The Week in Review

So, I haven't posted in several days as I've actually been busy, imagine!

Tuesday was my first day at my LMS with the new teacher. It actually made me sad when I saw her because she isn't A-sensei. And I miss A-sensei. Things were... difficult to say the least. She's very nice, and wants to do a good job, but... let's just say, well, our first day wasn't great. I hope she gets into her groove quickly, since my mountain babies are so far behind already. When I was in the classes with her, especially with my ichinenseis, I wanted to hug all of them and tell them it would be ok - all of a sudden they have a new teacher, with a new style, who doesn't know them or how things work there. I'm sure she'll get the hang of it, but for Tuesday it wasn't the smoothest ride. Again, she's really nice, she/we just didn't have a groove.

Wednesday I was at my LES, after having spent two weeks thinking about lesson plans, etc. I walked in, was told I was teaching 3 back-to-back lessons starting first period, then that I would in fact have to leave early to go to the demonstration class at M-chan's school, and then K-sensei says to me that maybe I should teach the colors again, because last week when he asked the kids the next day what they had learned (he had to leave last week), they said "Maybe colors..." Greeeat. I thought that was pretty clear, as we spent half an hour doing just that, and they knew them pretty well, but whatever. So we practiced colors again in that class.

On a happy note at my LES, last time, two weeks ago, Y-sensei, the 6th grade teacher, ("American Style" - from the stilts) gave one of the other teachers a really neat print that he made - he's an artist/design person. I exclaimed how cool it was, so one of the teachers suggested to him that he should make one for me. Which I followed up with an "onegai shimasu!" (would you please). So this week he had one for me. I don't know if he made it just for me, or if it was one he had already, but I was so pleased. As I said, he seems like a cool guy, so I was happy that he went out of his way like that. That's why I love that school - they really try to make me feel like a part of the group.

So Wednesday afternoon, after a super-fast lunch, I headed to M-chan's school for the demonstration class. There were 7 of us ALTs who took part, and all of the city JHS teachers were there to watch. Afterwards we had an ALT "meeting" about the class, while the JTEs had their own. I'm pretty sure ours was more interesting. In the evening almost everyone who had been there that day went to an izakaya "downtown" for some refreshments and revelry. Even though it turned out to be much more expensive than we had all anticipated, we had a grand time, good ALT-JTE relations were fostered and cultivated, and getting up on Thursday for school was only slightly difficult.

Thursday I was at GS with M-chan. The classes were what they were, some ok, some extremely painful (the zombie classes). However, in the afternoon the kids had to meet with their teachers to discuss their academic progress, so many of them were just milling about. We grabbed an open classroom and hung out with some of the kids and one of the English teachers, chatting up the kids and joking around with them. Including one student that is a problem in the ninensei elective class, and another kid who gets picked on by the teachers for being "a problem" when in actuality he's not really bad. I was so happy to have that opportunity. Hopefully the ninensei guy - and his friend whose parents ditched him, who I have also been trying to work my magic on - will start to behave better in that class.

Anyway, today was CS3, I got to go to three ichinensei classes, which are always a blast with H-sensei. He's crazy and fun and the kids love him and are crazy and fun and excited about English (well, some of them). Lunch went well, the day got nice. There was the jump-roping. Etc. Etc. So tonight I'm home, ready for a relaxing night, sleeping in tomorrow, and who knows what the weekend will bring.