UC application deadline

I was tired all day today. It was hard to get through work. I was falling asleep in some of the classes that I wasn’t teaching in and really used up all my energy just to get out and go home. I was beat and I’m not sure why I was so tired either. I woke up late today, again and managed to get to school on time before first period and actually early enough to meet another teacher on the train.

First period with 11th grade yuri was pretty good. They could understand the assignment because I explained it better, I think and most of them were able to do it with ease. So they had a lot of time left over to talk and look through the brochures. I wanted to give them some time to absorb it and it wasn’t really speech intensive like my usual assignments are. I just wanted them to learn a little bit about the world and to have fun with it. English should be fun and I think that I’m so focused on preparing them for the test that they aren’t able to enjoy it at the same time.

Second period with 8th grade Yuri was at the gym today. We had the gym all to ourselves so it was quiet except for us performing the Blue Bird. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with it or not, but it’s a weird drama. At first I couldn’t understand what was going on, but after seeing it so many times, I’ve started to work out the rough details of it and understand it better. They did a pretty good job with it and they need to work on their expressions more. That was the main thing about this class that needed work. Their English level is pretty high, but some of them don’t seem to be too interested in it and don’t really add that extra little flavor that makes it wonderful.

Third period was with 10th grade Fuji. They had their weather test today and did a horrible job. They all bombed on the test and didn’t do well at all. Many made too many mistakes and gave only one word answers. I didn’t really know how to grade them and it seemed as if my scores were inflated, which later I had the Japanese English teacher re-grade them by knocking off a point for each of them. I don’t think that they were prepared enough to take the exam in the first place. There really wasn’t anything to go with and I personally think that it’s kind of hard, even for me to take since I didn’t know what to expect going in. That’s when being all scattered brained really takes it toll and it’s not on the teachers, but more so on the students who suffer with bad grades because of the teacher’s inability to teach them what is necessary for the test.

Fourth period is my off period and I used it to type up my personal statement for my UC application. It was due today and I just wanted to add the finishing touches to it before I sent it off. I wanted to use the LL and it appeared to be empty, so I took the key and went up there. I only found a ton of students waiting outside because no one had the key. It turns out that they needed to room and had a class in there. The teacher was a PE teacher and they were just going to use the computers too so she said it was ok for me to be in the room and work on the computer too since they were. Usually I wouldn’t but because this needed to be done today and it was important, I decided to join in the class. It was 11th grade kiku, so it was ok with them. It turned out that they needed my assistance with the computers and since I’m one of the few teachers at the school that could help them with the computers, it was lucky that I was there. Most of the students didn’t know how to use the school computers because of the logon and passwords and there were some problems with the wireless internet. So I managed to fix all of them and helping about 13 groups with it. It made me look good in front of the students and the other teacher, so it was just about being at the right place at the right time. It was good.

Fifth period was with 9th grade kiku. We needed to get them ready for their test next week too. I think that for them, it will be difficult too. We will require them to do an interview with the teacher and act out as if they are a customer shopping at a store. They will need to identify what they want to buy and go through the process of trying it on and paying for it. We planned for next week to have them actually use real cash to pay for things, but I think that it will take too long. We went through the School trip book and covered the clothing items
Sixth period was much of the same thing as the last class. 9th grade fuji, but I went through it kind of fast because I was getting really tired and didn’t want to talk too much. I was beginning to lose my voice for a little bit too. They had a lot of time to practice and I had the students choose each other so it made it more interesting for them. I think they will do ok on the test; some students will do well while others won’t do so well. But that’s like every class.

I left school soon after that. I left with two other teachers, part-time teachers of course. Then I did some shopping at the grocery store before I went home. I needed to get some food before my day off since I don’t want to be starving tomorrow.

Then I came home and got settled, I was still a bit tired though. So I kept myself busy procrastinating. But later on, I finally got around to finishing up my UC personal statement and sent that stuff through. I’m not sure if it was good, but it’s what I have to say and I hope this time around the results will be different. I’ll have to wait another six months before I hear the results, but it’s ok, I’m not in any hurry. It will be good for me to know so I could plan out the next step for myself. I’m still planning to go back to the U.S. and live in San Francisco. I think that would be a cool place to live.

I downloaded BitTorrent today too. I’m going to see what the fuss is all about. I’ll let you know what I think about it later. I didn’t end up going to sleep till really late tonight. I was talking to a lot of people online and I’m surprised that they stayed up so late too. It was great to get talking to them because I haven’t talked to some of them for years.