WINTER BREAK! Finally, finally, finally my vacation his come! However, I will be spending the first several hours of my vacation cleaning up the aftermath of a solid week of baking and gift making. Here are the grand totals:

10 pieces of construction paper
4 rolls of ribbon
50 twist ties
50 Daiso Christmas gift bags ( Read more... )

On Friday as I was leaving elementary school, a group of second and third years caught me outside and jumped on the hood of my car to keep me from leaving. I told them I had very important things to do (like go home and sleep for 13 hours, as it turned out) and they finally crawled off my car. One of the girls gave me a persimmon seed and told me ( Read more... )

Friday I finally broke down and turned on my air conditioner. Goodbye to my wonderful 2,500 yen electric bills. It has just gotten way too hot, even at night. Thursday night I slept very badly and woke up drenched in sweat. Boo. Still, I'm much more comfortable now than I was in winter. This time six months ago I was shivering under four blankets ( Read more... )

This week went really well. I've gotten to be a pretty darn good elementary teacher, if I do say so myself. I just like the freedom that the elementary schools give me, you know? Planning an entire 40-minute lesson can be a little stressful sometimes, but the end result is almost always worth the effort I put into it ( Read more... )

First of all...

( Jack Frost on ice. )

Classes went pretty awesome this week seeing as how it's the end of the year and the students are sick of studying and the teachers are sick of teaching. Of course, that's when they turn to the ALT (as if crawling toward an oasis in the desert) for games. And I've racked up a few pretty great games that are completely modifiable for any ability ( Read more... )

The following video will either break your brain or fill you with childlike glee. It may even do both, bringing on a state similar to the effects of a lobotomy.

( It's like a train wreck. )

I don't know how long she's back for, but Happy Ann has returned! Most likely she won't hang around long as it looks like rain tomorrow, but I'll try to convince her to stay as long as possible.

I had a pretty good day at Ogawa. We did 手話 (shuwa) that is, sign language, to a song called "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake Hana" by SMAP. SMAP is probably the ( Read more... )

I had a fantastic day. Only two classes and then a taiko concert. And I got to play too! Go me ( Read more... )

I almost never post memes like this, but I've seen this one several times now, so I figure it's fate that I do it too. Yes, this is the secret way to make Ann do stuff: persistence ( Read more... )