So, moving is still problematic… October 13, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Just Bizarre, Student Moments.Tags: cat and mouse, clemente, fall term, german soccer team fangirl, hermione, Japan, Japanese, mr. bayblade, muscle pain, penelope, penguins, The Child, third year fun
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…thanks to Monday’s two-hour exercise extravaganza. I wish I were exaggerating, but the shooting fire-like pains that skitter down my thighs whenever I shift my weight say otherwise.
But in the true spirit of this blog, we shall not linger on unpleasant affairs.
These (adorable) penguins wish for us to look on the sunny side of life.
Wednesday was rather productive on the whole, and I had a lovely time chatting with Penelope during lunch and Hermione during the lunch recess. Mr. Bayblade made an appearance after lunch as well and we both lamented that Japan wasn’t able to beat South Korea in Tuesday night’s soccer game. I exercised restraint and did not point out that Germany (mercilessly, completely, and fantastically) schooled Kazakhstan with a final score of 0 – 3. See? I told you that that game would put me in a good mood.
The day isn’t quite over yet, I still have dance practice to go to and that may very well provide an entertaining and worthwhile memory to hold on to. Still, looking back over the day itself, I think I want to highlight the classes that I had with my third years.
There are some days when I don’t feel particularly close or of interest to these students, but today wasn’t one of those days. They had a speaking test where they had to recite the first stanza and chorus of We Are the World. Walking around and helping them was a lot of fun. Even The Child got into the activity (albeit about two weeks later than he should have…), and Clemente and I had sang the song together about five times. If I do say so myself, we make a nice duet.
I also had some free time on my hands since the kids were mostly preparing for the test. So, when I wasn’t helping students with their pronunciation or coaching them through the memorization process, I Got Up To Tricks. Specifically, I made it my mission to sneak around and steal things off of students’ desks to then hide them in ridiculous places around the room. (I should add here that I only harassed students who’d passed their test and were just sitting around.)
Today wasn’t the first time that I’ve done this and it quickly became a spectacular battle of wits. They would try to keep an eye on their notebooks/pen cases/textbooks/erasers, and I would do everything in my power to put those much needed items in locations ranging from on top of the classroom television set to on top of somebody’s head. Any and all attempts to foil me were met with devastating acts of revenge later on in the class period. That’s one way of saying that I may or may not have taken and switched the contents of at least two pencil bags.
I guess I like this memory because it’s of something that the third years and I don’t get a chance to do all that much together these days: play. I’ve known them since they were fifth graders and now that they’re about to go into high school, they seem so grown up and beyond that kind of activity. It’s nice to go back down that path on occasion, and remember how we can make each other laugh through a simple game of cat and mouse. I hope that I never grow too old to acknowledge, or rekindle, the playful and mischievous side of my personality.
Je veux ton amour
Et je veux ton revenge
Wednesday Writeup September 29, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Student Moments.Tags: clemente, fall term, Japan, mr. bayblade, new friends, othello rap, The Child
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So, after the somewhat intense events of Tuesday I’m happy to say that Wednesday has been more positive and gratifying. Specifically, three things happened that give me reason to hope that I’m on an upswing.
1) The Child was in one of his, “Hello Julie, I love you” moods. He was affectionate and talkative before class, and went on to be both engaged and interested in the Stevie Wonder PowerPoint that I showed. After class, he took me by surprise and brought up the Othello rap that I’d tried to get him to do with me back in May. The conversation kind of went like this:
The Child: So, we’re not doing that stupid rap thing, right?
Me: No … because you said you didn’t want to do it.
The Child: Exactly. I don’t want to do it. It’s stupid and boring and embarrassing.
Me: Okay. We don’t have to do it.
The Child: Good. Because I don’t want to do it. I definitely don’t want to do it. I couldn’t do it, anyway.
Me: Yes, you could do it. I’m not sure we have enough time to prepare it for the festival, but you could definitely do the rap.
The Child: Except I don’t want to do it. … … … … But you think I could? Not that I want to.
