Monday

Back to work! Woke up at 7:00am, had a mandarin and a banana for breakfast and then drove to school. Nice day of 5 classes today, with 4-2 up first in period 1. We were starting the new unit “The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats” where the kids would do a play of the story at the end. For today’s lesson we just sang a song I found on Youtube that was about the story, and then watched a cartoon version of the story. We then decided the roles but it got a bit complicated because some kids decided they wanted to be the narrator, even though I told them it would be in English and quite difficult (lots of lines) but they were like “いいよ、頑張ります!” so my JTE and I decided to let them be since we could share the lines between them. But then one kid who wanted to do the narrator part got told by another kid that he couldn't do it so he started crying, so that’s where it got a bit complicated. While my JTE dealt with that, I went through the story again with the kids in English and Japanese to make sure they understood the story completely.

Next up was 3-2 and it was just another crazy class. They don’t seem to getting any better and today was just as noisy and rowdy. They really weren’t listening to their homeroom teacher today so it was a bit unbearable. We still got through the board game, but I felt quite sorry for the kids who actually wanted to learn English, as the noise from the rowdy kids really drowned out anything else. 3-3 was much better, but they were still one lesson behind the rest of grade 3. They did really good in the conversation bit, most of them got the hang of answering “I’m going to (place)” very well. Some kids had great pronunciation that both their homeroom teacher and I were amazed at. I also got them to say the places instead of me for the karuta game, which a lot of them liked doing. 3-1 in period 4 and they were great as always. Even though they too were a bit louder than usual from the excitement of the board game (the kids seriously go crazy over rolling the dice) they still quieted down between each round, so it wasn’t rowdy at all and the class atmosphere was very good. They also got the hang of saying “I’m going nowhere” (when they landed on a blank space) so I was pretty happy and proud.

Had lunch with 5-2 today and it was pretty fun. The kids obviously aren’t as affectionate as the younger grades, but they still talked with me a bit and I was able to memorize a few more names. Lunch today was a really nice slightly spicy seaweed tofu soup, shumai, and Takasaki-don. Spent the lunchtime in the office today since I was still pretty tired from the Tokyo weekend. Cleaning was a breeze today because it was all the well behaved kids rostered on this week. Last class of the day with 4-1 in period 5 and it was a very smooth class. We got through the story easily and they were also very good about deciding the roles, no troubles there. Wrapped up with them writing their reflection sheets and also writing down their own role so they wouldn't forget. Spent the free period 6 prepping a bit and organizing Grade 4 and Grade 1’s lessons because they’re both doing plays. Got off work at 16:15, drove home, rested a bit before going out again at 18:00 for a hotpot buffet dinner at 温野菜! It was a gooooood dinner.