It’s Wednesday morning, and I just woke up about an hour later than I usually do. Normally I would be waiting for my train right now, but instead I am here updating my website. Cool!
Yesterday I had four classes, and three of those were classes where I plan the lesson. I showed up for one of the classes, and another teacher was in there teaching. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but the students got a big laugh. I went downstairs to the teacher’s room and figured it out, and then talked to the scheduling people. Originally my schedule was very light, and then Mr. Hayashi wrote me in on a bunch of classes. When these classes are rescheduled, they inform the original teacher, but they don’t know about me. Now I’ve got it set up correctly.
The classes themselves went well – better than I expected. Mr. Yamamoto is great during these classes, and he runs the class just like I had imagined before I came to Japan. He’s funny, he translates at just the right point, and he creates an atmosphere that makes the students wish they could understand me more, which is the right motivation for them to listen.
Two of my classes had an observer – the student teacher was watching from the back of the class. She was in my class with Mr. Kimura, which was an interesting experience. He sometimes goes on this torrent of English that nobody understands, and then he’ll look to me for help to dig him out. I wonder what the student teacher thought of that.
After school I came home and started organizing for my seminar in Kobe. I chatted with Richard via cellphone in Shikoku. He’s going to meet me on Friday afternoon in Sannomiya, so that should be fun. Afterwards he’ll stay for the weekend. It’ll be nice to see someone from San Diego here in Japan.
I am due to meet Antoine at 11:30 in Sannomiya today. We both got the full day off, despite the fact that the seminar doesn’t start registration until noon. All of the re-contracting ALTs from western Japan are going to be in Kobe for three days, so it’ll be crowded. Lots of these guys have been stuck on a tiny island somewhere and getting out to the big city is a big deal for them. Antoine and I are a little ho-hum about it, but it should still be fun. The energy there will be different than the Tokyo orientation, which was full of excitement and anticipation.
I’ll check back in when I return from the conference this weekend!
