Monday

Woke up at 7:15am, had cereal and a cheesecake bun for breakfast, then set off for school. Nice and easy day today, which is always nice after a 3-day weekend (technically not a 3 day weekend, but with the conference on Friday, it felt like one). First up was 2-2 in period 2, and we did a quick revision of numbers, but they counted from 1~20 absolutely perfectly, so I left it at that with just one round of counting. Then we sang the Colours song (which all of them remembered from last year), and then played the missing game, and then the colours action game. Finished off with reading Brown Bear, and playing the missing game with the Brown Bear animal cards. They were actually pretty good today! Not too naughty or rowdy. I think the only problem is now getting all kids involved, because today there were 2 kids who seemed to be having a down day, and didn’t want to participate at all. 2-1 up next in period 3, and I think today’s lesson was the best one with them so far. Even their homeroom teacher was like “Today’s lesson was good! They behaved well today right?” to me after the lesson ended. We were both really happy, since 2-1 has been struggling quite a bit, in terms of class discipline/manners. The kids all enjoyed today’s lesson too, everyone was colouring the big smiley face on their reflection cards. Sadly, the next period with 2-3 was probably one of their worst lessons up to date. We started late because their previous lesson was a health one, so they had a lot of things to clean up before they were ready for English. Then the class wouldn't really settle, they were repeating vocab very halfheartedly and quietly (except for one boy in the front, thanks kid for trying so hard), and one girl was having a full on tantrum, literally throwing stuff around, clinging to the teacher and not letting go, etc. I’d never seen her do that before, she’s always been a pretty alright student, but today at the end she was like “I hate Jaime-sensei”. She must have had a terrible day.

Lunch with 4-3 today, and it was a very quiet lunchtime. 4-3 is the new 3-1 of last year. Does everything perfectly, on time, quietly, etc. Not much conversation at first, since I was sitting in front of one of the shyest girls, but then later on she opened up a bit as I started talking with the kids behind her. We talked about favourite foods, ranking ramen, udon, and soba, and what they did in the weekend. Club activities are already so hardout from a young age here! Quite a few kids in 4-3 are part of the local baseball team, and they practice 5 times a week, with practices on both Saturday and Sunday too! They were telling me about their matches that they just had this past weekend. The rest of the afternoon was very free. Prepped for tomorrow’s lessons. The rest of the teachers were all at the pool cleaning, so the staffroom was very empty. Got off work at 16:00 and drove home.