Planning lessons is something that I enjoy doing. It’s fun to try to figure out things that will get the students excited, plan it all out on paper, run it by other teachers, and then get in front of a class and see how it works out. Today I was dreaming up my next lesson for the first year students. I wanted them to be involved, active, and give it a gameshow feel. I get a lot of ideas from watching Survivor, actually. The things they compete in give me inspiration for the classroom, and although I haven’t had students eating live worms in class yet, I’m sure it’s not too far off in the future.
I had two lessons on complimenting today, and Mr. Hayashi was my team teacher for each class. During the second class I came to the part where I say something in English, and then Mr. Hayashi says something in Japanese. As I turned to Mr. Hayashi to start the exercise, he was walking out the door in the middle of class waving goodbye.
That was weird. Mr. Hayashi spends a lot of time in the restroom, and he’ll often run to the bathroom right before and right after a class, but I’ve never seen him leave right in the middle of a lesson. I was worried that he might not be well, and also worried about what to do about the twenty students staring at me waiting for the lesson to continue.
In the end, I explained in English, and added a few choice Japanese words in there to help them sort it out. After 5-10 minutes Mr. Hayashi came back, and we finished up the lesson.
After class I asked him if he was OK, and he said that he had a phone call from a friend of his at Casio, and it was to tell him that they weren’t hiring high school students this year. Mr. Hayashi is working in the guidance department this year, so he is wheeling and dealing with companies trying to get our students hired. I was a little irked that he took a phone call right in the middle of class, but there’s not a lot I could do.
In the afternoon we had an ESS meeting. Matsubara sensei was out of town on business, so I met with the students and we chatted about all kinds of things. We played “Hangman”, and worked on the English for their upcoming cultural project, an English newspaper. I think it’ll be pretty cool.
Before going home I went to visit Tsuji-san, and we chatted for an hour in mostly English. Last time we talked almost entirely in Japanese, so this was a good chance for her to pick up some pronunciation tips and learn a few vocabulary words, like “wavering”.
Believe it or not, this week is coming to an end. Tomorrow night is the welcome party/farewell party, and then I’ll be able to relax for a couple of days.
