Have a 'cool' Christmas!

I taught my final Christmas classes today...with the cool kids at Tabuse! These are the kids who I often refer to as my bad-ass students. But really...they're all piercings, tatoos, funky hairstyles, and shouting in class...they're not really bad! They have bucketloads of attitude, a great sense of humour, and are just trying to get through high school the only way they know how...by having a laugh! My classes with them are tiring, and my voice is strained to the max...but they are oftenso rewarding! Today, i asked my JTEs not to translate everything I said to the students in Japanese...I wanted them to listen, and try and understand. My JTEs were great...stepped back and let me run the show....at first the students looked terrified as they realised they had to actually listen to MY instructions, rather than the Japanese equivalent. But 5 minutes into the class, they had understood all my instructions, and were well into the speaking activity I had prepared for them. It was actually quite amazing to watch them watching me...as I could tell how chuffed they felt when they realised that they were understanding my English. It was as if, for the first time ever, they actually believed in their own English ability. It was great! They sang 'Last Christmas' with gusto, enthusiastically completed the 'Christmas interview' activity, and were super super genki by the time we started the 'big category game'. They loved it....and loved the prize for the game even more...a Christmas card from me, with my purikura inside! God, what a great morning! It was topped off nicely by being allowed to go home after 4th period, collecting my pay, and wandering round the shops of Yanai.