Friday

Felt a bit weird to be back at school after two days off! Today was nice and normal with four lessons to teach. First up was 6-1 in period 1 and it was a pretty nice class. They were extremely quiet and well behaved in the first quarter because their homeroom teacher was still there helping us set up the classroom laptop (we were watching a DVD today). But even after he left they were still pretty well behaved, just a bit chattier and not as deadly silent. The random number drawing out of the box system is seriously working well! They’re all getting used to it now and aren’t hesitant to answer when they know their number was pulled out of the box. Or just faster to answer in general, which I’m very pleased about. Thank you to the ALT who suggested this system to me! Since we’ve been doing a lot of speaking activities, most of them are able to ask “What time do you (do activity)?” and answer “I (do activity) at (time)” pretty well. Very proud, but I just hope they maintain it in their memory!

Period 2 was a special lesson with 2-3 because it was another observation lesson – there were 2 teachers from the BOE, the principal, VP, and 2 teachers from our own school observing + one teacher filming and recording! 2-3 did very well though I wasn’t worried at all. They’re such a high performing class for English, and it was another smooth class because their homeroom teacher and I had practiced and planned for it quite thoroughly beforehand. 2-3 sang the song super loudly and clearly, we hardly used any Japanese to explain the game and just used demos which they understood, and they did great in the games. My JTE was one of the teachers observing and she said she was so impressed with the class (感動しましたって!). Overall it was a great lesson and one that I think was great for all the teachers there to observe.

Period 3 with 6-2 and another smooth class. Today’s 6th grade lessons were very relaxing because it was just a textbook listening activity and then a DVD. The DVD was definitely a little bit cringe for me, but the kids loved it and laughed a lot, which was nice. 6-2 are also all pretty good with mini English conversations now as well (“What time do you get up? I get up at 7:30am, how about you?” kinda thing). Period 4 with 5-2 and I feel like more kids in this class have started appreciating English, or at least are showing much more interest in it. There were a lot more hands up today than usual, and they did the last activity with a lot of enthusiasm. Guess I’ll just incorporate more of those exchanging card activities since they get to practice speaking and they love playing the game anyway! Lunch today was really nice – Japanese style: rice, salmon, soup, and vegetables. Had 5th and 6th period free so I caught up on next week’s lesson prep and then got off work at 16:00 to go to Daiso to pick up my mum. We had a hotpot dinner at home and then went to onsen later at night ready for a good night’s sleep for Tokyo tomorrow!