catching up on missed updates
*has given up on avoiding livejournal while on school computers* i`ve been putting off/too busy to update this thing, so i might as well do it now while i`m just sitting here.
tues: went to Kera, did the usual stuff in addition to helping students in English club with speeches because i was requested to. last year the JTE in charge of English club didn`t ask me to participate in English Club in any way, so by leaving Otsu i thought that i`d finally be done with English club atleast for now since Namegawa has none. since April, however, a different JTE has been in charge of English club and she`s come to me quite a few times the day of English club asking me to come up with a game or something... i am kinda distraught about this because i can easily see this JTE building up to eventually palming off the entire club into my hands, as the JTE at Otsu did. having to manage Otsu`s English club alone 2 days a week for over a year quickly became the bane of my existance and i do NOT what that happening again... but i cant stop it if it does happen again. i am annoyed.
anyway... >_>; atleast tuesday was just helping students with easy speeches...
weds: i had 3 classes with 2nd years at Yokohama ES, the topic being colors. all of the classes went well-- the kids were genki and attentive (bless their little hearts) and the teachers were nice. one class in particular was really interesting though, because it had a first for me. :x
before class, the teacher of 2-2 came up to me and explained that 2 kids from America had recently joined the class as part of a 研修 (i`m not exactly sure how i should interpret that) thing. :x one of them, a boy, was bilingual and the other (girl) spoke no Japanese at all. you can imagine my interest and anticipation upon hearing this before a class. D; this is the first time i`ve ever had anyone in my ES class that would understand any and all English that i spoke. :3 and one of them doesnt even speak any Japanese! i couldn`t help but be curious about how things would go with her.
anyway, the class went interestingly. D; i (for better or for worse) often tend to use quite a bit of Japanese in my ES classes consciously and unconsciously, but for this class i made a conscious effort to use less-- or to atleast always accompany Japanese with English for the two English speakers` sake. i could only imagine what it must have been like for the girl, seeing her eyes light up upon seeing me walk into the classroom knowing that besides the 1 other boy in the class i was the only other person in the entire school that she could communicate with. being only in the 2nd grade, it must be really hard on her. :/ both of the kids tried really hard to get my attention during class, and it was hard at times to balance giving them enough attention to not make them feel ignored while not giving them so much that the other students got jealous thinking that i was giving them special treatment. ^^; definitely one of my most interesting classes...
thurs: taught another 3 classes of 2nd years at Kera ES, this time the topic being "outdoor/gym games"... despite the class being neither outdoors nor in a gym. i hate it when schools do that. -_- anyway, these 2nd years.... while the teachers were alright, the kids for the most part were... wild and sometimes out of control. it was a very exhausting and stressful 3 hours. -_-;;
the last class, 2-1, annoyed me in general with how a lot of the students treated one of their classmates... they didn`t want to hold the kid`s hands or even stand near him during games-- infact they ran away whenever the kid even came near repeatedly, repeatedly said rude/hurtful things right in front of him, etc etc. this kind of behavior really really pisses me off and nothing the teacher nor i did changed anything. -_- i got so fed up with it that i acted as the kid`s partner or stood between him and the other kids (to their great & loud delight -_-) during games and i had the kid act as the "oni" for one of the games just so that the poor kid didn`t have to deal with his classmates. i understand that kids will be kids, but urrgghh. seriously, i wanted to hug the poor kid who was being treated so badly by the end of class. he didn`t even shed a tear once, which i wouldnt have even been able to do under such circumstances.
today: i had a class with 2nd years, which somehow involved figuring out nicknames for me because apparently my name in Japanese can be a tongue twister, which then somehow led to the teacher/class giving me kanji for my name lol. we also did show & tell. i also had my 2nd class with the 5th & 6th graders of Namegawa ES, which went amazingly well given that i wasn`t even given a topic to teach on in advance. *yawns* today`s been an alright day, i suppose...
