Tuesday - Back to work!

Back to work! Woke up at 7:00am, rice for breakfast, and then drove to school. It was a nice relaxed day with only 3 classes to ease back into things. It was also really nice coming back into school, because over the winter break my JTE had made all the vocab labels to stick on the staircase steps around the school! It was so heartwarming to see kids trying to read the words (we came across some 2nd graders who had discovered the occupation words – teacher, firefighter, etc. – which they knew, so they were really excited). Anyway, first up today was 6-2 and we continued play practice. Only a few kids had their lines memorized (like 3 kids) but it was very impressive! The other kids could at least read through all their lines, but there were also a few kids who were really not into it and had to be fed their lines, either by us teachers, or by the other kids. We’ve set a date for them to present to the 1st graders and told them about it, so hopefully that’ll motivate (pressure?) them to practice more so that they’re ready to present properly on the day! 6-1 up next and both my JTE and I were very impressed with 2 groups who had their lines all memorized, and had gotten onto practicing the play with actions. They were so good! I think it’s because we didn’t expect 6-1 to be the enthusiastic group, but they’re being super good about it. I’m especially happy with 1 of those groups in particular because 2 of the kids in that group normally has a “meh” attitude when it comes to English class, but they’re practicing the play so well and practically ready to perform it! Super heartwarming. It’s still super cute how well sticker rewards work with the boys here – I gave stickers to them as a reward for them having memorized their lines over the holidays and they were just like “YAS”.

Lots of snacks left on everyone’s tables because of the winter break (and teachers travelling places) so it was a nice 20 minute break. 5-2 in period 3 and we played alphabet karuta and the game where we wrote the letters on the blackboard, categorizing them by their height. It was a bit of a noisy class as it always seems to be when we play karuta (I don’t think I’ve ever had a quiet game of karuta) but they were good during the blackboard writing game. Spent period 4 doing prep work stuff – printing off stuff for Grade 4’s play, and drawing up the rest of Grade 6’s play masks. Lunchtime was back with 1-1 today (finally made a full round of all the grades haha) and I had forgotten just how affectionate 1st graders can be. I felt so welcomed as I walked in and they were like “HEY JAIME-SENSEI IS HERE” and “YAY JAIME-SENSEI CAME TO EAT WITH US AGAIN” and just bubbling over with excitement. They’re too cute, and I really wish to stay with this school for a few more years so that I can see how these cuties will grow up! Lunch today was seaweed rice with a side dish and soup with mochi (I think cause of the New Year), and half a mandarin. Spent the lunch break inside continuing the prep for all the play masks, since those need to be done before this Friday. Cleaning time was a breeze and super fun today because the kids were all telling me what they did in the winter break. One kid went to Guam! One went to Niigata (and said there were a lot of noisy Chinese tourists haha) and two went to Disneysea. Spent periods 5 and 6 finishing off the masks. Got off work at 16:30 and drove home.