Today is the day. Finally.

I'm being transferred to Shiroko High School, a not-so-high level high school within the Suzuka city limits. I'm already familiar with the Shiroko area because it has a major train station, so I'll be taking the train every day to school ( Read more... )

It's that time of the year again. As Spring break ends and the cherry blossoms fall, students begin a new year of school and teachers teach new curriculum, some even move to different schools ( Read more... )

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I've been grading a lot of essays recently. In general the English is passable but I can only do about 20 at a time or my brain starts to hurt and begins thinking that some of the incorrect phrases used a lot by my students are actually correct. Every now and then I find both purposely and accidentally amusing ones ( Read more... )

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This past weekend was the main sporting rivalry of the year in Ise: Ujiyamada High School vs. Ise High School in baseball. The rivalry makes sense because they are the only two prestigious high schools in the area, not just within Ise city but throughout the entire Ise-Shima area of Mie prefecture ( Read more... )

Yesterday was the school trip. I went with the rest of the first-year students to Nagashima Spa Land, one of Japan's few major amusement parks (as opposed to major theme parks, of which there are many). Since there are so few, I'm lucky that one of them is in Mie. An interesting Mie-Ohio connection: the most recent roller coaster built at this ( Read more... )

My classes with the new first-years finally began yesterday. The standard ALT protocol for any time you teach a group of students for the first time is to do a lesson based around introducing yourself. Last time I did my self-introduction lessons I was a rookie; they were my very first lessons at the school. Now I've been teaching (with ( Read more... )