and now it`s time to go home. i`m trying to decide on what cake or bread to make tonight or tomorrow.... maybe i`ll just make biscuits again.
tues: went to Kera, did the usual stuff in addition to helping students in English club with speeches because i was requested to. last year the JTE in charge of English club didn`t ask me to participate in English Club in any way, so by leaving Otsu i thought that i`d finally be done with English club atleast for now since Namegawa has none. since April, however, a different JTE has been in charge of English club and she`s come to me quite a few times the day of English club asking me to come up with a game or something... i am kinda distraught about this because i can easily see this JTE building up to eventually palming off the entire club into my hands, as the JTE at Otsu did. having to manage Otsu`s English club alone 2 days a week for over a year quickly became the bane of my existance and i do NOT what that happening again... but i cant stop it if it does happen again. i am annoyed.
anyway... >_>; atleast tuesday was just helping students with easy speeches...
weds: i had 3 classes with 2nd years at Yokohama ES, the topic being colors. all of the classes went well-- the kids were genki and attentive (bless their little hearts) and the teachers were nice. one class in particular was really interesting though, because it had a first for me. :x
before class, the teacher of 2-2 came up to me and explained that 2 kids from America had recently joined the class as part of a 研修 (i`m not exactly sure how i should interpret that) thing. :x one of them, a boy, was bilingual and the other (girl) spoke no Japanese at all. you can imagine my interest and anticipation upon hearing this before a class. D; this is the first time i`ve ever had anyone in my ES class that would understand any and all English that i spoke. :3 and one of them doesnt even speak any Japanese! i couldn`t help but be curious about how things would go with her.
anyway, the class went interestingly. D; i (for better or for worse) often tend to use quite a bit of Japanese in my ES classes consciously and unconsciously, but for this class i made a conscious effort to use less-- or to atleast always accompany Japanese with English for the two English speakers` sake. i could only imagine what it must have been like for the girl, seeing her eyes light up upon seeing me walk into the classroom knowing that besides the 1 other boy in the class i was the only other person in the entire school that she could communicate with. being only in the 2nd grade, it must be really hard on her. :/ both of the kids tried really hard to get my attention during class, and it was hard at times to balance giving them enough attention to not make them feel ignored while not giving them so much that the other students got jealous thinking that i was giving them special treatment. ^^; definitely one of my most interesting classes...
thurs: taught another 3 classes of 2nd years at Kera ES, this time the topic being "outdoor/gym games"... despite the class being neither outdoors nor in a gym. i hate it when schools do that. -_- anyway, these 2nd years.... while the teachers were alright, the kids for the most part were... wild and sometimes out of control. it was a very exhausting and stressful 3 hours. -_-;;
the last class, 2-1, annoyed me in general with how a lot of the students treated one of their classmates... they didn`t want to hold the kid`s hands or even stand near him during games-- infact they ran away whenever the kid even came near repeatedly, repeatedly said rude/hurtful things right in front of him, etc etc. this kind of behavior really really pisses me off and nothing the teacher nor i did changed anything. -_- i got so fed up with it that i acted as the kid`s partner or stood between him and the other kids (to their great & loud delight -_-) during games and i had the kid act as the "oni" for one of the games just so that the poor kid didn`t have to deal with his classmates. i understand that kids will be kids, but urrgghh. seriously, i wanted to hug the poor kid who was being treated so badly by the end of class. he didn`t even shed a tear once, which i wouldnt have even been able to do under such circumstances.
today: i had a class with 2nd years, which somehow involved figuring out nicknames for me because apparently my name in Japanese can be a tongue twister, which then somehow led to the teacher/class giving me kanji for my name lol. we also did show & tell. i also had my 2nd class with the 5th & 6th graders of Namegawa ES, which went amazingly well given that i wasn`t even given a topic to teach on in advance. *yawns* today`s been an alright day, i suppose...
and now it`s time to go home. i`m trying to decide on what cake or bread to make tonight or tomorrow.... maybe i`ll just make biscuits again.