2nd Week of School

2nd week of school (teaching) had been a hit-or-miss.  Just another round of self-intro lessons.  I was particularly excited about this week, because of the small schools, which means more 1-on-1 time with the students.  I also had good rapport with these schools from my initial meet-and-greet.

Tuesday:

Coming back from a 3-day weekend, I was ready to rock.  Got to my school about 30 mins early.  Had lots of time to prepare since my only class of the day starts in late morning, even managed to explain to my principal what I will be doing in class in (broken) Japanese.  Here's the twist: my class has every students in the school, 12 total, which had the grade schoolers who are normally too young to be learning English.  And all the teachers and the principal were there.  In the end, I nailed it.  I took what I learned last week with the games and everyone had fun, including me.  Lots of running around, and I was genuinely smiling the whole time.  Still couldn't believe I'm getting paid to do this!

Wednesday: 

Today's the first time that the textbook was used, and I was unprepared.  I just couldn't mate the self-introduction lesson with a "how're you?" lesson (you think it's easy, but not with the way the book presents it).  And it's the first time with a Smartboard, too much tech for 6 kids and an entry-level English class.  But really, it's because I got complacent and over-confident with all those self-intro lesson.  Ended up with a lot of downtime during class, and I was not happy with myself.  But they were so nice to invite me to have watermelon at lunch with them.

Thursday:

Double duty today.  I was determined not to screw up today, and to go into the 4-day Golden Week holiday on a good note.  I got scheduled for a special self-introduction lesson with the whole school (about a dozen kids) and the teachers.  Then, I had playtime with the younger kids before my actual class, played "Fruits Basket", which is a variant of musical chairs.  Anyway, my class was awesome!  I made packs of flashcards with celebrities and everyone had to do mock self-introductions with those faces, including the principal and vice principal (who sat in on my class).  My teacher really likes James Bond (so he got the pack with James Bond in it), and my vice principal knew all the AKB48 girls and anime characters I had.  In the end, my vice principal and I talked about various things and he even gave me some constructive feedback.

Long drive to my afternoon school.  Just in time to have school lunch with the 5th and 6th graders, like all 4 of them plus the teacher.  One girl's already going to cram school, so her English level's high.  Another school-wide welcoming ceremony, and I gave all the kids high fives.  I did the same routine for class and worked fabulously.  However, the best part happened after school.  Ended up spending 2 hrs running around outside and playing soccer with the kids.

Lots of plans for the 4-day.  2nd week and I haven't been to half of my schools yet...