A short day
Today, the classes are only 40 minutes long and we have no afternoon classes because of preparations for the Sports Festival. It would give the students and teachers enough time to prepare the school for a presentation to all the parents and such.
The first class today was the 11th grade Ran. We started on something that will get them ready for their Oral test coming up in November. Even though that sounds very far away, it really isn’t. I have to get the students ready in about 4 hours of class time to prepare a speech all in English with them composing most of it without the help of many guides. Everything is a bit rushed with them because they have fewer classes than the other 11th grade classes, but that’s not even the worst part about it. They need a lot more time to be able to prepare for the speeches, but I just can’t give it to them. We started on naming some of their favorite movies before, but some of the students had forgotten their papers and had to start over. When that happens, they take a very long time to re-write and think about what their favorite movie is. I know that some are working hard and some aren’t working at all. That gets a bit annoying because we need to get everyone to be on the same page with everyone else. I think that we’ve got to push them to work a little faster to be able to get more accomplished. I tried to get them to finish up splitting up their favorite movie into three parts. I don’t think that I made a good enough connection with what we are doing with the other things that it could be tied with. So I’ve got to start making better connections so they could get a better grasp on things.
The second period, I had a break, which is really nice to have in the middle of the day. It would have been better to have it later in the day, but a break is a break, so I’m happy nonetheless. I didn’t really do much since I just sat at my desk and ate my breakfast. I thought that I would be recording something for my 11th grade listening comprehension test, but we haven’t finished getting everything prepared, so that would have to be at another time.
The third period class today was with the 7th grade Ran. The activity that we did today was the September September chant and we did a little bit with other sports as well. At first we didn’t have any of the copies that we needed for the class, so we were running around to get copies ready for the class. That didn’t take too long, but it would have been better to have it all ready and prepared before the class started. The other teacher had made a mistake and mixed up some of the classes that we would be teaching today, so she had all the materials for a class that she doesn’t teacher or even lead. We started the class with the topic of family, like we did with the other 7th grade classes. Then we moved onto the topic of the September September chant. They were able to pick it up pretty quick. They weren’t as sharp as the other students, but that’s only because they are in the first year of learning English. But I thought that they had done a great job with having a little experience in English. We ended the class with a lesson on sports. We talked about the different sports that there are and which ones that they liked. I’m not sure if they fully understood, but they were able to understand most of it. They got some translation for some of the more difficult English words.
The last class of the day was with one of the toughest classes to teach at the school. It was with the 9th grade Ran class. They are tough because they just don’t pay attention and don’t really care about what’s going on. They aren’t very interested in the lessons that we prepare, but then I heard that English isn’t the only subject that they don’t like. There are others as well. I think that their English level is good, but only if they really decided to apply themselves. I would think that they would even rival the best classes in high school even. Some of their English sounds like they have lived in a country where English is the native language. They could understand the comprehension part of the textbook very easily that it’s almost a joke for them. I think that we have to find a way to get them more interested in English through a medium that would apply to them best. It was something that involved a little more movement rather than just to sit and listen. I know that I never liked those kinds of classes and I think that this class might be the same thing. CP thinks that a majority of them have ADD and just lack the ability to focus on something. But I think they are just bored and would like something that is challenging them in English. I think they would prefer something that is more active too. We’ll have to come up with a new plan on how to teach this class later. I heard that they really get involved with the English dramas and plays and they love to act, so I think that next month when we are practicing for that, they would be able to focus more and be more attentive.
After this class, I just sat around the office with nothing much to do. Since there is a laptop computer stationed next to my desk, I just decided to type in these entries while everyone else had something to do. I’m not sure what I would have to do today, but I don’t know how long I’d stick around either. So I might even leave school early since I will have to come to school tomorrow too. I just stayed at school till around 4:30pm and decided that I had wasted enough time and would go home. I would have wanted to do something, that’s why I stayed so late, but I just got too bored and the office was getting too hot for me. I mean it was a cool day today, but the office just gets too hot. The students were doing all the preparation work for the festival, so I really couldn’t do anything because I would probably mess it up and they would have to fix it, so it would be better just to have to them do it right the first time. I asked some of my students if I was a good teacher or not and they thought that I was. So I was happy about that. I need to teach them English better, and I only have a little more time to do that, but I’m working on it. I’ve got some ideas that will change the way they think and I think that’s what will make the difference for them.
I came home early so I decided to cook myself some dinner. I wanted to get away from rice since I’ve been eating a lot of rice recently. I just had dinner with bread and some stuff tonight. I was happy that it actually tasted pretty good, that’s always a good thing. I watched another episode of Everyone loves Raymond. It was pretty good.
