I got up at 6:30 am, but arrived a little later than normal to school today because I was watching all the new E3 videos for Mass Effect 3 and Skyrim. But I still got to school just a couple minutes past 8. I got on my bike and rode it through the little bit of houses and recently harvested fields that separate the the school and I. I'm legally obligated to refrain from using the names of the schools I go to on any social media... I think this counts. Also, I can't take any pictures of the kids, so don't expect that to happen. Sorry, these will be just words. On the way to the school, a felt a drop or two of water and hurried so as not be caught in the sudden squall I was sure was about to be unleashed upon me. But, it just slowly stopped sprinkling and I arrived without serious harm or accident to *********** Elementary school a couple minutes after 8 am on June the Se7enth.
I normally would get there a couple minutes earlier, but there were some important things I needed to take care of, okay?! Also, I had to take the garbage out, so that took forever (a minute?). I parked my bike underneath one of the staircases and walked into the entryway between the two wings of the school. The school is shaped like an 'H' with two crossbars, and in one of them there are a large amount of cubbies filled with shoes. I pulled out my white vans from my backpack and changed into them while humming Mister Rogers. I found the cubby labeled 'スコット先生'(Scott Sensei) and stuffed my shoes inside. I don't know why I wear dress shoes if I'm just going to take them off and store them as soon as I get to work. I just don't feel like doing anything different.
Entering the teacher's room, I bow and say 'ohayogozaimasu!' ('Good Morning!') and take my seat at a desk they've cleared for me as everyone replies in kind. The other English teacher, Tony, has already arrived and that's how I know I got there later than usual. I normally get to school right before Tony, but he beat me today. As I move into the room and sit down, unsatisfied with my general 'Good Morning', everyone once again says and draws from me a personal greeting. I unpack my bag: a folder with the materials for the BYU classes I'm taking, a clear plastic bag with all the flashcards I own, and a Ho-oh peachy I use to carry class materials in. I sit there and try and come up with ideas of what to do for my five classes that day. As usual, this school had not given me anything to teach and has left me to my own futile devices. So, I decide that I'm bored with teaching numbers and the kids are probably bored with learning about them. I decide, instead, to teach what Thursday's school wants me to teach: greetings. I take out the notebook I use to write lesson plans in and begin to brainstorm. No lightening, just overcast. For an hour. I look outside to the dirt field where the kids are all grouped by class and jumping rope? I hear someone on a loudspeaker telling them to do better and practice for the visitors they're having on Friday? I have no idea why. Maybe the State Jump Rope Board is sending an inspector or something. I really haven't the slightest. The secretary brings me an orange juice juice box. They used to try and bring me coffee, but decided on a juice box after telling them two or three times that I actually don't drink coffee or green tea. I felt somewhat juvenile every time I'd let go of the pressure in the straw and that trademark juice box noise would sound throughout the office, but it tasted really good and I was sad when it was gone.
Finally, with fifteen minutes before class started and a half page of 'Good Morning' 'Good Afternoon' 'Good Evening's that I'd gone over with my pen hundreds of times, I turned to Tony and said, "Tony, I was wondering if I could delve somewhat into your bottomless pit [his eyes narrowed] of wisdom. [back to normal] What kinds of activities have you done when teaching greetings?" He gave me a couple of ideas that I'd kinda already thought of. I was just unsure of letting the kids try and do conversations with each other; last time I tried it didn't work out, but his activities were kid-on-kid intensive. I decided to try it anyway. First, a game that Tony told me about called Keyword, where the kids repeat everything you say until you say the keyword, then in pairs they try and be the first one to grab the eraser sitting in between them. Then we would play musical chairs, but instead of music, they'd get to sit after doing the conversation with two people. So, with a ridiculously loose idea of what I was going to do, I set off for my first class: 4 East.
Forty-Five minutes later I returned to the teacher's room as unsatisfied as a die-hard Star Wars fan after a viewing of the prequel trilogy. The keyword game worked great, but the way I was drilling the conversation wasn't. The kids just weren't getting it and so I just scrapped it and moved on to the musical chairs game. But the kids that got out were bored and talking and fighting over who sat down first and who lost. It just didn't feel good. It was bad and the kids couldn't say the conversation at the end. Luckily, there was a short recess before the third hour of classes, so I tried to think on how to switch it up for the next four classes. Again, taking an idea from Tony, I decided on a name swap game, where you write your name on a piece of paper and introduce yourself to someone else, swapping cards, like at a business meeting. Then you introduce yourself as that person to the next person you meet and so on. I wanted to do something more with it, but the only thing I could figure out to do to end it with was me doing the conversation with every kid and following the trail until everyone got their card back. This actually worked out well with the kids. Sure, they got a little antsy during the last part when they were just sitting and watching, but they liked the name swapping and really wanted to get my card. Cute kids.
After 4th hour was lunch. I returned to the teacher's room and the vice-principal and the secretary were serving up lunch for the teachers who would be eating there. I would be eating with students, but they serve me up food at the teacher's office, anyways. I sat there with my tray of bread, Japanese spaghetti, cocoa powder covered beans, fruit cocktail, and milk waiting for the kids from 1 West to come pick me up. Finally they came in their little white aprons and we went to their classroom. I sat at a tiny desk and the teacher topped off my spaghetti and fruit cocktail. Then we ate and the kids asked me questions about myself: 'What's your favorite shell?' 'uh... Yellow?' 'What do you like?' '...?' It was real fun. Then I went back to the teacher's room and sat out recess. I was tired, but still had two more classes to teach. I'd resigned myself to the okay lesson that I was teaching and just waited for the next classes to come. Kids take a lot of energy out of you. Little rascals.
The kids had just gone swimming in the pool, so I arrived at my 5th hour class a few minutes early and found everyone changing out of their swimsuits. They had these towels that cinched up at the neck and hung low to the feet, leaving both hands free to change with. It was still a little sketchy and I opted to find a tree really interesting for a couple minutes. But that's not to say that I didn't see the straggling boys standing by their desk in just their tighty-whiteys. So weird. In any event, the last two classes went well and the kids were actually able to say the conversation by the end of the period (I have a sneaky suspicion they already knew how to ask someone's name, though). In any event, I felt the last four classes were a subdued success and feel nothing but regret for the first class. I'm pretty sure they hate me because I always try out my new lessons on them. Oh well, they'll forgive me in the years to come.
Then, with my classes done, I got my paper signed off saying I was there and worked what scheduled me to and hopped on my bike and went home. The end.
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