Tuesday

Woke up at 7:15am, had cereal for breakfast, and set off for school. First up was 4-1 in period 1, and it was another really good lesson. 4th grade lessons are so much fun this year. We started on numbers, and learnt how to count from 31 to 60. I made sure the kids knew the difference between 13/30, 14/40, 15/50, and 16/60, and could say and listen for the difference properly. We then did the connect the dots worksheet, and then played numbers bingo. 4-2 was just as good in period 2. We started a bit late because they had calligraphy in period 1, and it took them a while to clean up. It didn’t really matter though, because we still finished everything on time. 4-3 in period 3, and it was another perfect lesson. Things just can’t seem to go wrong with 4th grade so far this year! Lunch with 4-2 again today and it was a lot of fun again. Lunch today was delicious – bread, grilled chicken, cream stew, and coleslaw salad. The kids were very cute and kept asking if I wanted seconds. Helped myself to some more cream stew, and the kids were helping me to scrape the very last of it into my bowl.

6-1 up next in period 5, and it was a solid, good lesson. Today’s Small Talk section was a bit more special with all 3 teachers (me, my JTE, and the JHS JTE) involved. Today we started on the “I can swim” unit, so today’s lesson was all about learning “I can play (sports)” “I can play the (instrument)” and “I can (action)”. I was also able to teach a little bit of pronouns, with “he can…” and “she can…”. This worked well with the gesture game – so I’d have two kids up front acting out different actions, and depending on whether the gesturer was a boy or girl, the kids would have to answer accordingly “He can play baseball” or “She can cook”. I thought the kids did pretty well, and they were able to spot the differences between sentence structure (e.g. you need “the” for describing what instruments you can play, etc.) and they answered using he/she well. 6-2 was also just as good, except the start was kind of funny because half the class was absent doing some sort of health check, and they trickled in as the lesson went on. Most of them still got the gist of today’s lesson goals though. A few struggled a bit with “I” and “he” and “she”, but it was still good overall. The twins in 6-2 asked me if I was at Starbucks yesterday, cause they were certain they saw me. Turns out they saw me cycling past Starbucks! I was so confused at first, because it was like “No I didn’t go to Starbucks yesterday?” and then they were like “But it really looked like you!” and then they clicked and asked “Were you on a bicycle?” and then I clicked and was like “Oh yes I did cycle past Starbucks!”. They had just finished cram school, which is next to Starbucks, so that’s how they saw me. I didn't see them at all though! Had a meeting with the JHS JTE afterwards, and then with the 1st grade teachers, and then the 5th grade teachers, and then the 3rd grade teachers, and then got off work at 16:15. Went home to drop off my stuff, and get all the paperwork for moving apartments, called the BOE to check they’d still be in when I arrive, and then cycled out. I was just at the intersection outside my apartment, when the BOE called me back and unfortunately couldn't meet today, cause she forgot she had a meeting! So I’ll go tomorrow instead. Went back home and studied Japanese for the rest of the evening.