You get the idea.
The Culture Festival is on October 30th and I really don’t know that we have enough time to put it together. Still, it sounds like he may want to give it a try, so I’m going to bring in the script next week and see if I can do a run through with him and Clemente. Who knows? My crazy idea born of Spring Fever and Big Dreams may in fact produce something interesting.
And you know, speaking of Clemente
2) I had lunch with him today. Or, rather, I had lunch at his table. This is something that I haven’t done in a while, and I guess absence makes the heart grow fonder because he was super enthusiastic about talking with me. We discussed Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, the lyrics to We Are the World and how he can go about memorizing them, the Japanese band Monkey Magic, and (of course) soccer. I think it’s probably one of the most thorough conversations I’ve ever had with him, and it was even nicer because I totally wasn’t expecting it. It reminded me why I like this kid so much.
3) We have a new character! I’m going to call him Mr. Bayblade, after his favorite comic. About a month ago, one of the first year boys did something kind of unfortunate to his leg and so he was on the sidelines a lot during all of the sports festival preparations. I took the opportunity to talk to him and get to know him better and now I have a new friend. He likes to talk to me before and after class, and he’s also started to come and talk to me during lunch time. He usually comes with his friends and they like to teach me about whatever it is that they’re obsessing over. I now know more than I ever thought I would about Bayblade, as well as the different spinning tops that each character controls within the Bayblade universe.
What’s extra nice about my new friendship with Mr. Bayblade is that he’s using the opportunity to practice his English. He tries to explain his interests to me in English, and I’ve noticed that he’s become one of the more vocal and active participants during class. This is a big surprise because he wasn’t all that interested in the subject when he was in elementary school, and he began the year … creatively.
Still, it’s nice to see him opening up to me and how, along with him, I’m getting to know a group of the first year boys that I’ve never had many opportunities to interact with. They’re good guys, and setting up this level of camaraderie with them has been a lot of fun.
O-oreo
What’s in the middle?
The white stuff
I think The Scorpions said it best… September 27, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Cultural Exchange, Dance Troupe, Enkai Aftermath, FC Bayern Munich, Student Moments.Tags: changes, fall term, fc bayern fangirl, Japan, Japanese, kanemoto, penelope, sports festivals, The Band, The Child
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Or at least they said it well:
I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night
Soldiers passing by
Listening to the wind of change
The world closing in
Did you ever think
That we could be so close,like brothers
The future’s in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change
Chorus:
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change…
Setting aside, for the moment, references to the former Soviet Union, there is a lot about the imagery in this song that works for me during these cold, misty early days of autumn. It’s occurred to me more than once over the past week that with this changing of the seasons, it’s going to be a very long time before I again have the chance to enjoy a warm summer day in Mie, Japan.
This is going to be a shorter post than I’d originally intended. After I got home from work on Monday, I sat down at the computer with the intention of cranking out a first-class, comprehensive, previous post-referencing gem of an update for you. The next thing I knew it was 10:30 and I’d fallen asleep on my keyboard. So, you could say that things didn’t go according to plan.
Still, I’ve been quite busy since we last touched base on Wednesday. Here are the highlights:
~ Thursday: Had another draining, but productive practice with The Band. As usual, Mr. Coke was at the center of all humor and there was extensive discussion as to whether or not he would be wearing his Spiderman costume for our concert on October 3rd. (He will not.)
~ Friday: Helped the elementary school set up chairs and tables for the sports festival. I found a job for myself on the second floor of the gm, where I took chairs and tables down from high places and passed them to the children who then carried them down to the athletic field. I was amused to see that something of my work ethic has rubbed off on the girls, because they were determined to carry at least three chairs on their own because “Julie can carry six.”
Julie: Not just for English anymore.
