Back to business

I had my first proper day back at school yesterday…and it was actually quite good! I know, the novelty will soon wear off again, and I will resume my early-morning grumpiness and my cynicism towards Japan’s education system! But yesterday was nice! I have a new desk at my base school, sitting next to a really friendly English teacher (the same guy that organised my welcome party 4 months after I arrived!), and already he is looking after me, and filling me in on the day’s meetings, schedule, and general school stuff (including this week’s urine test for all teachers!!...boy, did he look awkward trying to explain that one!). I am also sitting opposite (i.e I can see her over the top of my little bookshelf) the ex head of English (who helped me out a lot with teaching…let’s call them ‘issues’ last term), and already we are having little chats together, and sharing our thoughts and concerns over a certain ‘teacher.’ I also met the 2 new teachers that I will be team-teaching with this year. They both seem really nice, positive, friendly…and, wait for it….quite good at English! We have already sat down and planned next week’s lessons together, and one of them had already made a handout for the students! Whoah!! Even English Club was cool yesterday…a couple of the girls who are dead serious about it, have come up with all these new ideas, and are scheduling a second meeting each week, because they love English so much! Unfortunately I can’t attend that one because I go to shodo (calligraphy) class on Thursday evening. They have started making a booklet, full of role-plays and useful English phrases, they want to sing a different song every month (like we used to do in class), and they even want me to make them a test every month! These kids are hardcore! Bless ‘em!

Today I am at school in Oshima (my schedule has all changed round now with the new school year), and am teaching 3 classes today on ‘Let’s learn more about England,’…the idea of my JTE, who has realised that I can make good worksheets and lesson plans, and therefore likes to just leave me to it when I visit every 2 weeks! At first I moaned a bit when I realised I had to plan the lesson and stuff again this week, but then today I realised that ‘hey, at least they’re using me, rather than just letting me be a human tape-recorder!’ And the first lesson today was actually quite fun, especially when the students think that the Prime Minister is ‘Bush’, and the most popular food in England is ‘bread!’