Oshita sensei must be a really scary teacher. When I went with him to his class today to do some team teaching, the class burst into cheers and applause, and from what I gather, it’s because they weren’t looking forward to another lecture from him.
I did two lessons today on “describing people” in English, and that was really fun. In Oshita’s class the students listened politely, but didn’t show much interest in the topic. In Maeda’s class they hung on every word, scribbled down notes, and really seemed to enjoy the lesson. If I was trapped on a deserted island with only one class to teach for the rest of my life, it would be Maeda’s class. They really are fun.
I also did a class with Mr. Hayashi, who seems to have settled into a routine lately and seems just a bit more relaxed. He still yelled at some students today, but at least he didn’t kick anyone. I think the longer we go into the term, the more relaxed he’ll get.
Also Matsubara’s class went really well – the students today worked in pairs and I had them writing lines to a story. They would write a line to the story, and then pass it to the next person to continue the story. It was really fun because the students didn’t know who would be adding to their story. At the end they got them back and it was like a game of Mad-Libs gone horribly wrong. With punchlines like “And then she was died!” and “oh my GOT!” I was a little disappointed, but the students were dying of laughter. Matsubara sensei declared the class a stunning success, and the students were all saying goodbye to me when I left.
All these classes were sandwiched between two free periods. I crammed still more vocabulary into my brain, and also chatted with the history teacher who just won’t leave me alone. Today I was talking with another teacher in Japanese, and the history teacher sat in the desk right in between us and told the younger teacher that he needed some of my time. Then he asked me what my favorite Jim Carrey movie is.
I wish I had a George Foreman grill over here. I tried to cook up a hamburger patty that was dirt cheap over at Ito Yokado, but I didn’t want to set up the BBQ for one hamburger patty. I fried it in a pan, but I ended up having to tilt and drain the fat constantly. I’m lucky I didn’t set myself on fire.
Tomorrow I’m going to meet up with Komori sensei over at Donkey, and Kuniko should be able to join us later. She got off work today pretty late tonight – 8:30! Hopefully she won’t be working so hard all year – it sounds like she’s really busy lately.
Well, I’m off to bed. The weather is warming up bit by bit, and I think I’m done with the electric blanket for the year. It’s been nice having the windows open in the evenings, but with the warm weather will come the bugs, the storms, and the humidity. I can’t wait!
