September 5th, 2006

So today was the first day of classes for West Izumo High. Well, no, that's not true. It was MY first class back, but I think they started last week. Anyways, I felt I was doing good and I planned this entire week's classes last week (all three of them!). Today, we were learning how to answer the question, "How was your summer?" My first graders (which are equal to american high school sophmores) were very good. They were interested and picked up on what I was trying to get them to do. The target dialogue was:

Me: How was your summer?
Student: It was good.
Me: Oh, really. Why?
Students: I went to Osaka with my family in July and we went to the shopping at the Hep 5 mall.

Thats all I was looking for. They are going to be giving me oral reports on Thursday for a grade. So we discussed and they caught on quickly. By the end of the class they were writing down their reports. It was a very satisfying class.

However...my third graders (seniors) were terrible. I couldn't even get them to tell me how the weather was! My elementary students have no problem with answering the simple question, "How is the weather?" These kids couldnt. They couldn't remember what WIND was! Gah! They were just horrible. I have no doubt that there will be several students who fail their test next week. Maybe it will cause them to pay more attention from now on! Boo! I hate my third grade class. I always leave angry and beyond frustrated. Ruins my day.

So anyways, that was my plan for today. Maybe I would do some laundry or take a nap. Last night...my plans changed instantly! I recieved a phone call from Enya (remember, thats my elementary school). Surprise! Super English starts today! Eep! I had to do an emergency lesson plan. Of course, its a simple class. All I had to do was plan for my self-introduction. I start a new class today. It was just a rude surprise. I didn't think that Super English was supposed to start until the end of the month! It's not bad. In fact, its good that we start soonish. More money is to be made that way!

So anyways, thats my day! We didn't do much this weekend. Chris took me to the beach on Saturday and Sunday we just relaxed in preperation for the upcoming week. So thats that. I hope everyone had a lovely day off. Happy Labor day!

Edit: So I went to Super English. Class went extremely well. The kids are excited that Im their teacher. It's nice to be appreciated. It was fun. I made the kids work, but they did it! Such bright kids. Thursday we shall make name tags! Im looking forward to next week though, when I can start. These munchkins are going to learn the alphabet! Know why? *glees* They were already trying to read today! They are smooshing their minds around hard english words like "favourite". Im so excited! No one has done letters with them (well, they know romaji) so this shall be good! I'm feeling much more positive.