Wednesday morning started out in an exceptionally awesome and totally unexpected way. I woke up feeling well-rested (unexpected, yes, but not what I`m talking about), got ready, and headed out the door at my usual time to walk to school (still hate biking). When I turned on the road that takes me through the rice fields, there was a lady a few metres ahead walking in the same direction with her poodle. I see people around here walking their dogs all the time. The dogs are invariably adorable, and if they`re walking towards me, I`m usually grinning stupidly at the fluffy creatures, which gets a smile and a greeting out of the owners (Japanese custom is normally not to speak to strangers, even just basic greetings). For some reason, though, this poodle turned around, stopped walking, and refused to continue until I had caught up to them. So I had a (stilted and slightly confusing) conversation with a random lady of the neighbourhood! I felt so local! Her daughter is apparently studying English somewhere near the mall, and I explained that I was an ALT at the high school. It was just so incredibly out-of-the-blue! Rizu (or Risu, or something like that. The dog, anyway) was just like, "No, Mom. Stop. We must speak with this person," or something. But it was great.
I thought I had class second period, like I normally do, but apparently there was a change in schedule for reasons I don`t know and I didn`t even find out that there was no class until I got to the language lab and no one showed up, so I spent all day at my desk working on something for my hospital class next week. I`m excited. The first part of my classes will be self-introduction (again. I think I`ve introduced myself to more people in the last two months than I have in the rest of my life put together), and then the teacher has some activity sheets, but she also wanted me to bring something Halloween-y. Having the steel trap memory that I do, I immediately recalled the Five Little Pumpkins rhyme. And drew pictures. Because reasons.
On Thursday my first year class had been cancelled (This one I knew about in advance; the teacher talked to me about it weeks ago) so that their JTE could make sure they had all the grammar they needed for the midterm next week. Third year class was their in-class midterm exam, and then handing out the envelopes for the mystery party at the end of the month.
Friday was Review Day with my first year classes for their exam. So we played a game of Tsunami (originally Typhoon, but I like Tsunami better, so we changed disasters). I had a list of words for the different point values, and then they had thirty seconds to use that word in a sentence (aka, find the sentence that uses that word in the textbook). After that we did the spelling race. They loved it! (Except my last class. They`re a little... well. They`ll only be my favourite class if I ever come to work with a giant headache and need absolute silence and blank stares.)
Things teachers at this school need to work on: communication. I was in my last class on Friday, and the teacher says to me, "So you know that we don`t have class with you next Friday?" Uh... no. No, I did not know that. But at least they`re telling me now, rather than when I go looking for them like what happened on Wednesday. And then she says, "And we have a meeting to discuss the lesson plans on Monday." Yeah, also a thing that no one told me. I submitted a request to have Monday off when I came in on Wednesday!
I spent my entire (long) weekend doing absolutely nothing of import, and it was glorious. On Monday, I even took a NAP. This is a big deal, since I don't usually take naps unless I'm a) sick, or b) running on less than three hours of sleep. But no, I napped, I read, I binge-watched half a season of Scorpion... It was great.
Today was my first day at the hospital school, and I absolutely loved it. The kids and the teachers there are all great, and I wish I was there more often than once a month. My last student of the day was a bed-side visit to a junior high school girl. We introduced ourselves, I did my usual photos and talk about Canada thing, and then we got into different interests. She asked if I liked Harry Potter, and I think we talked for about 10 minutes without needing help from the JTE. Her mom was in the room as well, and she was ecstatic. It was great! (Because if there are two things you can mention that will get me talking for hours, it's Disney and Harry Potter. She was wearing a Disney t-shirt, so we did get into that one, too.)
Not looking forward to the rest of my week. By mid-Thursday, I'm going to want to gouge my eyes out.from sheer boredom.
No comments:
Post a Comment