Monday

Woke up at 7:10am, had 親子丼 for breakfast (since I ended up not eating it yesterday night) and then set off. First up today was 3-2, and it wasn’t too bad when I put it on 3-2’s specific scale of super bad and alright (3-2 has to be evaluated separately since they’re just an abnormally troublesome class). I’d made personal worksheets for everyone with their favourite things written on it, so they worked on that. Some were able to get on to practicing how to say “I like” all their favourite things in English, others just managed to finish the sheet cause they were mucking around. I consider any lesson successful with 3-2 when a few kids manage to learn something. So even if the rest of the class is noisy and messing around, if a few kids are doing the work properly and learning something (in this case, learning how to say “I like [favourite thing]”) then I’d consider it a good lesson. Obviously it’s not strictly “good” because the class really is wild, but there are little hidden good moments in there. Today I was surprised by one of the kids who never showcased any English abilities, but because I was giving out stickers to kids who had finished all the worksheets AND were able to say all their favourite things in English, even he joined the line and said all his favourite things perfectly, so I was very pleasantly surprised.

3-3 up next and they were more or less the same, but much less noisy. Still noisy, but just less so. I think everyone finished all the worksheets, and I got round at least 80% of the class teaching them how to say their favourite things in English. I only was able to practice once through with each kid though (practice as in them just repeating straight after me), so I’m not sure if they’ll be able to say it all by themselves next week. 3-1 was absolutely perfect again, they’re one of the easiest classes to teach, and I really look forward to having lessons with them. I feel like lessons with them are everything an actual English lesson should be. Their homeroom teacher also makes it a super easy class, cause he’s everything an ALT would want their partner teacher to be. Disciplines the kids when needed (efficiently too!), uses classroom English, uses Japanese only when needed, and helps out with answering English questions (e.g. about pronunciation and stuff like that). It’s a very great combination, and I’ll miss it when the new school year changes everything. They were super silent while doing the worksheets, and everyone was writing so super neatly! Then the noise level built up a bit as the kids started to finish one by one and we started practicing their “I like” lines. The great thing about 3-1 though is that they never cross the “above acceptable” noise line, and even if they did, their homeroom teacher would step in and they’d quiet down real quick. Their homeroom teacher was helping with the speaking checks, so with both our efforts combined we were able to make sure that each and every one of the kids could say their “I like” lines confidently by themselves. I think some of the 3-1 kids must go to English cram school since a few of them could actually read their lines, and weren’t just memorising them. 3-1 is overall just a much more mature class, and I’m not sure if it’s all because of the kids’ personalities (all the quiet and mature kids got placed in this class??) or their homeroom teacher’s methods (he’s a pretty calm and quiet person too). It kind of reminds me of how kids reflect their parents though, as you can see with some classes that they reflect their homeroom teacher’s personalities.

Lunch with 6-1 today and I’ll never stop finding it adorable how different they can be out of class. As in they’ll open up a bit more and be so well-mannered and shy, when they can be disruptive and apathetic in class. They’re just a lot more cute during lunchtime somehow? Today we talked a bit about the junior high schools they’d be going to, movies, anime, and them trying multiple times to have an “English conversation” with me and failing adorably (“Hello, how are you?” *that’s all I can say*). Their homeroom teacher also struck up a conversation about hay fever with me – I definitely feel so sorry for all the people who have hay fever, and it’s super common in Japan! One of the kids was like “I thought hay fever was flower powder in English” which I thought was hilarious. Lunch today was delicious! Creamy corn soup, butter ketchup rice, and French pickled salad. Cleaning time was smooth at the beginning today, then the kids all seemed to get sugar highs, and then finished off the cleaning time on a wild noisy note. Got talking with one of the assistant teachers during the spare periods, and she was telling me how a lot of the teachers don’t get notified of their new work places (the BOE decides a teacher’s workplace here, not the teacher themselves!) until March 20th so it’s a really tight schedule and late. She was also telling me how I should totally go snowboarding on the 21st (public holiday) since even though it’s a public holiday, the people from Tokyo don’t come unless it’s the weekend, so the crowds shouldn't be that bad yay! Got off work today at 16:00 and popped over to the drugstore to get some ointment for my rash on my wrist, and then went home. The itchy ointment works wonders! I put some on immediately when I got home, and it instantly helped so much – no more itchiness, and the skin noticeably reduced in redness. Relaxed at home for a bit before going out again quite late at 19:30 for dinner at the parfait place I went to before, but they’re actually an okonomiyaki and monjayaki place. We got the 仲良しセット which was one okonomiyaki, one monjayaki, yakisoba, salad, and tea for only ¥2980 total! The friend who recommended me this restaurant was also there tonight, so we stayed a while having a chat with the owners (they even gave us some free yoghurt, so cute) before going home. I had Haagen Daz’s new sakura mochi and red brean ice cream for dessert and it was seriously so good!!! Their ice cream is truly on a different level.