~ Saturday: My last sports festival! My first enkai with the staff of an elementary school! If time permits, I’m going to try to write a longer, more comprehensive post about this day. (Please stop laughing, I can hear you.) I must say that I kept myself well occupied throughout the day, from baking fresh bread for the staff members, to taking pictures, to entertaining students, to interacting with the parents. What was also pleasant, and particularly memorable about this day (besides not doing the mukade race!!) was that I felt I had a chance to interact with the other teachers in a way that we hadn’t before. It felt friendlier, more relaxed, and quite welcoming.
~ Sunday: This was a pretty standard Sunday for me. I worked out in the Gym in the morning, went shopping in the afternoon, and caught up with family in the evening. FC Bayern did not play well on Saturday night, and I have to say that it left a bit of a shadow on my Sunday. Still, I don’t blame The Guys for the current state of affairs. The team’s been decimated by injuries and the manager is having some … managerial issues. We have a game mid-week and I’m hoping that things will go more smoothly.
~ Monday: Good things about this day: a letter from Kanemoto, absurd lunch conversations with Penelope, a relatively successful speaking check with the second year students, and reminders as to why I really like this first year class (even if they’re hyperactive to the point of being dangerous to themselves and others).
Not so good thing: Being the object of The Child’s emotional turbulence after school.
Monday was the day when all of the third year students officially retired from clubs and student committees and passed the reins on to the second year class. I think that The Child was feeling really sensitive about this ceremony, and the prospect of having to leave middle school. As such, when I went out to the bicycle racks to say goodbye to the third years, he used me to vent his frustrations and told me that I was a bothersome and annoying person who needed to just be seen in English class.
It’s been a long time since he’s turned on me in this way, and so I really wasn’t prepared to respond to such an aggressive tone. I knew that although he was serious, his words weren’t genuine. Still, they did kind of sting and I retreated to the second years to give him his space.
I’m certainly not upset with him for his behavior; The Child is in fact, a child, and I know that he is still learning how to control and handle his emotions. Because of his intelligence and sensitivity, this is particularly challenging for him. The only thing I can do is go back into class on Tuesday and treat him as I always have. I think that the best thing I can give him is constancy and stability, even if he is determined to lash out against it.
Ah, teaching. And people say that this is an easy job?
Walking down the street
Distant memories
Are buried in the past forever…
I got up at 3:20 this morning… September 15, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Cultural Exchange, Dance Troupe, sports festival, Student Moments.Tags: bayern munich, fc bayern fangirl, practices, sleep deprivation, The Band, The Child, the dance troupe
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… so that I could watch FC Bayern Munich teach AS Roma how to play quality soccer.
Granted it took us until the second half to make it happen, but with goals by Thomas Muller at 79′ and Miroslav Klose at 83′, we certainly dominated. Some of our passes were absolutely spectacular, and towards the end of the game it was a total onslaught against Roma’s goal.
This is, quite simply, a FANTASTIC start to my day.
Going back to Wednesday, I have to say that the most entertaining portion of the day came from a class I had with The Child. He’s recently decided that he wants to go to high school, and he has a lot of really tough exams that he needs to pass in order to make that happen. As a result, although I wouldn’t go so far as to say that he’s become a hard worker, he has been more manageable in class lately. It only takes me about five minutes to get him on task as opposed to, say, fifteen.
Wednesday was one of his less productive days, though he was cheerful enough.We worked through a series of drills together for almost the entire class period, with bursts of productivity closely (and invariably) followed by long stretches of banter. Some things I did not know about him: he wants to join the Japanese version of the navy (what they have of one at any rate) because he wants to protect people, he is still pining for the girl he was infatuated with at the beginning of the summer, he prefers his women to have hourglass figures (don’t even ask how that topic came up), and he can play the drums. What particularly pleased me was that he really tried to speak to me in English. He may fail most of his tests, and he may be borderline illiterate when it comes to English, but he certainly can communicate. For me, that ability counts for a lot.
