Friday I had no official classes, but we did take time during second period to do an oral reading exam for the sports course students. So I sat and listened to 41 students read the same sentences over and over and over again. Thrilling. Most of them did alright, but it`s a little jarring when they keep reading the word "feature" and "future." For instance, I kept hearing, "Baby pandas have the all of these cute futures." Uh, what now? The first couple times it happened, I had to glance over at the text to clarify for myself what the text was actually saying. During first period, I finished two weeks of lesson plans for my first years, and finished any remaining materials I had to make for next week`s third year class.
[Friday Lunchtime: Oh my god, they just played "Dragostea Din Tei". I`ve officially been transported back to high school.]
I dislike exam time for another reason: students are asked to translate phrases from Japanese into English on their exams, and the JTEs keep coming to me to ask whether certain variations on the answer are correct or not. I can give them the answer, but sometimes I can`t explain why beyond, "Because English makes no sense, and that`s just the way it is."
A third year student in the sports course came into the teachers` room the other day and asked about setting up some after-school conversation lessons with me because he wants to be an English teacher. We had our first one on Friday for a half-hour, just basic get-to-know-you type conversation, until we can decide where his weaknesses are and what needs to be worked on. Morita-sensei says that his vocabulary and comprehension are very high, but his speaking and listening skills are really low. Based on our conversation, it mostly seems to be a confidence thing. He hesitates so much because he`s afraid he`s going to be wrong. But we talked about music (why is everyone always so surprised when I say I listen to metal?!), and how his brother plays guitar and might get a record deal, and working at Disney World (the university he`s going to attend is one that apparently does the College Program, which is all kinds of awesome). He did very well, and we`re going to make this a regular Friday thing. Since he`s so into music I think we might talk more about that next week. I`ll prep some materials to bring in, maybe we`ll listen to some English songs. It`ll be awesome.
I didn`t do a lot with my weekend. After school on Friday I stopped by the mall to pick up a sketchbook, and I took it to Akame 48 Falls on Saturday to do some drawing and hiking. I now remember why I`m not an artist. The sketches I did turned out pretty horribly, but I don`t care because I was happy doing it. I didn`t stay too long, and I didn`t do the full falls hike, but I walked to the station and back, so I probably did about 9 or 10 km rather than the complete 18km we did last time. On Sunday, I did laundry and groceries and read all day. It was fabulous.
Monday morning saw the return of my canine walking partner and her human. I was a bit closer to home this time, so we got more time to chat. I saw them as I was turning a corner, but I wasn`t sure, and then as soon as I started walking on that street, I saw that the dog had stopped and was staring back at me, so I knew it was Rizu. The owner introduced herself as Nakamura, and we had a good chat about her daugher`s desire to study abroad in Canada or Australia. ...I think. That`s what I got out of the conversation anyway.
Music teacher went to Hokkaido and brought back chocolate. Music teacher is my new best friend.
I had a couple of great lessons with my first year Monday classes. Not necessarily great in the sense of "they all participated and understood everything," but in the way of "it was a difficult lesson and they tried their best". We`re doing basic directions this week, which is never an easy thing to explain. I sort of pared down the third year lesson I did a couple weeks ago to a simpler form as an introduction. They gave it their all, and I helped where I could. I also had a conversation with one of my JTEs after about the frustration of getting directions from people sometimes. Like when someone tells you, "Go (insert compass direction here)." Great. Which way is that?! My roommate in university was bad for that when I was lost in Toronto (Yes, Ros, I`m talking about you). I`d call her, and say something like, "I`m at the AGO. How do I get back to Union?"
And her response would be, "Go Southeast."
..."What?"
Insert long-suffering sigh from Ros. "Is your back to the AGO? Go right. Now go towards the water."
"I can`t see the water."
"Go right again."
The JTE said when she asks for directions, she gets a lot of responses like, "Oh, it`s next to/near (insert other landmark here)." Awesome. That would be helpful if I knew where that was. I impress upon everyone the importance of using "left" and "right" in your direction-giving.
Tuesday was my first (and only, according to my schedule from now until March) day with the Yamabato students at my special needs school. These are the students with severe disabilities. They`re in a hospital ward, either bedridden or wheelchair-bound, with feeding tubes, breathing tubes, or other apparatus, most are incapable of moving on their own, and they`re almost entirely non-verbal. Some of them could make noise, though, and it seemed to be positive noise, so I`m taking it as a sign that they enjoyed being with me. It was a little scary, since I`m not used to being in situations like that, but the teachers/caretakers were great. I was asked next time (whenever that happens to be) to tell some Canadian folk/fairy tales. I`m going to have to do some research on that one, because right now the only one I can think of is the one with the guys in the flying canoe and the devil trapped in a church. I only had the one class all day, so I brought my marking from my direction-giving classes to get through. And let me tell you, I barely got through it. It was painful. Despite all the practice we had with the textbook dialogues, they seem to have a problem with full sentences. I saw so many work sheets with "Turn right straight turn right turn left." ...Thanks, guys. Remember that whole discussion we had about blocks and corners and telling people about landmarks? That`s still a thing. I had to keep taking breaks because my brain was going to explode. And you know it`s bad when I want to read The Maze Runner more than doing something else, because this book is almost as bad as Twilight (and taking me four times as long to get through).
Wednesday morning, someone must have picked up on my frustration at the lack of communication between the teachers and me. There`s been a schedule change for the end of this week, and no less than three teachers came over to make sure I knew about it. I will never not know about anything ever again!
The science teacher, Sugiura, came over to talk to me, took one look at my arm (I was wearing my new nerdly hallows t-shirt), and says, "It`s because you`re from Canada, isn`t it? This weather isn`t cold to you?" Nope! It`s a fabulous 19 degrees Celsius right now. That`s early summer in Canada. I looked it up, and it`s 7 back home right now, and only going to get colder. I told him that, and he told me that in winter here, it gets to be about -1. I laughed. "I don`t even need a coat for that!" (I will, however, get great use out of my "May the Norse be With You" sweater.)
My supervisor is freaking out because the principal is sitting in on the first half of our conversation class tomorrow to evaluate her. Calm yourself. Besides, I do most of the work in that class. What I`m nervous about is the mystery game afterwards. I really, really, REALLY hope it goes well! And that everyone is there. Because if one of our main characters is sick and doesn`t make it in, we`re kinda screwed. But mostly I`m worried about them getting it. Not the thief, necessarily. I`ve laid enough red herrings that we could have a good game without anyone getting it right. But I want them to actually understand the game and what they`re supposed to do. When we did the telephone memo roleplay, they seemed to have some trouble understanding that when the slip of paper tells them "you are" that they should use those words to say "I am." It`s instructions, not a script. Also apparently my supervisor didn`t know I had actually created all of this until today when she asked about something odd I wrote, and I was like, "It`s not important. I was just making things up as I went along." And then she was like, "You mean you made all of this yourself?!" Uh, yeah? Everything online is murder, and usually themed to things they won`t understand (like the 1920s, or a ranch). And they`re complicated. As it is, I think this might end up being too complicated.
I`m really hoping the next few weeks go by fast. Not that I`m not enjoying my daily routine, but I have a Tokyo Disneyland trip planned for the long weekend at the end of November, so that needs to get here ASAP.
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