Mondays
I had to get up freakin early again today. Wake up call was at 5:30am, but I didn't roll out of bed till around 6:30am, which is usually the time I leave my house. So that meant I had to take the Tokaido line from Totsuka station to Yokohama station. It's a faster, more crowded train. Which meant I had to take the bus too. It wasn't that bad today, but I should have left earlier than 6:30am. Usually if I have a first period I have to get there early enough for the teacher's meeting at 8:20am, and go to the morning assembly at 8:30am before my first period class at 8:50am. But if I don't have a first period class, I can get to school around 9:30am for a 9:50am class. That's an hour and a half later. But this week is an off week because CP is in Australia for her sister's wedding.
Tomorrow will be my last day for first period, but it happens to be the first time that I have to teach 6 classes and advise my English Club. So it will be a long day for me, to say the least.
Today started off pretty good. I felt as if I did a fairly good job with the 11th grade class. I like teaching the 11th grade as I've recently found out, just too bad it's first period classes. They have a higher ability and are more able to talk out loud and even try to speak English. So went over the movie review section of their final oral report of the semester. It was pretty fun too, and I like this 11th grade class the best. They have a warm energy to them and they actually understand my off the wall jokes.
The next period was actually a mix up. I had thought that I would be teaching 2nd period, but it turns out that they had made a switch in the scheduling and neglected to tell me about it. Although today, it worked to my benefit because I hadn't prepared the lesson for the 3rd period class. So I had about another hour to do so. I was making a game for sentence forming. I had another teacher grab some sentences from the entrance exam that they are studying so diligently for and then cut up the words of each sentence and put them in an envelope. I had about 30 sentences and broke the girls into groups of 3 with one group of 4. So each group would see about 10 sentences that they haven't seen before.
They really enjoyed it. I mean I had them form the sentence at their table with their group, then write it on the board and then speak it out, but the catch was that they had to memorize the sentence at their desk and write it from memory and then speak it from memory. It was interesting to see, and it even spilled over into 4th period. Since I teach them for 2 periods straight, I just continued on with the game. They went at it for a whole 2 hours and did about 13 sentences each group. There was a tie at the end and I had the winner be decided by Rock, Paper, Scissors. The winner was a group that was doing well with the sentences anyways and was leading the whole time till the very end. I think that class went well and that I like teaching the seniors. Of course there was only 10 of them, so that makes it incredibly easier.
The 8th graders were a nightmare. I never had control of the class and it was the complete opposite of what I had imagined. It was just horrible. Smacked reality back in my face that I'm only a first year teacher and one that most the students don't understand and don't want to understand. I never wanted to work with Junior High school students, but hey, what can I do about it? I've got to make the best with what I have. So I guess, I've got to develop something to be able to connect with them and to get them to listen and learn. It's a great challenge to be a teacher.
From 6th period, there was a special guest who survived the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb. He was 70 something years old and was telling about his story. Of course it was all in Japanese, and I didn't understand much. I learned some new things from the teacher that was sitting next to me so that was good. It was fortunate for me.
After that, I was just preparing my lessons for Tuesday. I had totally rearranged my plans for the 10th grade. I decided that I fucked up with the original plan and that I needed to fix it before it got out of hand. Actually I don't think it would be that bad, but I think I made an improvement to the lesson plans and something more tangible for the students to be able to pull off a debate for the 10th grade teachers. One of them is behind me all the way, no matter what I do. The other is probably the opposite and the other is somewhere in the middle. I've got some challenges in front of me with teacher politics.
Another thing I want to mention is that I've been hearing my name tossed up in casual conversation all day today. I'm not sure whether to be worried or to be happy or to be pissed off. I just don't know since it's all in Japanese and I don't understand all of what is being said. I mean no one would tell me what's going on and I've just got to get better at Japanese to understand. So I'm not sure what is going on. I need to get to the bottom of it, and I know not to let it get to me. Since this is very common and something that I expected even before coming to Japan. I think it's a sign to push me to learn Japanese. I mean if I could understand I could improve on the things they say are bad, or keep on doing the things that they feel are good.
English club was more of a joke today. It lasted a whole 15 minutes. Since the assembly ran late, the club started late and the students needed to leave early to study at Juku or cram school. It's that time of the year, where they are constantly cramming for English material and Math. They probably need every ounce of it too, but what can I do about it. So I expect that attendance will be low for the rest of the year and that things won't get too exciting that is if they show up at all.
Song of the Moment - Vanessa Carlton - Ordinary Day
