The rain let up today, replaced with heat and steam. The humidity was so high that we couldn’t scoot the desks around the classroom because of the thin film of condensation over everything. It was a very wet day.
My first class was a preparation class for students that are going to take the upcoming STEP test. I started by doing a practice interview with one of them, and then we had kind of a group discussion. I had them sit around in a circle and I asked them questions – all in English. It was actually kind of fun, and everybody was fairly relaxed. I told a few stories and hopefully it will build their confidence just a little bit for the interview test.
The next class was with Tsutsumi sensei. We’ve been working on doing presentations, and today was the first of two days of the actual presentations. Each presentation was supposed to be five minutes long, with a sheet of paper as a visual aid. Most students cut out pictures from magazines and pasted them on their paper – some of them looked really good.
About half the students did their presentation today, and the results were mixed. Most lasted about 3 minutes, some were five plus minutes, and a couple were just over one minute. I had all the other students grading the speaker, and their scores were averaged and combined with Tsutsumi sensei and my score to create a final score which will be their final exam for my part of the class.
I think it was overall a success, but some people didn’t put much effort into it. The good news was that other students gave them a hard time for flaking. One student forgot her paperwork, so she got a flat out zero for the project. Tsutsumi sensei is pretty strict sometimes. But we did warm them every class for the past three weeks, so what else can you do?
My final class was in the afternoon, and it was another interview test. I’ve got lots of these coming up. It went a bit smoother than yesterday, and everyone was so nervous they were jumping around and couldn’t really sit still. My students did well, once I got them to relax. I really enjoy doing interviews because it is my chance to sit down and speak with the student, and they can’t really run away. If that sounds sinister I don’t mean it that way – it’s just a rare chance.
I was out the door right on time and headed to the train station. Today for some reason there were lots of my students around the station. With the exception of a few they try not to sit anywhere near me, because they feel like they’ll be obligated to speak English, and also because they want to use their cell phones, and my status as a real teacher is a little unclear. They aren’t supposed to use them at school, but of course everyone has one, and I’ve never given any students a hard time about it.
I’m back home now and chilling out. Today I reserved the last hotel room for the trip to Europe – a really simple-sounding place in Dijon, France. We’re going to have a day of walking around eating and relaxing in Dijon right before we get on an overnight train to Venice, Italy.
Tonight’s menu depends a lot on when Kuniko gets home – we are thinking about skipping somen tonight in favor of butakimchee (pork and kimchee), if Kuniko gets home at a decent hour…