Wednesday was also noteworthy because of dance practice. Our next performance is on October 3rd, and this will be our debut of the Band + Dance Troupe version of Girlfriend. I’ve been having a lot of problems executing the last part of the song (as usual…), but I think that I made some real progress last night. Generally speaking, I feel as though the group is in a good place at the moment. We still have about three weeks until we perform and so there are opportunities to commit the dance to memory and to work on making things look sharp. This extra time is particularly helpful for me because there are a lot of things that I need to do to clean up my dancing and singing. Still, like I said, we have about three weeks.
And that’s more or less what’s going on here. Epic Bayern soccer matches. Battles with students. Singing. Dancing. Merry making. The usual. My elementary schools are still in sports festival-mode, and so the rest of the week will be taken up with those preparations. As always, September is proving to be an incredibly active month.
And the set list, you stole off the stage
Has red and purple lipstick all over the page
My Teaching World / General Update August 4, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Apologies, Cultural Exchange, Student Moments, Summer Vacation.Tags: computer issues, Everybody's Favorite, fc bayern fangirl, fievel, hannah montana, hermione, kanemoto, my little monkey, shiritori, stern des sudens, summer camp, summer pictures 1, summer vacation, The Child, the whistler
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Welcome back ~ to both of us!
I’m sorry that this week has gotten off to a slow start. I’ve had some computer issues that I’ve been dealing with and I also may or may not have completely destroyed my sleeping schedule on Sunday/Monday so that I could watch a game between FC Bayern and Schalke 3. In addition, I’m taking a trip to Tokyo this weekend and so my schedule has picked up and grown a bit hectic thanks to those preparations.
Quite possibly the Best Team Song Ever
Now, though, my computer is working and My Beloved Bayern is hard at work training and not playing games that make me get up at 2 o’clock in the morning. Let’s move forward, shall we?
As I mentioned before, it’s summer vacation in Japan now and so my Teaching World has been relatively quiet over the last few weeks. June and July were quite busy, though. I had open lessons at my middle school and a lot of small projects that I had to finish. While all this was going on, I do believe that it was Moments With Students that kept me (relatively) sane. Some highlights include:
Everybody’s Favorite making a triumphant (and hilarious) visit to show off all that he’s learned since leaving middle school. He further declared that middle school is better than high school in every conceivable way and that I am not allowed to return to the States.
The Child continuing to vex me in ways that only he can manage. Still, he’s decided that he actually wants to attempt to go to high school and so he’s become a great deal less snarky and more studious over the last few months. I’m still not sure what his chances of success are; it’s difficult to correct years of intellectual neglect in only about six months. Still, I’m pulling for him and I’m hoping to help him in any way that I can.
The Whistler and I have been playing word games in the hallway over the last two months or so. It’s actually the same word game – a popular little mental exercise called Shiritori. The idea is that you say a word and then another person has to take the last letter of that word and make a new word. “Egg” could lead to “goblin,” which leads to “nest,” which leads to “turtle,” etc. We’ve been playing the same game during cleaning times and 10 minute breaks. A winner is declared when one’s opponent can’t come up with a new word. Considering we have hours in between turns, I think this is probably the Shiritori Game That Will Never End. At present, it’s my turn and the last word was “thought.”
Hermione and I have spent a lot of time together. If it weren’t for her and Hannah Montana, I probably would be significantly more sad and lonely. I made both of them happy right before the break because I arranged for the second year class to watch the new Tim Burton version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. That was probably the most successful movie day I’ve ever done.
Kanemoto and I have also interacted a lot during the first term. He seems to be adjusting to the middle school, and I go out of my way in every way, shape, and form to annoy him. There are just some students that one can’t help trying to frustrate and provoke at every turn, and Kanemoto is that student for me. I can’t begin to describe how much fun it is to see him grow increasingly agitated as I take him to task (for the fortieth time in an hour) for not writing me a letter in English. The best part is that when he finally breaks (which he does every time) and scolds me in ardent, exasperated Japanese, I always look at him blankly and tell him that I don’t speak Japanese so he’ll have to do that once more in English. The magical part of this entire relationship, though, is that these little confrontations actually work. I’ve gotten some absolutely smashing letters from him as a result.
