I am tired
My kids were...themselves today man. 4th grade was quick to pick up on how to mimic musical instruments, and one class got pretty good at asking each other "Do you play~?" "Yes, I do/No, I don't." Sadly, Akira got kicked out before class even started...I feel like I haven't been able to see her in a while and I remember her being so fond of me...I hope next week she gets a chance to say hi.
I've also taken it upon myself to go to the classes by myself if the teacher/class leader doesn't come to get me from the staff room after 5 minutes after the class has supposed to have started. I have had nearly half a period go by before anyone came to get me. I know that sometimes the previous lesson runs over into my scheduled lesson time, or they're somewhere else in the school, or they canceled it without telling me, or the kids are misbehaving so the teacher has to get them under control first. But sometimes they also just expect me to show up. But since it varies from class to class, I give them 5 minutes and then head on over. Sometimes this surprises the teachers, and sometimes the teacher isn't even there.
Like with third grade today. I walked into a teacher-less classroom. Turns out we just missed each other, so I have this image of him running to the staff room, sees I'm gone, asks where I went, finds out I went to class already, and runs back to the room. His kids were like "no it's okay, we can start class! Yea English time!" but we waited as I think the general unspoken consensus was "what do we do without teacher? D8" But he's a fun teacher and his English is pretty good. He can not sing "Eency Wency Spider" to save his life - I think he was just mimicing English sounds which nearly cracked me up. However, this lesson still proves to be too hard for the kids I think...but it's a challenge and I can see they're working at it.
And first grade...sometimes I think I'm teaching a troupe of very smart monkeys. These kids...they are nuts. I think they are this way because their teacher is not prone to angry shouting - she's not very intimidating. She's more nurturing. This of course means the wilder kids go crazy. I mean dancing around me during class, running in and out of the room...They also covet stickers. I am glad I have stickers for them when we played bingo - which they liked. They are cute kids. But sometimes I think I rile all my students up too much and it feels like they might shout my ears off. They seriously can be too loud and it'll hurt my ears.
Of course, first grade does like to play with me. Kitten, as I have dubbed the shortish boy in class for he has short, soft, fluffy hair like a short-haired black kitten, and has a kittenish face and is just as playful, looooves to hang off my arm. How high can Jessica lift me using just her bicep? Not very high but his feet are still off the ground. They all like the "how high can I jump to get a high five" game. I had to lower my hand a lot because well I am tall compared to them. But it was fun! I really do like my kids.
There was a slight scare on my part at school as the VP has been mentioning my name along with the words for time but Mayumi told me that it's nothing to worry about. I think it's concerning planning lessons with the different class teachers, but I'm not sure. I just know I never show up late for work. So they better not be thinking I am coming in late. I do think though if they want me to write lesson plans - which I can do - then they need to send me their schedules a head of time. And I mean a week or two. So we can hash out the lessons. I'm okay with how it is now - it works and the lessons usually go well. But if they want more out of me, then they need to put in the extra effort to sort out when I teach more than 24 hours before I start at their school for the month.
I did an interview during lunch today over the PA system. It was about food. XD I hope the kids liked it - they now all know I hate umeboshi but love cake. Oh dear. XD
After work I explored my end of Kumano. Sadly, I only came away with...more tea and snacks. But I checked out the local Shimamura and was amused yet disappointed at the selection available. A middle school girl was fooling around with accessories; we giggled together because come on, it was funny to see her in a huge hat and equally huge sunglasses. XD Found another grocery store and two over-priced karaoke boxes. =/ I then spent a long time trying to find my way home but I made it.
That's really about it... The classes went well, they were fun, I tried not think about how awesome some of the male teachers were as that's kind of creepy liking a co-worker and I really don't need the kids going looney with dating gossip, lunch was yummy, it was a good day. Nothing really bad about it - minus the rainy weather.
I think I need sleeps now.
I've also taken it upon myself to go to the classes by myself if the teacher/class leader doesn't come to get me from the staff room after 5 minutes after the class has supposed to have started. I have had nearly half a period go by before anyone came to get me. I know that sometimes the previous lesson runs over into my scheduled lesson time, or they're somewhere else in the school, or they canceled it without telling me, or the kids are misbehaving so the teacher has to get them under control first. But sometimes they also just expect me to show up. But since it varies from class to class, I give them 5 minutes and then head on over. Sometimes this surprises the teachers, and sometimes the teacher isn't even there.
Like with third grade today. I walked into a teacher-less classroom. Turns out we just missed each other, so I have this image of him running to the staff room, sees I'm gone, asks where I went, finds out I went to class already, and runs back to the room. His kids were like "no it's okay, we can start class! Yea English time!" but we waited as I think the general unspoken consensus was "what do we do without teacher? D8" But he's a fun teacher and his English is pretty good. He can not sing "Eency Wency Spider" to save his life - I think he was just mimicing English sounds which nearly cracked me up. However, this lesson still proves to be too hard for the kids I think...but it's a challenge and I can see they're working at it.
And first grade...sometimes I think I'm teaching a troupe of very smart monkeys. These kids...they are nuts. I think they are this way because their teacher is not prone to angry shouting - she's not very intimidating. She's more nurturing. This of course means the wilder kids go crazy. I mean dancing around me during class, running in and out of the room...They also covet stickers. I am glad I have stickers for them when we played bingo - which they liked. They are cute kids. But sometimes I think I rile all my students up too much and it feels like they might shout my ears off. They seriously can be too loud and it'll hurt my ears.
Of course, first grade does like to play with me. Kitten, as I have dubbed the shortish boy in class for he has short, soft, fluffy hair like a short-haired black kitten, and has a kittenish face and is just as playful, looooves to hang off my arm. How high can Jessica lift me using just her bicep? Not very high but his feet are still off the ground. They all like the "how high can I jump to get a high five" game. I had to lower my hand a lot because well I am tall compared to them. But it was fun! I really do like my kids.
There was a slight scare on my part at school as the VP has been mentioning my name along with the words for time but Mayumi told me that it's nothing to worry about. I think it's concerning planning lessons with the different class teachers, but I'm not sure. I just know I never show up late for work. So they better not be thinking I am coming in late. I do think though if they want me to write lesson plans - which I can do - then they need to send me their schedules a head of time. And I mean a week or two. So we can hash out the lessons. I'm okay with how it is now - it works and the lessons usually go well. But if they want more out of me, then they need to put in the extra effort to sort out when I teach more than 24 hours before I start at their school for the month.
I did an interview during lunch today over the PA system. It was about food. XD I hope the kids liked it - they now all know I hate umeboshi but love cake. Oh dear. XD
After work I explored my end of Kumano. Sadly, I only came away with...more tea and snacks. But I checked out the local Shimamura and was amused yet disappointed at the selection available. A middle school girl was fooling around with accessories; we giggled together because come on, it was funny to see her in a huge hat and equally huge sunglasses. XD Found another grocery store and two over-priced karaoke boxes. =/ I then spent a long time trying to find my way home but I made it.
That's really about it... The classes went well, they were fun, I tried not think about how awesome some of the male teachers were as that's kind of creepy liking a co-worker and I really don't need the kids going looney with dating gossip, lunch was yummy, it was a good day. Nothing really bad about it - minus the rainy weather.
I think I need sleeps now.