School summary of two weeks

Playing blog catch-up today!

My next two weeks of school were fairly uneventful.  I kept doing my intro lessons for the classes as I had them for the first time and my schedule was still a bit wonky as they settled into the new school year and tried to even out who had me when.

I visited a gym class at O one day and did some stretching with the third year girls.  The gym teacher teased me saying I was too stiff and I needed to loosen up.  "Foreigners are all pretty stiff, aren't they?"  Thanks.  I know I'm fat and out of shape.  D:  But it was in good humor, so it's fine.

In my free time (I get one break each day and the rest of the time I'm not teaching is 'planning time'), I've been slowly translating the manga 'Polar Bear Cafe' for practice in reading and comprehension.  It's a bit difficult because of the puns, but for the most part, it's an easy read.  I've done about 50 pages by now.  A few of the puns have left me absolutely stumped, but other than that, it's going pretty well.

After school, I tried to visit some clubs and observe a little bit.  I watched the band at O try to recruit new members in their mini-concert to show off their instruments and some popular songs to show the first years that it's a cool club to be in.  (To my chagrin, they played "Heavy Rotation" by AKB48.  It's a hugely popular song that I really hate.)

The 20th was a rough day overall.  I checked with my English teacher in the morning that all I had needed to do for the lesson was prepare ONE ACTIVITY.  He said yes.  So I had two period worth of planning where I wasn't doing much.  Then, right before third period, we were going to go to the classroom, and he said 'that's all you need?'  I said 'Just my game, right?  You said I didn't need to plan the whole lesson."  "Whole lesson, yes."  O____________________________O  "I didn't plan anything other than my game.  It MIGHT take twenty minutes."  He grabbed a worksheet he had handy and we went to class.  The game was a total flop.  The kids didn't understand my instructions or the pairs on the cards.  They didn't want to say the target language.  And it was over in like... 10 minutes.  We moved on to the worksheet and finally class was over.

The next period I was getting observed by my trainer from the company.  I found out about this that morning because I finally figured out how to listen to my voicemail from the night before.  Le sigh.  At least I was supposed to do my intro lesson!  ...No.  As I was getting my things together, I checked with the teacher 'I'm going my intro lesson, right?"  "No, you already did that with this class.  Do the same as we just did."  ARE YOU KIDDING MEEEEE?!?!?!?!  So I tried my best to improve on my lesson.  I drilled the vocabulary a little bit before playing the game and I tried to be more clear with my instructions.  FLOPPED HORRIBLY AGAIN.  I got all negative (but with constructive criticism) feedback on my lesson from my trainer.  I took notes.  Hopefully it'll be better the next time he comes.  He did at least say he saw what I TRIED to do with my game, it just didn't work.

I gave out candies from home at the end of the day.  People seemed to like that.  I jetted as soon as it was 4:30 so I could get to the city hall and pick up my foreigner registration card.  Like a Green Card.  Apparently, I didn't bring the right paperwork.  I was confused and frustrated so I called my company to see if they could talk to the people in Japanese and just get my darn card for me.  Eventually, it got worked out without the company really helping at all and I got my card.

I then had only five minutes to get to the post office.  First, I went to the local post office by my apartment.  Apparently, packages need to be picked up at the main office.  GREAT.  I got over there and got to the door at 5:01 and expected it to be locked, but I was able to get my package.  I guess that part of the office is open later?  No idea.  It was a box of Easter candy from home.  It really made me feel better after a horrible day.  TT^TT

I didn't do anything noteworthy over the weekend.

The next week, my schedule was a bit odd because KJHS was on a field trip the first part of the week, so I was at OJHS for the first three days instead of the first two like normal.  As a result of the schedule change, my classes were a bit more spaced out than normal as they tried to fill in the gaps.  The classes went well enough and were laid back.  I observed kendo after school.  It's rad.

Thursday, I was back at K and I didn't teach much (because I'm not usually there on Thursdays!) but they went well.  Things I'm learning are successful: First-graders (the only ones I've tried it on) love BINGO.  They love to be the one to draw the next thing to be called and they love to get stickers when they get a BINGO.  Yay.

The kids went home after fourth period because 'they were tired from the trip'.  They didn't seem tired to me.  <_<  Also, who takes a trip at the beginning of the week?!  Moving on.  Some clubs practiced anyway.  I watched Judo for a while.  It was interesting.  I've never watched Judo before.  It was the first day for first years to join the clubs, so they were cheering from the sidelines, then joined the upperclassmen in some exercises.

The school trip yielded some omiyage (souveniers - usually edible).  The third years went to Nara and Kyoto (first and second years went hiking).  The principal (Kocho-sensei) brought back some black-bean rice crackers (senbei) which were yummy and the third year teachers gave out some chocolates with rice in them which were interesting... but not bad.  ^_^

Friday was interesting.  There was a big fight after second period, so the rest of the day was messed up.  Apparently one of the kids involved (a bully, picking on a quiet kid) got pretty hurt and had to go to the hospital for some stitches where his ear was bitten.  The homeroom teacher was (of course. T____T#) my English teacher, so I had to teach my English classes with substitute teachers standing in.  The kids didn't pay attention and didn't do the worksheet.  It was worse the second class than the first because the sub teacher was the music teacher and the kids had NO RESPECT for her AT ALL.  A lot of them were talking or sleeping.  One was ripping up his paper.  One kept leaving the classroom.  It was awful.

As a result of the fight, the kids were all sent home early and clubs were canceled.  O_o  I know fights aren't good and all, and I heard 'there was a lot of blood' but did they really need to send everyone home?!  Whatever.

Okay, that's a rough summary of two weeks at school.  The next entry is going to be about my first cosplay experience in Japan!  Finally!!  I already have it typed up, so I'll just plug in pictures and post it tomorrow.