this post might be very boring. if so, then im happy to correctly reflect the tone of my typical weekdays in blog-form.
__before school__
i wake up, cold, around 6am to my iphone's alarm clock playing the only song anyone should ever wake up to. after folding up the futon and putting it in the closet, i grab a can of bug spray and walk outside to the shower. i try my best to shoo away or kill-spray all the moths, mosquitoes, spiders, and other miscellaneous bugs i happen to see while i take a wicked hot shower. some mornings, if im feeling unusually hungry afterward, ill eat an american breakfast of cereal or yogurt. with the amount of sleep ive been getting lately, morning coffee is pretty much mandatory (im drinking it black these days). i spend the rest of the morning preparing my lessons for the day. then its time to load up the backpack and either walk, ride my bike, or take a bus to my first school of the day.
__morning classes__
upon arriving at school, i take off my shoes at the entrance way and put on the guest slippers because outdoor shoes are not worn inside school. then i go straight to the teacher's room where, if im lucky, the office lady will already have a hot cup of tea or coffee waiting for me on my desk. office ladies are freaking awesome! at 8am all the teachers gather for our daily meeting. as i dont understand most of what is said, i can only guess that everyone uses this time to talk about upcoming school events. or maybe they take turns making fun of the foreigner that cant understand them. possibly both. ill probably never know the truth.
classes usually start at 8:30am. even though i am officially an "assistant language teacher", i teach the kids by myself about 95% of the time. conveniently for the real english teachers, this means that they have none of the responsibility but they get all of the recognition. gee, they sure have a sweet gig.
class is usually spent trying to entertain the kids enough so that they dont fall asleep, talk to their friends, or have enough time to be rude to me. by the way, kids misbehave A LOT in japanese schools. but surprisingly, there is no such thing as disciplinary action here. in america, kids can get written-up, suspended, sent to the principal's office, expelled, ect.. but in japan, when the kids act up, they dont get punished at all. in fact, most teachers dont even ask them to stop misbehaving - they just try to ignore them. suffice to say, some classes are just plain chaotic and almost impossible to teach.
__about my classes and schools__
i teach anywhere between four and six classes every day. my 6-class days are ridiculously tiring to the point where i catch myself day-dreaming at school of jogging after work just to relax. yes, jogging for hours just to relax - imagine that.
i go to two schools on mondays and tuesdays, and only one school on the other days. three of my days are spent teaching elementary school kids (elementary school in japan are from grades 1-6). the other two days are junior high (grades 7-9). my smallest school has about 50 students. the largest probably has about 400 or so. class sizes range from 3 to 35 students. large classes are difficult to control, but they also have a greater chance of being interesting and making me laugh. no matter how dumb most kids can be sometimes, some of the awesome ones have already mastered the art of being hilarious, which is always a welcome surprise for me. smaller classes, on the other hand, are usually very behaved but sometimes unenthusiastic and painfully quiet.
both of my junior high schools have a "special needs" class that i teach every week. i tend to dread teaching these classes because i cant seem to figure out how to plan good lessons for them. it seems that my lessons so far are either ridiculously easy that its hard to keep them focused, or impossibly difficult for them which also leads them to not stay focused. so it seems that no matter what i plan, i cant keep their interest. and for me, personally, i find it very difficult to deal with some of the terribly strange things that go on in special needs classes.
to be continued..
__before school__
i wake up, cold, around 6am to my iphone's alarm clock playing the only song anyone should ever wake up to. after folding up the futon and putting it in the closet, i grab a can of bug spray and walk outside to the shower. i try my best to shoo away or kill-spray all the moths, mosquitoes, spiders, and other miscellaneous bugs i happen to see while i take a wicked hot shower. some mornings, if im feeling unusually hungry afterward, ill eat an american breakfast of cereal or yogurt. with the amount of sleep ive been getting lately, morning coffee is pretty much mandatory (im drinking it black these days). i spend the rest of the morning preparing my lessons for the day. then its time to load up the backpack and either walk, ride my bike, or take a bus to my first school of the day.
__morning classes__
upon arriving at school, i take off my shoes at the entrance way and put on the guest slippers because outdoor shoes are not worn inside school. then i go straight to the teacher's room where, if im lucky, the office lady will already have a hot cup of tea or coffee waiting for me on my desk. office ladies are freaking awesome! at 8am all the teachers gather for our daily meeting. as i dont understand most of what is said, i can only guess that everyone uses this time to talk about upcoming school events. or maybe they take turns making fun of the foreigner that cant understand them. possibly both. ill probably never know the truth.
classes usually start at 8:30am. even though i am officially an "assistant language teacher", i teach the kids by myself about 95% of the time. conveniently for the real english teachers, this means that they have none of the responsibility but they get all of the recognition. gee, they sure have a sweet gig.
class is usually spent trying to entertain the kids enough so that they dont fall asleep, talk to their friends, or have enough time to be rude to me. by the way, kids misbehave A LOT in japanese schools. but surprisingly, there is no such thing as disciplinary action here. in america, kids can get written-up, suspended, sent to the principal's office, expelled, ect.. but in japan, when the kids act up, they dont get punished at all. in fact, most teachers dont even ask them to stop misbehaving - they just try to ignore them. suffice to say, some classes are just plain chaotic and almost impossible to teach.
__about my classes and schools__
i teach anywhere between four and six classes every day. my 6-class days are ridiculously tiring to the point where i catch myself day-dreaming at school of jogging after work just to relax. yes, jogging for hours just to relax - imagine that.
i go to two schools on mondays and tuesdays, and only one school on the other days. three of my days are spent teaching elementary school kids (elementary school in japan are from grades 1-6). the other two days are junior high (grades 7-9). my smallest school has about 50 students. the largest probably has about 400 or so. class sizes range from 3 to 35 students. large classes are difficult to control, but they also have a greater chance of being interesting and making me laugh. no matter how dumb most kids can be sometimes, some of the awesome ones have already mastered the art of being hilarious, which is always a welcome surprise for me. smaller classes, on the other hand, are usually very behaved but sometimes unenthusiastic and painfully quiet.
both of my junior high schools have a "special needs" class that i teach every week. i tend to dread teaching these classes because i cant seem to figure out how to plan good lessons for them. it seems that my lessons so far are either ridiculously easy that its hard to keep them focused, or impossibly difficult for them which also leads them to not stay focused. so it seems that no matter what i plan, i cant keep their interest. and for me, personally, i find it very difficult to deal with some of the terribly strange things that go on in special needs classes.
to be continued..
Monday, November 08, 2010 |
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