Tuesday

Woke up to light rain this morning but it wasn't too bad. Pasta salad for breakfast and arrived at school just before 8:00am. Four classes in total today. First one was 6th grade in first period.

The class went pretty well I think – we continued from last week’s lesson by finish their country flag quizzes. Their efforts were really adorable, their spelling attempts are just too cute! As expected there’s a lot of confusion between L and R, and also them trying to spell words in the Katakana way of saying it (spelling “star” as “suta” for example). It’s still super nice to see them trying their best in English though, and also them asking me how to say all the different words. One kid was really eager with the flag of Turkey and happily learnt how to say “crescent moon”. When it came to presenting, they were all really shy and it was hard to get three people to present. The second class was a bit better with this with some kids volunteering even if they weren’t confident in English. One of the girls noticed my hair was in a French Braid today and asked if I did it myself. She also had a short French braid in her hair too done by her mum! Again made me think of the advantages of speaking Japanese with your students. They approach you and you’re able to build a really good relationship with them. From this I taught her how to say “braid” (三つ編み) in English! Learning opportunities everywhere.

After the morning break, it was class with the 5th graders. I’m glad the wordfind is so popular with the kids here! They were seriously all trying their best to find the words, not even one kid was slacking off. This class topped the other 5th grade class with the top student finding 13 words! In second place was 11 words found. After the class finished one kid found all the words though, so that was pretty cool. They also liked the guessing the letter game, and when we asked volunteers to come up to run the game, one kid wrote his name as the word to guess. This 5th grade class had previously asked me for an interview for their class newsletter and we finally got round to finishing it. Their questions were so adorable and really made me think! I mean, I don't often think about who’s my favourite Disney character, and what food isn’t delicious in New Zealand. It was great.

Lunch today was cheese bread and a really delicious tomato soup with chicken and mushroom in it! We also got a slice of grapefruit which was interesting for me since I don’t get to eat actual grapefruit often, even in NZ. The kids were super cute again today. I arrived a bit later than the normal 12:20 and they all ran to hug me as I walked in asking where I was. Cutie pies everywhere. They also noticed that I had my hair in a braid today (rather than the usual ponytail) which I was pretty surprised at. Didn't realize 1st graders have such a memory and eye for detail! For the lunch break today I got caught by a group of 1st graders who bombarded me with their notebooks with drawing requests. Drew a lot of animals and Disney characters for them, but the good thing was that they also asked me to write their English names so yay for another English teaching opportunity. I also found out today from the first graders that they’re at school from as early as 7:00am in the morning!!! Although apparently 7:30am is more normal. No wonder the grounds are already all filled with kids by the time I get here at 8:00am. I asked the teachers what time they get in too, and apparently most of them come in around 7:30am. Seeing as they all leave some time after 17:00, that makes for a very long day at work. Plus they all bring their work home with them to do…

Last class of the day was 1st graders. I was more prepared for this one after yesterday’s class. Prepared some more fun things – got a cute “Old McDonald Had a Farm” video off Youtube, saved lots of animal sounds for them to guess, and made one more animal bingo sheet just in case we had time remaining. Today’s class was with the one I’d been eating lunch with, so they were all very familiar with me. During lunchtime they had said that they were glad English was their last class of the day (because it’s just fun and games haha) and that they wished all their classes were English class. They loved the animal sounds game. A lot of them confused the cat and mouse sounds as a hamster! The teacher loved it too I reckon, she laughed so hard when the cow sounds came on because she wasn’t expecting it. Bingo didn’t go so well though, mostly because the kids took a longer time than expected to draw the animals. Some of them are really good at drawing though! We had quite a few bingos before ending the game, doing some final vocab revision, and then rewarding them with a home video of my NZ home, to let them see what NZ houses are like. All of them were exclaiming “広〜い!” (so spacious/wide!) throughout the whole thing.

Had a meeting with the Grade 2 teachers today for tomorrow’s lesson. I think the Grade 2 teachers are the best with the whole team-teaching aspect. They properly make sure to know when they need to step in and do their part, and actively participate in the lesson planning, not just the lesson itself on the day. After I finished work at 16:30, I cycled to Leopalace to pay for my parking space. Still not sorted out sadly. The guy who was dealing with me last week didn't get the seal from the mayor needed for the parking space contract, so I have to go get it myself and come back again next week…but the good news is that I got my car tonight!!! It’s so small and cute and the car dealer cleaned it up real nice so it feels really new. So even though I have to go to Leopalace and everything all over again, at least now I have a car to do so!