Friday

Woke up at 7:00am, had udon for breakfast, and drove to school today since I needed to fuel up afterwards. A nice busy day today with 5 periods filled with classes – and all 5th and 6th grade! First up was 6-1 and it was a fairly standard class. They loved the bingo game much more than I thought they would, so even though we only planned to play it once, we ended up playing it twice. For the 2nd round I got them to say the cards (e.g. “I eat breakfast”) instead of me so that we would get some speaking practice in. We basically only got to play bingo for the whole lesson because the kids seriously take FOREVER to cut stuff, so a lot of time always goes into cutting the cards out. The other ALTs have mentioned this too, so I guess it must be a Japanese thing to just take ages to cut stuff out. It’s funny though – it’s always very quiet and they’re cutting the cards out as if their life depends on it. We were supposed to have class with 6-1 again in period 2, but because there was a fire drill happening, we postponed it. We all went outside for the drill and there were even firemen and fire trucks there – a lot more intense than our ones back in NZ! They also brought an earthquake simulation van, where it has a room to experience an earthquake in. The principal and 3 other teachers went first, and then four 5th grade kids, and then four 6th grade kids. They cranked it up all the way up the scale to 7 (1 being the lowest) so it was shaking really bad. Normally we’re told to take shelter under desks and chairs, but the shaking was so bad that the people couldn't even move. They challenged the 6th graders to get under the table though, and it was just funny – there’s a countdown before it starts shaking, so they literally jumped under the table just before 1, so obviously they were able to get under. Obviously in a real earthquake you wouldn't anticipate it, so you wouldn't be able to react in time. The firemen also opened up the fire trucks for the 1st graders to look at and they were all having the time of their life.

5-2 in period 3 and we had a fun lesson finishing off the quiz presentations. They were taking ages though so we only went through group 1. Then we played the Castle game for the first time (basically a quiz, but the way you keep points is you either get to build a block, or destroy another team’s block when you get the question right). They loved this game, and although it was a slow start at the beginning where they were still trying to understand the point system, they got the hang of it in the end and it did get competitive. 6-2 in period 4 and it was a great class. The 5th and 6th graders all seemed to be in good moods today, or if I’m being hopeful, their attitude towards English has become more positive? 6-2 absolutely loved the bingo game as well, and when I asked for volunteers to say the phrases instead of me, we got a LOT of hands in the air – it was great! A lot of the kids who don’t normally put their hands up were volunteering because they all wanted to get bingo! We were able to finish bingo a bit earlier with 6-2, so I started introducing the next part of saying what time you do things at. I got them to guess what time I wake up, eat breakfast, go to school, and they really enjoyed that. It’s easy enough to explain “at 7:00” as well, because in Japanese they have an equivalent for “at” (in this case for time – に) so they grasped it pretty quickly, even the kids who usually take longer to understand.

Had the English broadcast today but I had a bite of lunch just before I went to the broadcast room since I was really hungry. I did a mini NZ animal quiz today with True or False questions, which the kids in the broadcast room seemd to really like, so I think I’ll just True or False quizzes from now on. I didn’t play outside today at lunch since I had a lot of flash cards to make for next week’s lessons. Cleaning time was great today – the kids finished super early so they were spinning around on the ground playing. I stopped them before it got out of hand though, and rewarded them with stars. Period 5 with 5-1 and the quiz presentations were pretty good – since they know they all have to present, they actually do so pretty willingly! A lot of them had “apple” as their answer though, so we had to change it up by banning apple and tomato! 5-1 also loved the Castle game and a few kids got REALLY into it – whispering intensely to their answering teammate “build build build” or “destroy ONE DESTROY”. They’re seriously too fast at putting up their hands though, it was really hard for some rounds to determine who should answer! 2nd hour of classes today with 6-2 to catch up on some missed lessons previously from holidays and schedule changes and stuff, and it was great again. We started with a round of bingo with them saying the phrases instead of the jingle. Then I said some phrases (e.g. “I wake up at 6:30. Who am I?”) and they had to guess which of their classmates it was. They really loved this game too and they were just shouting random names cause they had no idea. They were also making comments like “So early!?” and “So late!?” to the announced times so it was a lot of fun. It was also hilarious because the kids whose schedule I was saying out had forgotten what they wrote earlier, so they didn’t realize until way late that it was their very own schedule that I was reading out! We did the worksheet activity where they had to ask their neighbor about their schedule, and they did pretty good. Got a few pairs to present at the end and it was funny because one girl who always puts her hand up put it up as soon as I asked, but because it was a pair activity the boy sitting next to her was like “!? Consult with me first!?”.

Stayed quite late at work today because of the flashcards and laminating them, so I got off work at around 17:00. Went to fuel up and then buy some cakes from Puchiru again for a little treat. Then went home and made myself some omurice for dinner!