On Second Thought...

(Post-dated, April 23rd)
Today I had one of those 'proud to be, and able to see myself as a teacher' days. Once again, probably mostly because of the small school unlike the previous Junior High, and going there three days in a row unlike the once every six weeks schedule of an Elementary school. Basically, today I show up only to have the kyoto-sensei(vice-principle) inform me that the Japanese Teacher of English is sick today and won't be coming to school. At first I panic, then rejoice at the thought of possibly going home early to take care of some important chores. However, it was not to be. I get on the phone with the JTE and she apologizes profusely then asks me if I can do maybe a 10-minute drill then have the students write in their workbooks or do their homework. Panic returns. Now, I don't see myself as a skilled or experienced teacher at this point, but my age allows me to remember a few things about being a teen at school. I know that there's no way these kids are going to be able to work for forty minutes on a few pages of work without finishing or just not bothering. So I figure I might expand upon the lesson plans in order to get slightly more time out of them. I pull some general review stuff I did the week before at the other Junior high, and try to run it by the kids.

Now, I know I'm supposed to be able to make lesson plans for Junior High classes just as well as for Elementary, but on short notice and in a situation where you're really by yourself, it's a bit difficult. All in all, however, I think it went pretty well. The first period was a little shaky, just having a lack of material to cover. The next two periods, though, my efforts paid off. Of course the kids had no idea what they were supposed to write for 40 minutes, or where to even start. So I pulled a few ALT tricks from the bad and did a few warm-ups that lasted the period. Third period was even better, with a successful adaption of the lesson incorporating a little piece of home, the kids learned about Campbell stadium and were actually interested and understood. Couldn't ask for anything more.

Now, the heart-warming teacher tales. After third period, I had my first student come to talk to me outside of being forced to, and in English. Having a kid actually initiate a conversation is a pretty big deal from what I understand, so I felt pretty good about it. When I got back to my desk, one of the teachers showed me something a student had written in Japanese. After my rough start, a first grade student for some reason wrote a little note for me, or about me. Basically it said: James-sensei, the teacher's absent, please do your best/good luck”. I have to say, it had a rather heart-warming effect. the teacher made a copy of it and gave it to me, probably wanting to keep the original to put in some scrapbook, maybe. So I got home and tacked it to me wall in the very noble, 'touched' teacherly thing to do. I would wind the post down with some more thoughtful and unnecessary tripe, but this post is already much longer than I hoped it would be. So bye.