No, not really. But if there was a day to do it, today might have been it.
Today I went into school without a lesson plan for the three first year lessons, but luckily Mori sensei had left the plan on my desk last night, so it was waiting for me when I arrived. I spent the morning going over it and making sure I knew what was going on. It was a very complicated plan, concentrating heavily on the textbook and workbook. Usually I don’t use the textbook so much in my class – but I was letting Mori sensei run with this lesson to see how it went.
It went poorly.
The first lesson was with Nozaki sensei, who is bright and cheerful and refreshingly straight forward. She told me before the class started that she didn’t like such a complex plan – she’d rather leave the class to me and let me run the show. She (and all the other English teachers but Mori sensei) see my lesson as a chance to relax a bit and let me handle things. It’s a good way for the students to be completely submersed in English.
Unfortunately the students in our first class forgot their textbooks at home, leaving us with a pretty useless lesson plan. We improvised by writing lots of information on the blackboard, skipping some activities, and Nozaki sensei even drew a really good cartoon right out of the book on the board. When the class finally ended we were tired out, and ready for a break. Luckily for Mori sensei, our misfortune allowed her to make copies of the textbook for the next two classes. Nozaki sensei politely gave her a very Japanese-sized piece of her mind, and it was interesting to watch the dynamic between them.
My next two classes were with Mori sensei, and right off the bat Mori sensei took control of the flow and the class, and she guided the whole thing in English and Japanese. Most of the lesson ended up being in Japanese, and the students kept looking at me wondering when I would talk. Unfortunately the script didn’t call for too much of me talking. It did focus quite a bit on student pronunciation which I think is a very good thing.
After the first class Mori sensei announced that she felt the lesson put too much emphasis on her talking, and wanted me to talk more. I did my best the next lesson, but Mori sensei frequently jumped in and cut me off with some Japanese. She even made fun of my English pronunciation in a side Japanese joke to the kids. I don’t mind if she makes fun of me, but if kids think they sound stupid trying to pronounce English correctly, they won’t try anymore.
I’m getting all worked up again. Count to ten… OK.
I survived the classes, though, and that was something I wasn’t sure would happen earlier. As soon as I got back to my desk I started thinking about how I can adapt the lesson to something more my style – I have to teach the lesson with several other teachers, too, and today some of them told me they’ll be counting on me to “take care of them” through the new lesson.
The rest of the day was good. In fact, it was great. I marked the homework that the students turned in, and I was pleased overall with the results. The students did better than I expected.
I had some time at the end of the day, so I spent the time walking around the school talking with students instead of just sitting around the staff room. I talked with students hanging out in the hallways, walked through the newly upgraded gymnasium, and poked my head into the kendo room and the ping pong room. The new first year kendo members came over to say hello to me. It’s always strange to carry on a conversation with a student when they are wearing a big metal mask. Behind the metal bars you can see the same old cheerful student from your class, they just look like a pissed off samurai from the outside.
While I was walking around talking to students everyone would take a moment to say hello to me. Everyone was happy to see that I was around and taking an interest in what was going on. Two girls followed me around the whole time. They are kind of Bryan groupies – they always try to get my attention but then they start turning red and giggling as soon as I say something to them.
I left school right on time, feeling pretty good. Walking around making that many people happy was certainly enough to make up for my bad experiences with Mori sensei.
Now I’m home and hanging out on a Friday night. I have a feeling that Kuniko will be home late since it is the last night before her concert, and I’m sure her club members are practicing like crazy. I’ll be heading into Kobe tomorrow to catch the show – should be fun!
