An easy day at work

I only have four classes, which makes it easy and not at the same time. I occasionally like to start the day with me teaching, but I think that it would be easier if I didn’t have to start teaching. I’m not sure if it really makes a difference if I do or not, but I think that if I do teach first, I have the energy to make it through the class.

The first class was with 11^th yuri and we had the oral exam today. They had to give their speeches on where they wanted to go on their vacation. We’ve been working on this project for the past few weeks. This is the largest class that I teach, and probably in the school with 39 students. We usually never finish on time and have to start before class actually begins and finish after their break time is over. But today, there was something different going on. They had to give their presentations in pairs, so I think that made it go much faster, but I also think that they did a good job of memorizing because we finished in about 30 minutes. There was an extra 20 minutes that I didn’t really know what to do. They were phenomenally good. Everyone received very high scores and probably the highest I’ve given. I probably should have actually given more than what I did. I think they really enjoyed the topic and all I have left is fun and games before the year ends and all they do is study to get into a good university.

The second class was with 8^th grade yuri. They too were working on their speeches, but for the speech contest in March. They worked on their introduction and conclusion and adding that to their speech, which most students already have memorized. This is an excellent class so it didn’t surprise me that most of them have it all memorized already. Most of them will go in the fourth section which is usually reserved for the advanced students with the most likely chance of winning the big prize. Most students don’t like to do this class because it involves them rewriting their entire speech after they have already memorized most of it and it changes a few things. I think that it should actually go earlier in the writing process or something.

The third class was with 10^th grade fuji and the topic was once again environment. We reviewed from last time and went over the vocabulary with everyone. After we did that, we did an activity in groups with cards where they had to decide if one thing was good or bad for the environment. Then we arranged the cards to separate categories if it was good or bad. Then we played a little puzzle arranging things that are bad or good and made a little picture out of it. And then we did more worksheets. It was a bit crazy since we were doing a lot of things at once and it just kept going and going with different things and many things to prepare. It looked unorganized mainly because it was unorganized. I think the students enjoyed it, but it was a bit too easy for them to do. That was the thing that I didn’t like about it because I think that it will also be very easy for the Friday class that I teach.

During 4^th and 5^th periods, since I have a break in classes, I was studying Japanese and talking to another teacher about some things that I was working on. I really should study Keigo, which is the formal Japanese. I did a little studying though since it was so hot in the office that I was about to fall asleep on my desk. I also found out that we couldn’t do anything with the memory stick because of the wrong format, but I knew that the other teacher was wrong and that there was something to be done. So I managed to get the memory stick back and I would work on it at home.

Sixth period rolled around and then I taught 9^th grade fuji. I’m surprised that I didn’t switch teaching classes with kiku because of the order; we did that before with 10^th grade. I’m glad that I have the opportunity to teach them though. They are a bit on the loud and annoying side but they have the ability and I can teach them. They are a bit chatty, that’s what makes it annoying. But if I were them, I would be chatty too. The topic really isn’t that interesting and the way that it is taught is boring too. If there was something I could do about it, I would, but the organization of how it is taught isn’t very clear cut and it doesn’t flow well. We did the topic on restaurant and food today and I had to introduce a few things and then we worked on ordering at a restaurant with a simple dialogue, I know that it’s not amusing them because they really aren’t into it. I’d like to do something about it…but what??

I stayed after school for a little bit and talked with some teachers, just because I didn’t have anything to do and was just talking to teachers because they are fun to talk to. I enjoy talking to them, which is very nice. I left and went to the grocery store to buy dinner for tonight and for tomorrow too.

I worked on the memory stick restoration and I was successful, so that was good. I had missed a few calls from a co-worker, I’m a bit bummed about that to be honest with you.