all downhill
Today started out very well. In fact I thought that things were pretty good to start with. I was at school early enough to get all my papers finished and get ready for the classes of the day. I mean things were going pretty well with no trouble in sight really.
The first class I had today was with the 11th grade kiku class and it was only about getting ready for their presentation next week. I needed to give them a little break because they had less time than everyone else did. They only have a week when everyone else has had more. I went through the preparation routine with telling them what’s on the test and going over how I will grade them. I spell it out very clearly and make sure that all of them are aware of the things that I expect from them. I know that it’s almost as if I’m walking them through it holding their hand, but I’m not really. I’m going to grade a bit harder since I gave them practice on their listening comprehension part and on the speaking part. They have had a long time to prepare for it with the previous weeks leading up to the speech, so I’m going to be a bit strict and I want them to know that. I did give them a break today by letting them practice their speech with the paper in front of them.
The second class today was with 7th grade ran. They were pretty good today, but I made a big mistake by saying that I didn’t like to study English. I don’t know why I said that and I can’t believe that I said that. It was a blunder and I’m not sure how that happened. It might have been a slip up or something, but I probably didn’t hear the question correctly and not thinking straight. That was weird and it pretty much changed the momentum of the day. We played a game asking what your hobbies are, but I was confused with the instructions as they were not given very clearly by the instructor. That might have contributed, but still I have no excuse to say that. But whatever, after that I didn’t say much and didn’t really care much after wards either. There have been a lot of things on my mind recently and I think that it’s been bothering me since I got to school.
The third class today was by far the worst I’ve had to deal with at this school or ever for that matter. It was with 9th grade ran. They just didn’t have the right attitude and was just plain rude. They didn’t care about anything and acted as if we didn’t exist. The teacher asked some students to leave, but they didn’t. We had them write and present, although most didn’t start until after the class period had expired and was given during the lunch period. We wanted to get them ready for the English fun fair and to get them ready with the language with what they want to do for the future. Most replied that they didn’t have a plan for the future. That begs the question, but I’m not going to answer that. It was just horrible and the problems started in the first 10 minutes that’s why it lasted for a long time. It felt like an eternity too and it was just bad. I’m not sure what we will do with this class because they will never get with it and it just won’t happen for them.
Lunch was nasty today too. I didn’t want to finish it. I had gotten a gyoza bento, but it wasn’t very good. It looked good and everyone was amazed to see it, but the taste just didn’t fit well. IT was just gross and I felt sick for the rest of the day because of it.
The 5th period class was with the 10th grade yuri class. I only received the lesson plans during lunch time so I didn’t really know exactly what I needed to do and just kind of winged it. My partner kept on telling me what to do during the class that got me sidetracked as I was teaching. It was a bit more annoying today because I didn’t feel well to begin with and the topic wasn’t very interesting. I’m not sure where the topic is going and how it’s going to be tested on. I really don’t know because there is no plan and I know that they won’t be ready for when I teach them next year. I think that I’ll push it so that I continue to teach the 11th grade next year. But since the schedule changed so many times this year, I think that it’s hard to plan, but then to not plan is even worse. I think that we’ve gotten off of track and I think that we’ve got to work on it a little bit more. We covered the topic of weather, which will be the topic of their test. We did some things that were not in their textbook and actually from another textbook for the 12th graders last year. We’ve got to push some things together or things like that will be wasted. We’ve got some things to iron out for next year.
The last class of the day was with the 7th grade fuji. They are a true 7th grade class and show signs that they are young; which really means that they are loud most of the time. We played the game again today, but we asked different questions and I understood it so I could explain things better when students asked me, but I think that the idea that I had was different from the one that the other teacher had. I heard her telling students something different, but I’m not sure who is confused. It’s a good idea, but really wasn’t executed very well. I don’t like the hypocritical sentences that I’m always hearing. The double standard doesn’t work well with me. I’m not a subordinate, but I pretend to be to keep the peace. I know that there are things that need to be improved, but I think that when she’s gone, it will get much better. I think that it would be nice of me to not do things that will rock the boat too much since it’s her last semester and only for a few more months. I don’t think it really affects the students, but if it did, I would do something. I was really relieved that all the classes had finished today and couldn’t wait till things just got better.
After school things did get better. I just sat and relaxed for a little bit because it was the first time after school that we didn’t have English club. I didn’t have much to do other than to prepare for tomorrow’s lesson. I graded some students’ papers and finished grading the listening test papers too. I was planning to leave school around 5pm today, but didn’t end up leaving till around 6pm. It was much later than I thought, but I needed to wait for another teacher to ask for something for tomorrow’s class.
On the way home, I stopped by Yokohama SOGO to find a travel book on Taiwan. I haven’t been able to find one in English and learned that they only have one in English. It’s the one from lonely planet and it was the one that I saw the other day. It was $40 then, but the computer print out says I could find one for half the price. I checked online when I got home and on Amazaon.jp it was cheaper than that. But I don’t use my credit cards online anymore, so I’ll have to find a way to get it somehow.
I had dinner at a Yokohama Curry restaurant in the station. I was surprised that I didn’t see it before, but it was nice and it was enough to get me home. I got hamburg curry, which was good and now I’ll probably have a new place to go get food and it’s good to put more restaurants on my list.
At home, I read up on some news and found out that Yahoo has a new mapping program, it’s pretty cool. But it’s just with maps and not of 3D aerial views like Google or MSN. I checked out Google Print too, but it’s just ok. It’s nothing really impressive until they could get full texts online. That would be much better than what all the companies are currently offering or going to offer. Windows Live needs to get caught up with the rest of the world and they need to start to release things sooner. I think that the new hotmail will be pretty good, but they need to get that one going. I mean moving up to 2 gigabytes is a start, but I think that all the e-mail services from the big three will look remarkably the same. I’m a bit annoyed with my Spymac too. I’d like to have that one all set up so I could start to upload my homepage information and get some things updated.
When I checked my mail today though, I was happy that I had received a letter with a picture from one of the students that graduated last year. She was happy that I remembered her name and was glad that I taught her. She spelt my name wrong, but that’s ok. I was happy to get the letter and picture and it was a nice way to end the day.
