Friday

Emergency! I woke up at 8:00am today because I had left my charging cable at school, so my phone died in the middle of the night, so the alarm didn’t ring!!!!! Good thing I still woke up at 8:00am though and not much later! I only realized I slept in when I heard voices outside and car doors slamming, which I usually don't hear since I set off a lot earlier than the rest of my apartment. Got changed and rushed to school, arriving by 8:30am, so technically I was only 15 minutes late since my official starting time is 8:15am. As I was opening the school gate, my JTE ran up and offered to close it for me since I think she was late too so that made me feel a little bit better. But I needn’t have worried, no one said a thing and I think most teachers/the VP didn’t even realize I was late cause they were having a staff meeting and I just slipped in at the back. But phew that was still a shock when I woke up! Glad my school is so chill.

First up was 6-1 in period 2 today, and we did a countries version of the word chain game, and they actually did pretty well! Definitely ended up with a lot of “A” countries though (AmericA, AustraliA, AfricA, ArgentinA) – we couldn't get out of the A circle! After that we went through Momotaro once and I got them to write down words and phrases that they caught. We then played a new version of the pointing game that I thought up. Just pointing at pictures in the book is boring, so I turned it into a team game and had them all turn to the page where the object was (e.g. peach), and then they had to all stand up pointing to that page. The first team to have everyone standing up pointing to the correct object got a point! They really liked this game and got real into it, which I was very happy about. They also got to learn some new words (demon, raccoon) so that was great. We watched Maui and the sun in the last 5 minutes, since they voted on that last time. Felt a bit bad though since I couldn't find any videos that told the story in English, all the ones I found were in Maori with English subtitles. In the 20 minute break, someone had a sent a box of senbei (Japanese rice crackers) to the school as thanks, so everyone was eating senbei! Had period 3 free so I used that time to plan a bit of lessons, since there’s a lot of Christmas lessons coming up.

6-2 in period 4 and it was a good lesson. At least half the class actually did the extra activity of writing out some story summaries so we got a few to present. After that we did the powerpoint quiz (What story? What country is this story from?) and then watched The Little Match Girl since they voted on that. Lunch was とんかつ today, and it was 6-2’s requested lunch. Spent the lunch break playing outside again today with some 2nd and 3rd graders who were playing jump rope. I should seriously buy a jump rope so that I can join in with them. Some of them are crazy good – one girl did 30 double jumps in a row! Others could do fancy crisscrosses and even double jump crisscrosses. Also, I find it super cute how the school has these “jumping boards” which are these wooden boards raised a bit and you get a lot more height if you jump on those. It’s good that primary kids are so active over here. Cleaning time was fine, no problems at all. They finished way too fast today (like before I even got there!) so I made them do rubbish checks up and down the corridor a few times, which they actually really like doing!

5-1 in period 5 and we did the summary test and got the students to write the answers up on the board at the end. Pretty pleased because this one kid who is very…I won’t say he hates English, but he’s a bit apathetic towards it or he doesn’t pay much attention, but he volunteered to write up a block of answers today! And when I looked at his test, it was actually all correct. I guess he’s one of those secretly smart kids who just gives off the “bad kid” vibe on the outside. I helped a few of the kids who were struggling with the test – but it was mainly just because they couldn't read the English vocab, so they couldn't match it with the pictures. As soon as I said the words (e.g. “home economics”) they’d click and be like “Ah! That’s 家庭科 aye” so they do remember the English vocab, but just a bit stuck on the reading part. I really wish I could do one on one sessions with the kids who can’t read. They’re all bright kids so I’m sure they’d pick it up quickly! 6-2 in period 6 and they loved the team pointing game at the end too. I should seriously play more games in grade 6, I feel like they learn so much more/better when we do, plus it’s a lot more enjoyable for them. They were writing down the new words “demon” and “raccoon” so eagerly during the game, it was great. Got off work at 16:15, drove home, and made some fried rice for dinner.