Because of exams, graduations, and more exams, I am on my third week of having no classes to teach. Thus, it is time for an update on the job that I am, after all, paid to do in between my weekend shenanigans.
For the past six months, I have been scheduled to teach eleven classes a week. Six ichi-nensei (first year students), three ni-nensei (second year students), and two san-nensei (third year students). Because the school year ends in March, all of the san-nensei students graduated last week. The ichi and ni-nensei students still come to school, but have been studying for and taking exams these past couple of weeks. Classes will resume their normal schedule next week. (I hope.) Next month when the new school year begins, my class schedule will change. Unfortunately, I won't know my new schedule until a week before changes are made. That doesn't provide a lot of time to develop a curriculum or lesson plans and promises that I will have to use a lot of improvisation.
My job, from what I can tell, is to show up to class eleven times a week (when they haven't been canceled for some ceremony, exam or holiday); attempt to convince pathologically shy, pimply-faced, uninterested teenagers to speak English; facilitate English club once a week, or more accurately, when they decide to show up; and create bulletin boards to attract the interest of these students.
A few months ago, my English club decided to have a cooking Saturday. They wanted to teach me about sushi and I wanted me teach them how to make an American dessert. I opted for apple pie. We met at school around 9:00 a.m. and headed to the closest grocery store to buy fresh fish, vegetables, and the other ingredients needed. The girls showed me which fish they liked and which to stay away from. Once we had decided on everything needed for the day we headed back to school this time in the rain. At school we spent the next couple of hours putting together our spread (photo right). Unfortunately, I cannot post pictures of the girls so you only get to see the food.
Last month, I attempted to implement a couple of creative writing assignments into the lessons. For mostly selfish reasons, I am trying to convince my students to think about English by using their imaginations and to use whatever words they can think of rather than relying on painfully boring textbook answers. At first, the students looked at me like I was crazy, but soon started to get into it. I decorated last month's bulletin board with their work. While the ichi-nensei students wrote poems to describe how they felt about something that they either loved or hated, the ni-nensei students taught me about their favorite parts of Japanese culture.
Here are a couple of my favorites.
For March, I put up information about famous women for Women's History Month and am still thinking of ideas for April.
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Later this week I'll post about spring break and skiing.
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