Today was a weird schedule because we announced the results of the screening test for next year’s first year students. Because of this, the students came in an hour later, and we had lots of free time before class started to have a fun meeting.
As people were getting ready for the meeting, one of our teachers flipped out. He started yelling at another teacher, and suddenly everyone became engrossed in their coffee, tea or newspaper. I’m not sure what he was freaking out about, but I bet it might have something to do with only taking two holiday days a year. That kind of stress has got to add up.
The meeting was good, and bad. The good thing was that instead of handouts, they used a computer and a projector to make a presentation, and everyone watched from their seats instead of wasting a bunch of paper that everyone is going to throw away anyway. This was a first for my school – they are a bit old fashioned. Watching the vice principal try to figure out the laser pointer was priceless.
The bad news was that they were showing an excel spreadsheet, and I think most people couldn’t read the screen. The vice principal did the presentation facing away from us, and without a microphone, so most people couldn’t hear anything either. In a classic Japanese meeting move, at the end of the hour meeting a guy stood up and said that he couldn’t see anything or hear anything, so maybe they could fix that next time. Dude, why didn’t you pipe up before?
My classes went smoothly, with some of my favorite students. I had them write me a farewell speech, and two girls were almost crying as they read it. The reviews of my class keep coming in, and so far it has been 99% positive. Although it’s nice to get positive feedback, negative feedback is much more useful. Still, when the biggest complaint is that the students want more of your classes in their schedule, I guess you are doing something right. I think the big influence is the format of the class. It is loose, relaxed, and freewheeling. You would think that in this format the students would be sleeping more, but on the contrary, I have only had one or two students sleeping in my class in the last three years.
Although I’d say the students speak only marginally better English after my class, I would say that they leave the class with a view that English isn’t such a serious matter, that they can approach it as a communication tool rather than a study subject. Most important, students start to like English more when they take my class. Also I enjoy the format because maybe it will make them think about the formats of the other classes they take – are they as effective?
In the afternoon the same teacher flipped out again, this time with another partner, making him the likely guilty party in both situations. Luckily he ran off to the smoking room to calm his nerves with a cigarette.
Also in the afternoon a small crowd gathered in front of our school. The crowd was made up of junior high school students who had taken the entrance exam for our school, and their parents. They were hoping that their scores were good enough to get in as new high school students next year. At 2 o’clock they put the results on a big board and hung it out the window for everyone to see. The students’ reactions were mixed – most of the ones who passed just smiled and got their paperwork. A couple of boys acted liked they just won the lottery. Seriously, shrieking, jumping up and down, and hugging their friends and family. Our school is no Harvard – it’s a middle to low ability high school, so it’s nothing to freak out about. Surprisingly I saw some tears of some students that didn’t make the cut at our school, which seems to be pretty hard to do. A couple of moms walked away drying the tears of their sons and daughters.
We had one more staff meeting before the end of the day and then I could finally go home. I bought some groceries for dinner and I’m just kicking back tonight watching some TV and drinking some seasonal Japanese beers. Actually, they are seasonal only in the sense that the label has changed. I can detect no flavor difference whatsoever.
Kuniko is partying tonight with some co-workers – it’s the first of in a series of three parties. She’ll be tired out by the end of it, I’m sure.