So that’s more or less what’s been happening on the middle school front. The elementary schools have also been busy. The weekly 5th and 6th year lessons are a constant worry, but I’ve seen some real growth and progress in my students so I can’t complain. My Little Monkey has been remarkably scarce, but Fievel and his brother have been my little shadows at every possible moment. In addition, I attracted some new fans after showing my classes a slideshow about England; I’ve had a lot more letters from 3rd through 6th graders newly inspired by all things international. I’m planning on putting together a presentation about the trip I’ll take to the States in December, so I look forward to sharing that with them as well.
Perhaps the most significant and entertaining activity on the elementary front were the two-day long summer camps that I went to at the end of July. Wednesday/Thursday saw me cooking, singing, and otherwise frolicking with Thursday’s elementary school, and then Thursday/Friday focused on Friday’s school. It was a busy three days for me, but I was able to take a lot of great pictures and I think that I connected with some students in a way that I hadn’t been able to before.
And… I think that’s a pretty fair overview of My Teaching Word, which will continue to be on hold until September 1st. I’m using my summer vacation as best as I can, and look forward to trips with my friends, afternoons at the gym, visits to the movie theater, and days at The Beach.
I’ll leave you with some pictures from the summer.
Making curry and rice.
I enjoy taking pictures of fire.
This would be more fire.
Fire in Flower Form
FC Bayern Deutschermeister ja so heißt er mein Verein,
Ja so war es und so ist es und so wird es immer sein
Let’s have some ICE CREAM. June 9, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in ice cream, Just Bizarre, Student Moments.Tags: hannah montana, ice cream, Japan, Japanese, jet, Mary Sunshine, school lunch, spring term, The Child, the dance troupe
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Because I’m running behind schedule today and can’t seem to flesh any of my thoughts out into a full post.
~ Recently, I’ve been really disappointed with the caliber of the lunches at my schools. The menus have been bizarre (yesterday’s was white rice, a small piece of fried fish, and a weird sour vegetable salad-esque thing) and the taste not that tasty. Everyone eats the same thing at my schools (all the students and staff), and so we’ve been collectively suffering over the last month or so. Yesterday, The JTE and some other teachers took part in a rant after lunch, which was quite entertaining. I also got to complain, so that was a nice bonding moment.
~ I have an equation for you: Mary Sunshine : last year :: Hannah Montana : this year. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been spending a lot of time with my pop-culture queen, and I’ve discovered that it’s ridiculously fun to tease her during class. To this end, I’ve started using her name in a lot of my games and activities, and I made her a zombie in the Zombie Listening Test from a couple of weeks ago. She responds to my gestures of affection with various forms of physical abuse, but I’m starting to get used to this method of communication.
~ The Child had a very good day, which made up for the massive headache he gave me on Monday. While I was working with him on Wednesday, I was struck by how much he’s grown up over the past four years. I know that he doesn’t think a lot about his future (except to dismiss it as boring and tiresome), but I kind of hope that he rallies and decides to become a teacher. I think that he would be a good one.
~ I finally had a chance to go back to dance practice last night. The Dance Troupe and I have a small festival on Sunday. It should only last about five hours, so I don’t think it’s going to be too taxing. We’re doing the same dances that we worked on last year, although DJ Ozma is hard at work on coming up with a routine for Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend.
~ Looking at the weather forecast for next week depresses me. The Rainy Season is indeed upon us.
Never wanted to know, never wanted to see
I wasted my time until time wasted me
I think I need to make a few changes. June 7, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Cultural Exchange, Dance Troupe, Student Moments.Tags: Japanese, jet, joyful, recipe, spring term, The Child, updates
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Because right now, my current “Blog Writing Schedule,” although regular (and I use that term liberally), is still a bit infrequent and I’m not getting to talk about the things that I want to talk about. At present, this schedule means that I writemas much as I can between spoonfuls of oatmeal and the process of organizing my iPod for the day’s driving. (On today’s menu: the most recent BBC Broadcast, a feature from WNYC’s Radiolab on Time, and Part 3 of a program about the History of Rome. If there’s time, I also have plenty of BBC documentaries and episodes from HowStuffWorks.Com.)
