Not-So-Advanced Notice
Today I don't have any classes due to midterm testing, so I took a vacation day because I just couldn't stand the thought of sitting in that office with nothing to do. (This is going to come back to bite me in the ass when I'm sitting in the office near the end of my contract and desperately needing time to pack, but you know, I live in the moment.) But this morning as I lay in bed contemplating the bliss that is a vacation day on a cold, rainy Thursday, my cell rings.
"Marie-chan! Good morning!" It's my supervisor. She's speaking Japanese so I know I won't like this call. My supervisor speaks to me in Japanese when it's important. "I'm so sorry, I know I told you yesterday that you could take a vacation day, but I completely forgot that Kuroiwa Elementary wants you to do a lesson today. Please call them!"
"But I haven't prepared for elementary school," I said. "Preparation is important. I can't do an elementary lesson suddenly."
"But the teachers are really looking forward to your cooperation today. Please call them and have a talk."
"Okay..." So I hung up and called Kuroiwa. I can never remember the protocol for proper phone etiquette (if they don't say お世話になります do I wait or do I say it myself or...?) so after a very awkward introduction I got the head of the 6th year students on the line. These are the poor souls that got stuck with teaching the mandatory weekly English lessons even though most of them have little to no English ability whatsoever.
"Marie-sensei! So sorry to bother you on your day off, but I'd really like it if you'd please teach the 5th years English today."
"I'm sorry, but I can't do elementary lessons suddenly. I want my lessons to be good, so I think about them for a long time and have to prepare. If you'd like, I'll come next week."
"I see. Well, can you come to school and have a short meeting with us? We'd like to discuss the new text book."
So I went down there (I'm not being paid for this, by the way) and this is how the conversation proceeded. All in Japanese, of course.
"Marie-sensei! Hello. Let's sit in the principal's room. I'll get you some tea."
~wait 10 minutes alone in the principal's room while the tea is made~
"Today we're having a very simple English lesson. We want to teach them the Head Shoulders Knees and Toes song. Do you know it?"
"Uh, of course I know it. But I usually do that song for the younger grades. The older students usually don't like to dance or sing."
"Oh, these students aren't shy at all! They would like the dance. Please teach it to them today."
"Today? I'm sorry, today is no good. We can't dance for 45 minutes."
"You could teach them English rock, paper, scissors game, too."
"I'm pretty sure they know it already. I taught them last semester."
"What about another American game? Musical chairs? That Four Corners game? Any other game."
See, what it boiled down to is that they were trying very, very hard to unload this class onto me. It was obvious that they had no idea what to do with the kids that day and were turning to me to come up with a day of time-wasters. And I'm just not going to stand for that. I put up with a lot of crap in this job. I deal with canceled classes, rearranged schedules, bumped lessons, extra lessons, coming up with warm-ups on the fly, but I put my foot down here. I may only be here for another two months, but I wanted to make it clear that they have to ask me to come for a lesson in advance. I need at least a week to plan a good, meaningful lesson. The kids know when they're given busy work and they don't appreciate it. I know these kids well enough to know that they expect some sort of structure and point to a lesson. I imagine that by the end of the class most of the kids would be sitting in their seats refusing to take any part in these so-called "games" any longer. And this would be one of their very last memories of me before I leave.
I don't have the language ability to say this to the teacher in a polite enough way, so I left it at "I need time to prepare." And eventually they let me go without too much resistance. They knew they were putting me in an awkward position and did regret it, but in the end they are stuck with a lesson that they don't know what to do with. I left them with this final advice:
"Next week I'd like to know the student's names. Maybe today you can teach them how to write their names in English and they can make tags for their shirts and desks."
She really, really liked this idea. Problem solved. Today the students will spend the lesson writing their names over and over and then making colorful tags. And they certainly don't need me for that.
And so now I'm back home and ready to go back to packing. I'm almost finished with my clothes, then it's on to books and decorations. I'm already five boxes deep. This is going to take a lot longer than I thought.
"Marie-chan! Good morning!" It's my supervisor. She's speaking Japanese so I know I won't like this call. My supervisor speaks to me in Japanese when it's important. "I'm so sorry, I know I told you yesterday that you could take a vacation day, but I completely forgot that Kuroiwa Elementary wants you to do a lesson today. Please call them!"
"But I haven't prepared for elementary school," I said. "Preparation is important. I can't do an elementary lesson suddenly."
"But the teachers are really looking forward to your cooperation today. Please call them and have a talk."
"Okay..." So I hung up and called Kuroiwa. I can never remember the protocol for proper phone etiquette (if they don't say お世話になります do I wait or do I say it myself or...?) so after a very awkward introduction I got the head of the 6th year students on the line. These are the poor souls that got stuck with teaching the mandatory weekly English lessons even though most of them have little to no English ability whatsoever.
"Marie-sensei! So sorry to bother you on your day off, but I'd really like it if you'd please teach the 5th years English today."
"I'm sorry, but I can't do elementary lessons suddenly. I want my lessons to be good, so I think about them for a long time and have to prepare. If you'd like, I'll come next week."
"I see. Well, can you come to school and have a short meeting with us? We'd like to discuss the new text book."
So I went down there (I'm not being paid for this, by the way) and this is how the conversation proceeded. All in Japanese, of course.
"Marie-sensei! Hello. Let's sit in the principal's room. I'll get you some tea."
~wait 10 minutes alone in the principal's room while the tea is made~
"Today we're having a very simple English lesson. We want to teach them the Head Shoulders Knees and Toes song. Do you know it?"
"Uh, of course I know it. But I usually do that song for the younger grades. The older students usually don't like to dance or sing."
"Oh, these students aren't shy at all! They would like the dance. Please teach it to them today."
"Today? I'm sorry, today is no good. We can't dance for 45 minutes."
"You could teach them English rock, paper, scissors game, too."
"I'm pretty sure they know it already. I taught them last semester."
"What about another American game? Musical chairs? That Four Corners game? Any other game."
See, what it boiled down to is that they were trying very, very hard to unload this class onto me. It was obvious that they had no idea what to do with the kids that day and were turning to me to come up with a day of time-wasters. And I'm just not going to stand for that. I put up with a lot of crap in this job. I deal with canceled classes, rearranged schedules, bumped lessons, extra lessons, coming up with warm-ups on the fly, but I put my foot down here. I may only be here for another two months, but I wanted to make it clear that they have to ask me to come for a lesson in advance. I need at least a week to plan a good, meaningful lesson. The kids know when they're given busy work and they don't appreciate it. I know these kids well enough to know that they expect some sort of structure and point to a lesson. I imagine that by the end of the class most of the kids would be sitting in their seats refusing to take any part in these so-called "games" any longer. And this would be one of their very last memories of me before I leave.
I don't have the language ability to say this to the teacher in a polite enough way, so I left it at "I need time to prepare." And eventually they let me go without too much resistance. They knew they were putting me in an awkward position and did regret it, but in the end they are stuck with a lesson that they don't know what to do with. I left them with this final advice:
"Next week I'd like to know the student's names. Maybe today you can teach them how to write their names in English and they can make tags for their shirts and desks."
She really, really liked this idea. Problem solved. Today the students will spend the lesson writing their names over and over and then making colorful tags. And they certainly don't need me for that.
And so now I'm back home and ready to go back to packing. I'm almost finished with my clothes, then it's on to books and decorations. I'm already five boxes deep. This is going to take a lot longer than I thought.