my period off, and then the third period was 7th grade Ran. We did more family member paperwork and the students had to make hints to tell another student and they had to guess it. I think it was a bit too difficult for them, but then again, they were able to do it. So that was good and it seemed pretty fun for them. So the results were pretty good and the class was fun I think. Some students struggled with it, but that’s usual in all classes.

The fourth period class was a mix up. It was supposed to be 10th grade yuri, but it turns out that there wasn’t a schedule change and it was 9th grade ran. There was a mix up on the schedule change and that the schedule didn’t change, but it was marked on my sheet that it did. So we spent about 10 minutes figuring out what we needed to do and where we needed to go, and again we were all late. It was weird because that was like 4 teachers being late for class. The 9th graders are just so unorthodox. It’s almost to the point where it isn’t worth helping out. I’m not very motivated to teach this class, which is why I’m glad that I’m not leading this class. If I were, I think I’d be yelling a lot and probably wouldn’t be me. They need a new homeroom teacher that will be able to yell and get them back on track. It seems like the 9th grade has the most problem students and the students with the most attitude towards others and themselves. It’s a tough group of students to teach, but I guess that’s all part of growing up.

Lunch was ok, but it seems lately that after lunch, I feel a bit weird. Like I feel sick and I’m not sure exactly why either. I guess I might not be getting enough nutrients in the food that I eat, so I’ve got to mix it up a bit so I get enough vitamins and all that good stuff.

Then it was the 10th grade Yuri class. I really like this class because I had a chance to get a long with them last year, when they were in 9th grade. This class is also very spunky, and I like teaching spunky kids because they add a unique touch to the class. Today we were just doing a little paperwork and a little presentation of summer vacation. The paperwork was a little game that they worked on to focus on past tenses. They were pretty good compared to the other 10th grade class that I teach on Wednesday. They were getting really involved with it, so I’m happy to report that. The problem with the class that I had today was that at the end of the class, CP took over and kinda led them at the end. I think that she forgot that it was my class and that I was teaching. So it was a bit weird for me. The Japanese English teacher is one of my good friends and I think that she knew that I didn’t appreciate it, and I think she didn’t either. But it was at the end of the class, so it wasn’t a big deal, but still, my class is my class.

The last class of the day was with another 7th grade class Fuji. I’m supposed to be leading this class as we agreed to that at the beginning of the year, but I elected not to lead any 7th grade classes since I would be leading all the 11th grade classes. I didn’t think it would be fair, so I just sit back and help in this class. The students are probably the lowest level of the 7th grade, but they are a loud group. Of all the 7th grade classes, this class acts the most 7th grade. Like during the class they were trying to bug me. They would grab me by the arm if they needed help on something. They would yell “teacher teacher” at every question. I would have to stand next to them the whole time to help them through making all the hints and things like that. It wasn’t annoying, but it would have been nice for them to be able to do it on their own too. But that’s why I’m a teacher, to teach them to be able to do it on their own right?

I didn’t have anything after school that I wanted to do, but I didn’t want to go home too early because it was a bit hot. So I wanted to wait till it got much cooler before I would start to head home. I got dragged into cleaning up a room for the open school this weekend. And after that, I was making something for the tennis club. It was statistics sheet so I could keep track of errors as well as good points. I did a version in English and then another version in Japanese. It would be for the students so they could track their progress and for them to realize what they would need to work on as the weeks go on. I mean if they make one mistake one time, that’s fine, but if there is a problem that is consistent then we will have to alter their practices to be able to fix that. I mean that’s what practices are for.

I ended up staying very late after school. After I finished the sheet, I went downstairs to watch them practice. Their practices don’t finish till 6pm, but since tomorrow is an open school, we had to do all the cleaning to prepare for the next day. That lasted for about an hour since the other students in the other clubs left early. So 6pm soon turned into 7pm and I was still stuck at school. We had a club meeting around 7:15pm and then the coach told me some news. One of the girls on the tennis team would be transferring schools tomorrow. I thought that was kind of abrupt and much unexpected. The reasons are unknown, but she seemed like a good person. I mean she wasn’t the best student or anything, but I’m sad that she chose to runaway instead of stay and finish school here. Soon after the meeting I left school.