It's a New Record!

That's right folks. For the first time, ever, in the history of my job I taught FOUR junior high school classes in one day. Phew! It was so tiring.

Actually, it wasn't tiring at all. It was invigorating. I had no idea just how bored I had been sitting at my desk all day every day. On most days, I pass my time counting the hours until lunch. It's a banner day if I actually learn a kid's name. :P Bad days are the ones where I'm forced to eat unidentifiable seafood at lunchtime AND no one will talk to me. *tear*

Not today, though! I showed up at my usual time (bright at early at 7:50 AM), poured my morning cuppa (coffee, not tea), sat through the incomprehensible morning meeting (3rd graders need to stop getting hit by cars) and then spent first period planning a lesson with the Special Needs teacher, Takabayashi-sensei. After that, it was 2nd period with some 2nd graders, whom I can definitely excuse for thinking that "taught" should be spelled like "thought" since they rhyme. Then 3rd period with some 3rd graders, who made me die a little inside by consistently answering the question "What country would you like to visit?" with "I like Japan." This was also the class where the teacher, during warm-up question time, asked the class "Which do you like better: a boy or a girl?" (The Filipino kid who sits in the corner smirked, and I tried very hard not to make eye contact with him.) I also got to impress the kids with my sugoi English-reading skills. You can read that passage three times in three minutes? Well, I can read it five times. Bam.

Lunch was with 1st graders, Class 7 who are one of the liveliest bunches in the entire school, and it included Nikujaga. Mmmm... I learned three of the kids' names (Kaori, Momoka and Masaki, in case you were wondering), learned that Kaori likes oranges but not grapefruits and prefers bread to rice, and at last discovered the exact pronunciation of the new student teacher's last name (Goibuchi. Weird, I know). I then made the mistake of asking Kaori and Masaki if they like Goibuchi-sensei. They do, which is all well and good, but this then led to the question "Sara-sensei, are you going to get married?" Oh, geez.

Fifth period turned out to be the highlight of the day. It was our first class with the Special Needs kids. We introduced them to the basic concept of phonetics (This letter's name is "A," but you read it "ah"). The Special Needs kids are so sweet and friendly. Not that the other kids aren't, but the Special Needs kids tend to be much more open and willing to talk to me. We had a lot of fun learning that "t + i" does not say "chi" and that "h + u" does not say "fu," and the kids caught on very quickly. Sixth period, the last of the day, was our second class with the Special Needs kids, and was only marred by the fact that a couple of the kids kept dropping off to sleep. ^o^ Not that I really blamed them. It was the last class of the day, the weather outside was warm and sunny and we were making their brains work pretty hard.

And then it was done! I couldn't believe how quickly the day went by. We get to teach the Special Needs kids again next Thursday, and I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully in the interim the Powers that Be (aka, Tanaka-sensei) will see fit to grant me a larger class-load. Amen.

習字！(Calligraphy!)

Yesterday was my first day joining in club activities at my junior high school. Yay! Since I was barred from joining any "dangerous" sports clubs (the school plead insurance concerns. psh.), I eventually settled on joining the "Cultural Activities Club." Their main activity is Japanese traditional calligraphy, or Shuuji.

Excited as I was, I went right out and acquired myself a calligraphy set. This turned out to be much easier than expected because my fellow ALT, Steven, had an old unused set simply lying about in his apartment.

Since it was my first day, the teacher who leads the class, Yamanaka-sensei, showed me how to set up my ink tray and pour in the ink and how to make sure the brush is good and wet. Then she provided me with a stack of blank pieces of paper and a page of model strokes:



This is the most basic stroke in writing Chinese characters, and it's also the character for "one." So for the next hour, I sat quietly at my little table and made the same stroke over and over again: "One. One. One. One." When I finished a page, I would line up next to Yamanaka-sensei with the other students and wait my turn to display my handiwork. She would then take her own brush, dip it in red ink and highlight things I'd done well (red circles) and then demonstrate things I'd done poorly:



It was funny, but every time I carried my sheet of "ones" over to her, she would exclaim "Ah, jouzu! Oh, it's very good!" before proceeding to point out that I had made the exact same mistakes as last time. At last, she proclaimed my work "finished" (suspiciously, right when club time was ending) and rewarded me with a giant red swirl, the Japanese teacher's way of saying "Good work!":



And there they are. My set of glorious "ones." Yamanaka-sensei assured me that when I come to club next week, I'll get to move up to "twos." I am literally panting with anticipation.