First Full Day at School

My first proper full day at school today! Even though the students don’t start school till September, teachers still have to go to work at school in the summer holidays (planning lessons, admin work, and stuff like that). It was raining this morning so I opted to walk to school instead of cycling since you’re not allowed to cycle while holding an umbrella here!

I arrived at 8:20am (got a teeny bit lost while walking, even though it’s only 2.1km away!). There were very few teachers in today because of the Obon Festival – while it’s not a national/public holiday, many offices still close on this day. There were still some teachers around, and I got to meet the teacher who is in charge of English for Grades 4~6 which was very helpful! She’s super cute and lovely, though she doesn’t speak much English – which I actually kind of prefer, because it gives me a lot of control over the lessons! She told me which lessons each Grade was up to, and asked me to work on my self introduction part of the lesson, think up some revision activities, and prepare for English lunchtime broadcast on Fridays. It was really nice because I actually have work to do! Planning lessons and thinking up activities is quite fun really – it’s a nice challenge to try to think of activities that would both be fun for the kids, but also help them truly learn some English! I also have the English Corner (a board outside the library) to work on, and my predecessor made it really fun with a lot of interactive things like quizzes and treasure hunts, so I’ll have to work hard to make it super cool as well!

I met around 5 other teachers today, and I found it helpful to remember their names and class by writing them down in a small notebook I carry everywhere with me. Everyone is really nice here! The principal and vice-principal weren’t in today so I and everyone else here was a little unsure as to what to do with my attendance sheet, but the principal came in later in the afternoon to do some work, so he stamped it for me. On a lot of JET blogs online, they tell you that you have a lot of spare time at your desk to kill, but I found that with lesson planning and activity brainstorming, it’s really not too bad and I constantly had things to do.

After work another teacher kindly offered to drop me off home, we finished work at around 16:00! At home I got a package redelivered to me (yay my laptop case arrived!) and went to the supermarket at around 19:30pm to see if the supermarket savings are truly worth it. In Japan after a certain time (usually around 19:00) they mark down a lot of items’ prices (like meats, set lunches, etc.) so you can save a bit if you go during these sale hours. I found that the prices were only marked down a little, often most things were ¥100 to ¥200 cheaper? So not too much of a difference but I guess adding it all up, it does help you save quite a bit. I was really craving dumplings too so I bought some premade ones for dinner tonight, but also the ingredients to make my own tomorrow!