Is it rude to sleep at your desk during work? I really would love to take a nap, this is the busiest I have been since Sports Festival in October. I taught four periods today, two first year and two second year classes. One first year class worked on writing down their daily schedule and the second class played a couple of different Christmas games ( Read more... )

Jana stopped by last night and we hung out until she had to go to her Aikido class. According to my Japanese-English dictionary Aikido is “an art of self-defense derived from judo, in which holds and throws are made using the opponent’s joints.” Anyway, Jana and I hung out and we talked about the Superior Group’s visit to our schools. I am pleased ( Read more... )

The Chancellor and Vice Chancellor of UWS, my boss Matt, Hiromi, and a teacher at the local college came to visit my second period English class today and I must say it was an event.

When the homeroom teacher found out that they were going to be visiting her homeroom she looked at Maemura Sensei and me and left the room. She went to tell her ( Read more... )

Bored…I am bored…Bored…wait…something is going on…. Maemura Sensei is in a panic and now the teachers are frantically looking for something.

Ah, it appears that the second year listen part of the English test has been misplaced and the teachers are frantically looking for it and trying to figure out what they should do. I really wish I could help ( Read more... )

Sports Festival

Last Saturday was the Sports Festival for Takaku Chu and the students had been practicing all summer for it. The day started at 8:30 and didn’t finish for the students until 5:00pm.

The idea behind Sports Festival is simple. When a student enters the Junior High School they are assigned a team - there are three teams: red, ( Read more... )

I really would like a nap. I have had a busy two days! Yesterday I joined in the Sports Festival Practice. The students practiced all day in 80+ heat and bright sun and they loved it. They had a wonderful time practicing their class activities, cheering, and dance routines. I had a wonderful time watching them.

I found out a bunch of interesting ( Read more... )

Yesterday  was the first day of Sports Festival practice! I did not participate because I wanted to get a good start my lesson plans from now until Christmas. I have one elementary school’s done and now I just need to do the other two. I also was able to get a good deal done on the newsletter that I am putting together for interTalk. So I am ( Read more... )

One Year! I have been living in Japan for one year. I do not know what to say to that. On one hand, the time had gone by so fast and on the other hand, it feels like I have been here for ten years. I think I have adjusted pretty well for living in a foreign country; I have made some wonderful friends, I have a job that I really enjoy, and I am able ( Read more... )

It is 11:16am and I am done for the day. The closing ceremony started at nine o’clock and it was over by 10:30.  During the ceremony, we had a half hour band concert and I would like to say that these Junior High kids are good. They are really good; in fact, I think they are better than my high school band. I talked to a couple of the kids and they ( Read more... )

Today was the last day of classes at Takaku Chu before summer break! I still have to go to school tomorrow but aside from the closing ceremony I had no clue was going to be happening so I asked Maemura Sensei. She informed me that we have the closing ceremony during the first part of the day and then after that the brass band is going to have a ( Read more... )