Friday - Mum has come to visit!

Woke up a bit late today at 7:15am, had udon for breakfast and then drove to school since it was only 3 degrees outside! Today was a bit special because it was the day where parents could come to the school to observe classes. Only had 4 classes today so it was a bit more relaxed. It even felt odd because I’d been having 5-6 classes a day for all this week. First up was 6-1 and they were so much better today. I think it was because they really liked the interview game, and because I gave them bonus stickers if they used responses (“Really?” “Me too!” “At 7 o’clock?”) they were having a lot of fun. 6-2’s homeroom teacher asked me later what they were doing, because she could hear them having a lot of fun. I was apologizing at first like “Oh were they too noisy? Sorry!!” but she was like “Nah they’re having fun! It’s good”. I also love 6-2’s homeroom teacher, she’s really cool. Didn’t have any parents in the classroom observing for period 1, only one parent hovering outside the classroom entrance.

There were more parents present in period 3’s class with 5-2, and it was quite cute because the kids whose parents were there, were trying extra hard today. Today’s lesson was quite fun because we’d started a new topic – “I study Japanese” – so finally no more random words and alphabet things. I think the kids were pretty relieved too since they were participating much better. Or they might have just been more well-behaved because there were parents observing. We started with a jingle, than did a hint quiz to get them guessing the subject names, which transitioned into me introducing the subjects naturally. They actually knew most of the subject names in English already, so I really only had to teach the vocab for math, home economics, social studies, and art and crafts. We did a few textbook listening activities, and then finished off with the random objects bingo, since we didn’t get round to that last time. We also did the “Sunday Monday Tuesday” song which goes through the days of the week and gets stuck in your head SUPER easily – all the kids were singing it after the lesson ended.

6-2 in period 4 and another great class. They also loved the interview activity, and were all saying “REALLY” and “ME TOO” with enthusiasm. I love how I can still get 6th graders to do stuff with stickers. They’re too cute and innocent. They just had a bit of trouble with the question where they kept forgetting the “do you” part in “What time do you get up?” so it just become “What time get up?”. English broadcast today so it was lunch in the staffroom today. The True or False quizzes for the broadcast are such a great idea cause they’re so easy to prep. Also helps that NZ has plenty of birds for me to make true or false questions about! Cleaning time was a bit of a mess today cause they were all hyper and running around instead of cleaning. The tea-lady who overlooks the 6th graders cleaning the toilets that’s on the corridor I’m in charge of had to come over and tell them off cause they were just that crazy today.

Last class of the day with 5-1 in period 5 and there were definitely a lot more parents present observing. It was a pretty good class, they were still noisy as usual but they did good in the activities and everything so it wasn’t too bad. They were laughing when I said “calligraphy” and I couldn’t work out why, until one of them said “cauliflower” when I asked him what calligraphy was in English, so that explained their laughter from before. They loved to say P.E. the most, shouting “PEEEEEE EEEEEEE” super loudly. Had 6th period free so I worked on the last of the nametags (3rd and 4th grade) and then drove home at 16:40. Went to Takasaki Station to pick up my mum at 18:30, and then we went to the supermarket to buy some stuff to make vegetable nabe! My mum really likes the soymilk based soup so we got that, and also got some scallops cause they were really good. Also bought some ginormous pears that were really good – it feels so good to have some fruit at last!