This is Julie. This is Julie kind of geeking out.
There are a lot of things that I’d like to talk about, but current time constraints prevent me from doing them any sort of justice. Still, so you know what’s ahead of us at some point: Introductions and Short Bios of my band mates, growing problems with a student at Friday’s elementary school, an update about last year’s first year students and the current first year students at Thursday’s elementary school, some introductions and bios about people that I often see at the gym, and much, much more!
In the meantime, I offer you three things.
1) An anecdote:
Monday was extremely busy, to say the least. I had five classes and I found myself fully occupied the entire time. The most taxing (yet entertaining) class was with the third years. I spent the whole time begging, bullying, bribing, harassing, flattering, and just flat-out threatening The Child to do the day’s assignments (exercises in the workbook, so definitely not his favorite way to spend his time). He was having one of his “I choose to be difficult and contrary but will eventually do the work” days. These are the days when I truly earn my paycheck, my friends. He is so freakishly quick, and trying to dance around his excuses and arguments (in Japanese!) (with occasional smattering of English when I still feel the need to win even if he can’t understand me) is akin to Chinese acrobatics.
Still, when we finish the lesson with the following exchange, it … well … it doesn’t cure my headache, but it does put it all into some kind of strange perspective.
The Child: Foreigners are such a pain.
Me: What about me???
The Child: No, you’re okay. I love you.
Is there such a thing as a relationship where the student abuses the teacher??
2) A soup recipe!
This was from this past week. My father finally got his wish and we made something cream-based.
Cream of Broccoli Soup (from The Farmer’s Almanac)
- 6 cups water
- 10 ounces fresh or frozen chopped broccoli
- 3/4 cup finely chopped onion
- 2 cups shredded American cheese
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons white pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup light cream
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 1/3 cup all-purpose white flour
In a large saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Add the broccoli and onion; boil for 10 to 12 minutes. Add the cheese, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the cheese melts. Add the milk, cream, and butter. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly.
Add the water to the flour and mix until smooth. Add slowly to the hot soup, stirring rapidly. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the soup is the consistency of heavy cream. Serve hot.
I didn’t use the cheese and I added some chopped up mushrooms. Also, instead of using regular water I opted for some homemade chicken stock that I had in my freezer. This is a great soup! Try it, you’ll like it! ^o^
3) A song!
The band wants me to start working on this song, although we’re not clear if I’m translating it into English and singing that version, or just staying with the Japanese. It’s kind of hyperactive, but I’ll give it a shot.
This was the best version that I could find, so please enjoy watching somebody play the guitar. ^o^;
There’s a dance that goes along with it, which you also may be able to find if you really want to search for it. The song is called Joyful (じょいふる) and it’s by a group called Ikimonogakari (いきものがかり).
And that’s the news for the moment.
I hope everyone has a great week!
You can’t make up your mind
Please don’t waste my time
Let’s state the obvious! June 1, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Julie Gets Philosophical, Just Bizarre, Me Time.Tags: fievel, hannah montana, kanemoto, Mary Sunshine, The Child
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We have seven weeks until summer break!
But really, who’s counting?**
However, until those blessed days of ice cream, visits to the beach, and nationally televised high school baseball tournaments arrive, I still have about a hundred classes left ~ give or take. There also may or may not be a wealth of other happenings and obligations. I really don’t want to be the kind of person that ignores the present in favor of drooling over future prospects, though, so let’s pull back from this summer-oriented daydreaming and focus on what’s been going on in the here and now.
