Tuesday

Woke up at 7:00, had a mandarin, banana, and cookie for breakfast, threw out the rubbish, then drove to school. Another nice day of 5 lessons today. First up was 6-2 in period 1, and we were making schedule booklets. Today’s lesson was really fun and I enjoyed it a lot, and I think the kids did too. They made the booklets nicely and seriously, and practiced saying their schedule ready to present next period (period 5). The kids in 6-2 are just so funny and have so much personality and charm, so it’s really fun. One of the Trump brothers was just repeatedly saying “peanuts” today and I had no idea why. Most of them were able to remember their lines, so hopefully the presentations will go well later this afternoon. Next up was 6-1 and they were also very good today. Both my JTE and I were really happy because one kid who absolutely never raises his hand, raised his hand to answer a question today! We told their homeroom teacher afterwards and he was pretty happy about it too, which was cute. 6-1 also made their booklets well and practiced saying their schedules. A few kids struggled with saying “take a bath” because the “th” is hard for them. After I told them that I would give them special stickers if they presented with a loud clear voice, the classroom erupted into many kids saying loudly “HI! THIS IS MY LIFE”. It was so cute.

Had 3rd period free so cut out and laminated the wolf and goat cards for 4th grade. 6-1 again in period 4 and it was time for them to present their schedules! Most of them did pretty well – I think it helps that we’ve been on this unit for 7 lesson hours, so it gave them plenty of time to remember all the vocab and how to say times in English. Even if they couldn't memorize their “speech”, all they had to do was just remember what time they eat breakfast or go to school, and they were able to say it, so that was really nice to see. Lunch with 5-2 again today and it was really fun! We had bread, udon, dried fish/sweet potato/nuts salad, and a mandarin for lunch. I was sitting with a different group today and the kids were a lot more talkative than yesterday’s kids. One kid was like “call me Mighty Thor” and then another kid started 恋話 which I thought was hilarious since they’re still little elementary school kids. It was also one of the kid’s birthdays today so we sang happy birthday, and I only just found out that they enter school a year later than we do in NZ – so their 1st graders turn 6 or 7 years old, and their 6th graders turn 12 or 13 years old, which I found very interesting. We also talked about Hulk, the new Thor movie, the most recent Spiderman movie, and Justice League. Also talked about Wii U, Wii Switch, and the games that they like to play. It was a very happy lunchtime. Cleaning was easy again too despite 2 people being absent – the other kids were very good about it and didn’t mind doing double the work to cover for the absent kids (also helped that I offered them 2 stickers for their effort instead of the usual 1!).

Period 5 with 6-2 and they presented their schedules. It was just a bit different because there was a photographer present for the whole class, taking photos for the 6th graders’ graduation book. The kids were probably a bit more nervous because of this, and a lot of them couldn't hold their laughter or smiles because of the camera. They still presented pretty well and some kids had great pronunciation again. 5-2 in period 6 and it was a nice class, but just a little noisy. Pretty sure they’ve all got the hang of “What do you study?” and “I study (subject)” now so that’s good. We also did a little bit of favourite subjects (“What subject do you like?”) and most kids like P.E. (as expected). Finished cutting out all the characters for the wolf and 7 little goats story, and also started on the powerpoint that contains all the colour coded lines. Got off work at 16:30 and drove home. Had noodles with mushroom and tofu for dinner and caught up on some photo editing.