Another full day
So today I have to teach 6 classes, that’s a full day of teaching. I woke up before my alarm again. I’m not sure why that is happening a lot lately, but it wasn’t because of the heat either, it was just because I woke up earlier. But then I fell right back to sleep. I guess I was really tired because I didn’t get up again till it was around 6:30am. Somehow I was able to get ready really quick and get out the door. I got to the train station really quick too. I arrived at school about 10 minutes later than I would have normally, but since there wasn’t any assembly or anything today, it was no big deal. I ran into two teachers on my way to work. There seems to be one teacher that I’m running into each week on Tuesday and we talk on the train for a little bit too. She speaks a little English and I guess she wants to practice since that’s what it seems that she’s doing.
The morning started off with me teaching 3 classes of the 8th grade. That’s really really tough. They are the loudest and just craziest group of kids that are at the school. Even more so than the 7th graders, and that’s because the 7th graders are still new to the school and haven’t gotten into the bad habits like the 8th graders have. It’s really bad since each one of the classes is on each different level. So it wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be to deal with the noise. Although working with my partner each time was good. Both of them were able to jump in when I needed them to and they made a difference in the way the class was run. We did a few different chapters even though they were all supposed to be on the same page and have to get ready for the show & tell speech that’s coming up for their final. I don’t think that they are really ready for it, but we’ll see how that turns out.
The next class was with the 7th graders. My partner in this case was actually the English department chair, and I wanted to make a good impression since I don’t normally get a chance to teach with her so I mixed things up a little bit. I was still on a high that I’ve been teaching on my own today and I wasn’t really nervous at all. I really felt comfortable teaching, and I’d have to say that’s the first time all year that I could say that. So they were in their last practice for the Recitation contest which will be this Saturday. I can’t wait to actually start something more meaningful than memorizing lines to a passage. I think it’s good, and it helps them to get introduced to a language, but we’ve been doing it for a long time now and it doesn’t seem as if we have done anything else. So I’d like to kick it up a notch. I focused on adding more energy and pizzazz to their presentation. I think the other class was a little better, but that could be because I was just tired as hell too. I hadn’t eaten too much today and running really low on energy.
After lunch was another big task because I would move into teaching the High School kids. The first being the loud and proud 11th grade Fuji. They are loud and always in their own world. They are fun to teach though. I didn’t realize that they were a week behind on the schedule because we’ve had so many days off because of finals week. I had to review a part that I did in the other classes ages ago, and since they are the lowest level in the grade, I wanted to give them a good chance to catch up. It turns out that they were able to do the assignment and quite easily. Not sure if it was the explanation or if they just understood what they needed to do. So I think that next week, they will be able to finish up their paper test and turn it in to me so I could get it back to them at least a week before the test. I want them to have a lot of time to study and do their best. I don’t think that it will be too hard for them, but we’ll see how things go later.
The last class of today is one that I’ve never taught before. Most of the students and even my partner have never seen me teach before, so it was a treat for them and for me. I think this is a fun class, and it was weird for the students because both teachers in the class were male. That’s very odd and very rare at our school since there are only 10 male teachers and we aren’t usually paired up together. I think the class was fun and that they enjoyed it and learned a lot too. They understood my English pretty well and were even able to joke around. I didn’t want to be too strict since I was only a substitute teacher and I really didn’t know what I was doing or what CP wanted me to do. Anyways, I did what we did with the other 10th grade class from last week. It was great and I really felt good afterwards. I think that I could finally say that I’m actually teaching and being a real teacher.
After school I cleaned up my desk a little bit and did some organizing. I stayed till around 6pm and then walked to the station with another teacher. We had talked about how most of the teachers in my office seem so tired and just incredibly busy. It’s true that it’s like I’m working in a room with walking zombies. It’s really tough for them, and I mean it’s tough for me too and I’m only working there part-time. Other teachers don’t leave till around 9-10:30pm. That’s really late since they get started around 8am. It’s tough for them and for all of us to get all the things that we need finished. I think that I will begin to take more time off and when I finish to leave and enjoy more of my time meeting other people and enjoying my time while I’m in Japan. I think that’s important part of being here.