To be honest, I’ve been having some difficulties figuring out what to write about in this post. It’s not that I don’t have good memories from the past few days. For example:
Friday: The school had a special event second period that ran long and prevented us from having English class with the 5th graders. They were completely ruffled and absolutely enraged and by the experience, which did my heart a world of good. It was also vastly entertaining to watch them try to reschedule the class themselves. They were only placated when we promised to do two periods of English this Friday. Kids wanting more classes, who knew?
Saturday: I had a spectacular dinner with My Japanese Sister and her family. I was particularly pleased with my menu (one can never go wrong with homemade bread and beef stew), and it was nice to catch up with them again. It’d been quite awhile since our last dinner together.
Sunday: I’ve had this image in my mind for quite some time of using Sunday mornings to work out at the gym, go by a local farmer’s market, and eat Indian food for lunch. I was delighted to see this plan come to fruition; not much gives me more pleasure than seeing a collection of ideas become a bona fide routine.
Monday: I did a day of speaking checks. Four periods of speaking checks to be precise. I don’t know that we can say I’m doing a good job of encouraging and promoting conversational English. However, I believe we can say that I’m not doing a bad job of it. I still feel as though there are miles to go before I sleep.
Tuesday: The Gym. Also podcasts.
I think that perhaps one of the reasons that it’s been a little hard for me to reflect on my circumstances recently is that part of me is a little wary and unsure of these new routines. For so long, just about every waking moment I had was dedicated to class preparation. Working on nights and weekends wasn’t an option – it was just what I did. I started to notice, though, that the process really did leave me feeling very tired and more than a little stressed out.
To some degree, that kind of effort is required with my kind of job. I don’t have a lot of guidelines or rules or formal procedures that I can follow; I’ve had to more or less create my role. Having such a vast world of possibility and potential to work from is overwhelming (to say the least). My job is like a huge ball of clay, and the only way that I have been able to shape it into some kind of profitable state has been to put in a great deal of time and energy.
This year, though, I’ve started to take a step back. This isn’t to say that I’m not busy (on the contrary, my work hours are more packed than ever). It’s just that I’m feeling more of a need to take time to focus on other parts of my life, I suppose. Whether it be listening to podcasts about international politics or going to the gym or singing with the rock band – part of me is trying to establish a role here that is not directly linked to my status as an English teacher or a foreigner.
I guess part of me feels guilty for this move away from my work. I feel as though the students would benefit from some of the activities/projects that I used to do regularly. On the other hand, I go through each day with the knowledge that I’m going to be leaving this town next March. Perhaps what’s happening now is an initial shift away from here and back home; a shift from Japanese Julie to American Julie.
Still, as Mary Sunshine once told me, “first [take care of the students, then [I] can go home.” It’s important for me to remember what’s kept me here, and what brings more joy to my day – even more than going to the gym or listening to the BBC News. The Child’s jokes, Kanemoto’s letters, the rival between Fievel and My Little Monkey, Hannah Montana’s laugh. Perhaps these are the keys to soothing the next ten months of restlessness.
I can see the way you look at me
And even when you look away I know you think of me
**I am.
Mysterious Days May 17, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Cultural Exchange, Just Bizarre, Lessons Learned, Student Moments.Tags: class deception, eating hamsters, hermione, Japan, jet, spring term, The Child, The Japanese Best Friend
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We have about one week down and nine to go until the summer break. Normally, I am one to advocate mindfulness and savoring each moment of every day to the greatest extent possible. I suppose it’s a kind of New-Age way of thinking, but when faced with the knowledge that I will be significantly (if not violently) uprooting my life in about ten months’ time, it’s the best I’ve got.
Still, I’ll be honest and say that the increase I’ve seen in my class load since last April is running me pretty ragged (thus the longing for summer vacation). Not only am I in charge of many different kinds of lessons this year, but I often work with difficult/problematic students during class (which is fulfilling, yet draining), and then I have “outside cultural and social” obligations as well. Among these obligations are side projects (posters, contests, puzzles, newsletters) that I used to do but now am having problems finding the time or energy to focus on. As a result, even though I’m working the same hours that I’ve always worked, I feel less productive. It’s at this point that I get grumpy and post angsty updates on Twitter.
