Slow week

It's been a slow week so I don't have much of anything to talk about.

Yesterday I was absolutely furious with my seniors (high school students, not old people). They were terrible. I may have bellowed at them. You see, three tuesdays ago, I assigned them a project. I wanted them to put together a 5 minute-ish mini-drama to present to the rest of the class on October 3rd. I told them many many times that the presentations were going to be presented on October 3rd. They just laughed and sat around in the two class periods I gave them to do it.

So Tuesday rolls around. I stand in front of the class and simply say, "Happyou shimashyou!" (let's do presentations!) They all start laughing and smirking. None of the groups were finished. Some of the groups had barely STARTED. I ask, quietly, each of the groups if they are finished. Each one giggles and says no. So I say, "Fine. Then everyone loses 10 points from their grade." They giggle and talk amongst themselves until some guys goes, "matte...jyuu ten mainasu?" (wait, minus ten points?) I nod and continue to frown. The class errupts into upset. Students are whining and calling me strict.

This is were the bellowing starts, in half english, half awful Japanese. I yell at them that if they do not do their projects today, they lose 10 points. And IF they do not do their projects next week, they get a zero. The class panics. Someone asks if they can do their project today but at the end of class. I stare at the clock pointedly and simply say, "you have 10 minutes to finish."

Boy, howdy! Did my class ever start busting their asses to finish. All of them got some crappy thing done in 10 minutes. I made each group show me their project (where they wrote the 'script') and told them that if they made it longer, I would let them present the following week with no minus 10. They are all still going to get poor effort points because of the craptastic effort they put in, but at least they don't lose 10 points.

I was furious and they knew it. If they pull this with me again, I'm just going to give zeros. I wont have it! They think they can screw me over because I am a foreigner and young and not strict. But when they fail Oral Communications, I guess they will learn. Heh. I bet my evaluations aren't going to be so high this semester. Oh well. Moral of the story: "don't make Susie-sensei mad."

The rest of the week has gone normally. I saw one of my highschool students in the grocery store. She is my best sophmore students. However, she hasn't been in class for the last few classes. I asked her why and she simply replied, "I'm not going to school anymore. I will go to Tokyo" and then nodded. I nodded back. Highschool is so strange here. Apparently, you can just stop going if you want to or have something else to do. Whatever. It does mean there is now an even number of students in class and that is really helpful.

Today I go to Kisuki (in fact, I need to go in about 10 minutes!). I hope my girls are learning. I still only have two students but maybe more will trickle in. I also went to the Board of Education earlier today. I had to plan Saturday English class with Miymi (Mikako is her real name). We are goign to throw a Halloween party on the 28th and it should be a barrel of fun. The next two classes are going to be preparation classes for it. The students are going to make decorations and costumes. They are also going to make invitations for the JETs I will invite. How fun! I hope it works really well. It should be fun!

No Saturday English this saturday. It's a holiday or something. However, good for us because...1 year aniversay on Saturday! Yay! We are going to go to Matsue and have a nice dinner and maybe go to the mall. Something. It should be fun. I'm looking forward to it.

Chris is currently at the haircut place. I will post a before and after picture of his hair. Its gotten SO LONG! You would be amazed!

Well, thats it. Hope this wasn't too boring! I was feeling chatty.