Monday

Woke up at 7:00am to more rain. It looks like it’s going to be raining this whole week and next week too. Had rice and mashed potato for breakfast, then drove to school. We had the 6th grade graduation photo today, and luckily I dressed a bit more smarter today. I didn't think I’d be in the photos because my name wasn’t on the sheet they gave us, but I guess I must have missed some other kanji saying “other staff” or something cause it looks like everyone is in the photo. Luckily one of the 6th grade teachers said the clothes I was wearing was fine. I did feel really out of place though cause everyone was in suit jackets. Today was a more relaxed day with only 4 classes.

First up was 5-2 in 1st period. They were a bit more restless and noisy today, but we still got through finishing the board game. Next up was 3-2 in 2nd period, and we were on a new lesson unit, Sports! Glad that the like the topic because it makes it easier to teach and lessons easier to run. We did some vocab first, and they basically all already knew the vocabulary because a lot of the sports names in Japanese are similar (almost everything is Katakana). Then I played the song on my Mac connected to the TV since there was accompanying animation – I have to say the Genki English CDs are hilarious; the animation is so budget that it’s funny. The kids loved it and were cracking up at absolutely everything (the badminton and volleyball animation is super cheap – they don't move their arms and only the shuttle/volleyball moves) and requested to watch it multiple times. Thankfully they also remembered what sports were in the song when I asked them about it. Next we played bingo, and although it was also loud and a little messy, I’m glad they remembered how to ask “Do you like (sport)?” and how to answer “Yes I do” or “No I don't”. They all got a lot more bingos than I prepared for, so I was handing out stickers left and right everywhere.

In the 20 minute morning break I tried to return some Halloween sheets, but was instead bombarded with a whole heap of kids handing in their sheets to me. Thus I spent the rest of the break checking and sticking stickers to those newly handed in sheets. The kids are super enthusiastic about it – I keep having to print more sheets, and I have also stuck on a “3 sheets per person” label on the board to stop the 1st graders grabbing all the sheets! 4th period was with 3-3, and they were about the same as 3-2, just a little less noisy and rowdy. There was one kid who didn't want to do bingo because he was really focused on his sports drawings, and since he really was trying hard with his drawings and could say their English names, I let him continue. 4th period with 3-1 and they’re the quietest 3rd grade class of all. Very well behaved and did the activities pretty perfectly. I was also eating lunch with this class this week! Their homeroom teacher makes quite a nice effort to speak English only to me, since he knows quite a lot of English vocab. He was telling me which kids play which sports since our lessons were on sports. Today’s lunch was purple rice (that’s literally its name – ゆかりご飯) which is actually shiso (perilla) mixed with rice, fish marinated in miso, sweet potato for dessert, and milk. Spent the lunch break again trying to return the Halloween sheets to again be bombarded by more kids handing them in. Rushed through and was able to check/stick stickers on all the newly handed in ones, and managed to at least return the 1st grade kids’ sheets – they were all standing outside the staffroom asking for me so I had to prioritize returning their ones first!

Spent the last two periods in the staffroom prepping for tomorrow’s and this week’s lessons. Confirmed this week’s and next week’s schedule with my JTE, and then went home at 16:10. Had udon for dinner and started a new drama that’s really good! The funny thing is it actually just finished playing on TV, and I think I actually watched a bit of some episodes, but because I didn't watch it from the beginning, I couldn't understand the story. But it’s a really good drama (過保護のかほこ)!