This week I’m teaching my last classes for many of my students. The only exception is Monday and Thursday – those classes will finish up next week.
The big excitement in the last class is that students can exchange the points they’ve earned by doing homework over the year for prizes provided by Nozaki sensei. There are lots of snacks, school supplies, and some toys in a series of big boxes, and the students can total up their points and go shopping. The whole experience is in English, although usually they keep a running total in their heads in Japanese.
Some classes I’m very happy to wrap up and say goodbye – yesterday I had a last class with the youngest kids. The class was always tough for me to handle because of the wide gap in ages and maturity. Based on my recommendation next year they’ll get split up into two different classes, and I think both classes will go more smoothly. In a class first, all the students thanked me in English for the prizes and presents, unprompted. Most of my other classes take the prizes as if they were already rightfully theirs, with no thanks at all. Of all my classes I was surprised that the young ones got it right. Today I’ll say goodbye to some of my better students – and that will be a little sad. They are moving on to junior high school, and I’ll miss teaching them.
It’s raining outside today, and rain is in the forecast tomorrow as well. I was hoping to do a day hike tomorrow and tote my schoolbooks up a mountain somewhere to read them, but that is looking less and less likely due to inclement weather. I’m determined to do something different – I’m starting to get cabin fever from all this studying. We’ll see what happens when I wake up tomorrow.