I suppose this all goes to show that there is most certainly a distinction between a foreigner who is some kind of “language teacher” and a foreigner who is an “assistant language teacher.” I’m not exactly sure where I fall, but there have been more than a few times this past month when I’ve thought to myself, “Wow. I wish I had an ALT.”
But … all of the above is me complaining, and that is not why you’re here! You’re here for the tender, poignant, often hilarious and usually unusual memories from the last five days!
So, here we are.
Thursday
Thursday was a fairly normal day at the elementary school. I remember feeling pleased with my lessons, and happy with some thoughts that The Mentor shared with me about the current first years at the middle school (half of the students were his students last year). I think that the most memorable part of the day for me, though, was the lunch that I had with the fourth grade class.
I’m not sure why, but recently the students in this class have become extremely enthusiastic about English. I’ve been flooded with letters and conversationalists during recess. There are three boys in particular that have been rather persistent, which amuses me greatly. I am always fascinated when, for some reason completely unfathomable to me, a student decides that I am somebody worth interacting with on more than just the minimum level required by the English class itself. It makes me happy; it makes me feel as though I’m doing something right.
Friday
Friday was, unsurprisingly, a chaotic day at the elementary school. I had a lot of classes and because I see the fifth and sixth graders every week (and they are the most enthusiastic of my classes), there are now more opportunities to surround me for conversation and stickers. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: stickers and rewards are the key to teaching English.
The best part of the day, however, came from the third year class. A lot of these students go to outside English classes. I’ve noticed that over time, these students’ knowledge has spread to their friends, and at this point the whole class is very quick and rather skilled.
On Friday, we were studying the sentence “I eat ~.” The students already know how to talk about their likes and dislikes, and now we’re in the phase of my curriculum where they start to pick up other verbs. I think I’ve written about this before – how much fun it is to trick the kids into telling me that they eat unusual things (dogs, cats, people, vegetables…). Friday, however, was the first time that the kids fought back against my deception.
We were practicing this new sentence using flashcards. I would hold up a flashcard of a food, say the sentence “I eat (flashcard picture)” and the students repeated after me. Pretty basic, right? The point of deception comes when, after the students find a rhythm and stop paying attention, I toss in a picture of something strange and then act extremely disgusted and offended when they tell me that they eat it. On this particular occasion it was a picture of a hamster.
The third years acted as expected: they were both indignant and hysterical. After we gathered ourselves, we continued on with the practice, but the last card I had in the stack was one of a cat. When we got to it, I tried to trick them again, but they were more than prepared for my little scheme. The exchange went thusly:
Julie: I eat cake!
Students: I eat cake!
Julie: I eat cats!
Students: NO, I DON’T.
That’s the first time I’ve ever seen an entire class of student use English so fluently and naturally to convey their emotions. That incident may have just made my year.
Saturday/Sunday
It’s probably not fair to group the two together, but it really was a very low-key weekend. I cleaned, listened to a variety of podcasts during my long drives around the prefecture, and had a Mexican dinner night with The Japanese Best Friend. She and I have been busy planning the next few trips that we want to take. We’re setting our sights for a weekend in Nagoya in July so that we can see The Phantom of the Opera, and then we want to go to Tokyo Disneyland in August. It’s nice to have these trips to look forward to.
Monday
Monday has, arguably, not been the best of days for me. I suspect that the recent changes in my schedule + Information Overload from too many podcasts + too much time thinking about work = slight case of insomnia. At any rate, I had a nice lunch with The Child, who still maintains that I am the exception to his otherwise-ardent xenophobia. I also spent the lunch recess with Hermione, who helped me to get caught up on the gossip stories churning out of the 2nd year class. I am behind in a lot of news, and this is not the way that things should be.
And now, we have Tuesday on the horizon. What, my dear Japan, do you have planned for me next?
I’ve noticed these are mysterious days
I look at it and like a jigsaw puzzle and gaze
