Wednesday

Woke up at 7:00am to light rain this morning. Udon for breakfast, and arrived at school at 8:00am. The rain wasn’t too bad, only my fringe got a little bit soaked! Today was a busy day with 5 lessons in total. I had all three 2nd grade classes in the first 3 periods, and the 5th graders in the last 2 periods. The 5th grade classes will be starting actual lessons today since I’ve finished my self-intro for all of them, so it’s going to be exciting to see how an actual proper lesson goes!

I checked my English board return box in the morning, and two 2nd graders had very adorably completed both worksheets! One forgot to write her class though, so I had to go searching through the rolls but it was ok I found her! The 2nd graders are very enthusiastic – they walk around with the worksheets on their special clipboards during all the school breaks to find the animals and place cards! The 2nd graders were all very enthusiastic and participative in their classes. Class 2 and 3 are very well behaved, class 1 is just a little bit noisier/rowdier, which honestly I don't mind at all, but I hope I’m not ruining any discipline or rules they have set in place by letting them be so loud. I also noticed in each of the 2nd grade classes there was at least one super shy and quiet student. The homeroom teachers still encourage their participation by saying the English phrases together with them though, so it’s quite a nice system they have in place here. I know I need to prepare more games/activities where they can all participate, plus just more activities in general cause man they are hyper! It’s cute though – class 2 used their question time (normally they ask you personal stuff like your favourite colour, your birthday, etc.) to ask how to say a lot of words in English (whale, bug, fairy). I love their eagerness to learn here! You just can’t help comparing with your home country (in my case, New Zealand), and the difference between students is most probably first the manners they have set in place here (standing up to answer, pushing in your chairs) which most (if not all) students do very well. I know it’s more a cultural difference, but it’d be interesting to see if other Western countries also implemented these kinds of standards/rules from an early age too, would the kids grow up to be more mannerful too?

In 2nd grade class we had time to do a little bit of revision (colours and fruits), and they remembered their vocab pretty well! Also super eager to answer, with loud choruses of YEEEES and hands raised high everywhere. They even knew light and dark blue too! Even “special” colours like gold, silver, and tan. Lunch today again with the 1st graders, and we had rice with eggplant and I think minced pork, milk, a slice of pear, and really delicious soup – it was a clear soup but had a lot of flavor! Sadly I forgot to take a photo of the school lunch today. One very adorable moment today – a first grader asked me where I sleep at night, I replied “home” and she exclaims “you fly back to NZ every night!?”. What a cutie pie. I spent the lunchtime with a large group of 1st and 2nd graders as they were trying to find the animal and place cards. The takahe card seems to have disappeared though, because I can’t find it anywhere, even with the photos of the original spots on my phone! All the students are really doing a great job with writing the English letters! Their writing isn’t any worse than their New Zealand same age peers. Also, the worksheets have been super popular and have run out already, so I had to make more copies. I didn't expect it to be so popular! I’m glad my JTE originally already printed 50 copies of each sheet – I thought not many kids would participate so I told her 20 copies is fine at first. Who knew that the whole 1st and 2nd grade would be participating! It’s the 5th and 6th grades that don't really participate in the English corner worksheets, but I guess if I hid stuff on their floor (the 4th floor) too they would start searching as well! My next English Board theme is going to be on Sports, since the school’s sports day is on September 30th. Instead of filling out worksheets I was going to hide puzzle pieces instead – save some paper and make it more participative for everyone!

Last two periods were with the 5th graders. We started officially on the curriculum lessons today – 5th grade was on learning the alphabet, capital letters before lowercase. Surprisingly, they all seemed to know the alphabet already! They could properly read all 26 letters, and recognize their shape. Not sure if it’s because they covered it last semester, but they were just really good with it so the lesson was probably a little bit boring. I will need to work on making more interesting and challenging activities, and also thinking of a way to make sure ALL the kids know the letters. As of now, it’s still the same kids answering the questions and putting their hands up. They could also recognize the difference between B, P, and D when listening. Both grades had participative people, but the majority were still a bit spaced out. I don't blame them though because today’s lesson was rather boring – my JTE likes to follow the curriculum, and not really change things up, and the curriculum’s plans are not the most fun. She is still really flexible and doesn't mind when I add in some games or something, so just means I have to put in some work and think of some more games/activities now!

Having 5 classes a day is definitely a bit more draining, so I’m glad I have days when it’s only 3 classes. Tomorrow is also 5 classes though, so at least I know what to expect now! Finished work today at 17:00 and went straight home. Sometimes I’m just not sure when to finish up and leave the school, because teachers and even students seem to stay there till so late!