Cross-posted at Embodiment (a while ago!)
Hi guys! I meant to put this up a couple of weeks ago but never got round to it. Here are my latest journal pages. If you've seen this on embodiment already, you can skip ahead to my most recent pages; they're in a separate cut!
So let's start where I left off, at the end of my pink Habana... there have to be over fifty pictures behind this cut. Click if you dare!
So us ALTs do a self-introduction lesson for our first classes. I ended up keeping my diaries in my desk for about a month and lugging them to class to pass out. The whenever the kids got to this page, they asked me to read the names of the volcanoes... I failed miserably.
First day at new Elementary School #1
Trying to get a handle on things... I have got to grips much faster with my schools and students this year than I did last year. Being able to read their names now helps.
Fantasising about food...
Lesson planning for both my elementary schools... I keep running notes of my discussions with the teachers, so you'll see a lot of pages like this in this post!
Famous Japanese athletes. I had to pull together a presentation in one hour for a club I didn't know existed.
I had no classes noted down for this day and had hoped to get some stuff done.Turned out it was a sports day practice, outside, in the blazing sun... I didn't have a hat, and I'm not sure I took sunglasses to school that day, either. Not fun!!!
After the practice yesterday, the vice principal came round with these little medicinal-looking bottles - health drinks are all the rage here. I googled the one I was given and was told it contained nicotine. Luckily it was nicotinomide? All the healthy benefits of nicotine, without those addictive side effects!
Sports day, and attempted cartoon of one sensei sneaking up to me like a ninja, to tell me to separate my garbage.
Cute place card for our after-sports-day party.
Notes and kanji practice to round off this journal.
Inside cover of my "new" one. I keep a picture of my cat (...three years dead, but I at school I lie and say he's still alive :[), the feather is from my elementary school (I have no idea what for) and... yes, those are my vital statistics. I had a health check and the doctor said I need to lose weight :/
Breaking in the journal. This one's from Muji, and it was ridiculously cheap.
Copied the pool schedule from my last journal, still trying to get to grips with the damn thing!
Turns out the girl in elementary school with the English qualification is the daughter of one of the teachers I work with at my other elementary school XD
I was not told that the board of education were conducting inspections. Until after my class had been viewed :/ On the plus side, the only one that matters for me is the one I've already been warned about, which my "real" bosses - the staff who co-ordinate ALTS - are scheduled to come and watch. I have plenty of warning for that one, thank god!
Stream-of-consciousness stuff. "What's that lady drinking, and where can I get one?!"
Photos from summer!
October planner.
Getting sick.
Another surprise English Club!
It was only my second class with my Special Needs boys, and my last one was a self-intro - so just me talking. I didn't get any notes from the previous ALT, so I was still trying to suss them out, ability-wise, at this stage. Lovely kids, though <3
My cold hit just in time for International day. I looked and felt awful, and to be honest, I can't remember much of what I did.
I was, however, happy to receive new inks from the Goulet Pen Company. I couldn't sleep that night, ended up dwelling on relationships long past.
Note from one of my students. Most of the kids are determined that I should get together with the young, recently-transferred English teacher :/
Sometimes I worry that I suck at my job :(
Possibly the weirdest encounter with fifth graders, ever. Hilarious kids that I don't get to teach.
School sports tournaments mean classes are cancelled for the day and everyone can go off and support. At least, everyone but the poor third years!!! The past two tournaments - spring, and last year's autumn tournament - were both on cold, rainy days. Imagine my surprise when we had red hot sunshine... I came home with sunburn!
Womanly issues >_<
I've had a Monsters theme for my English club at one school. In the most recent class, I described monsters and had them draw them on the interactive whiteboard. I wish we had a better programme than paint, though :[
The kitten was found by my third year girls. We had "Cleaning Activities" in and around the school grounds/neighbourhood, and they found him all on his lonesome :(
We had a typhoon, endless rain. I ended up taking a taxi to work, and forgot my usual pen. Which I eventually found under my bed.
Pusheen <3
And in the back of the journal...
Bary-san (local mascot) post-it markers. With notes for an online scrabble game I was playing with my mother (I won.)
Ink tests.
Back cover.
A running theme in the past few weeks is me writing, "I need to start swimming again soon...". It still hasn't happened yet, no matter how I plan for it.
People to write to, and lesson plans.
More lesson planning. Got to do a Halloween lesson with my SEN boys 8D
Freaking out a little bit in the top left hand page, because my school's PTA attempted this dance. It was epic.
(I tried it for myself once. I fell over.)
Planning food for the week and figuring out what I need to buy.
I learned that ricotta is impossible to get hold of in Japan. Perhaps I just haven't found the right place yet. I also had "International Day" at a friend's Elementary school, and they supplied us with these adorable stickers. I'm also trying to write more Japanese, because I don't practice anything I learn. The name of the bus stop outside the school I visited consists almost entirely of kanji I've studied, and the one that I haven't (石) is pretty simple to write so I picked it up anyway - so there was no excuse for me NOT to write it properly.
It's never good for me to start talking politics. It happens so rarely that I even surprised myself...
I was working when the US election results were announced, but at lunch I checked the internet on my phone and found out. Congrats, Bronco Bama ;)
I know this was a mammoth entry. Thanks for reading :)
So let's start where I left off, at the end of my pink Habana... there have to be over fifty pictures behind this cut. Click if you dare!
So us ALTs do a self-introduction lesson for our first classes. I ended up keeping my diaries in my desk for about a month and lugging them to class to pass out. The whenever the kids got to this page, they asked me to read the names of the volcanoes... I failed miserably.
First day at new Elementary School #1
Trying to get a handle on things... I have got to grips much faster with my schools and students this year than I did last year. Being able to read their names now helps.
Fantasising about food...
Lesson planning for both my elementary schools... I keep running notes of my discussions with the teachers, so you'll see a lot of pages like this in this post!
Famous Japanese athletes. I had to pull together a presentation in one hour for a club I didn't know existed.
I had no classes noted down for this day and had hoped to get some stuff done.Turned out it was a sports day practice, outside, in the blazing sun... I didn't have a hat, and I'm not sure I took sunglasses to school that day, either. Not fun!!!
After the practice yesterday, the vice principal came round with these little medicinal-looking bottles - health drinks are all the rage here. I googled the one I was given and was told it contained nicotine. Luckily it was nicotinomide? All the healthy benefits of nicotine, without those addictive side effects!
Sports day, and attempted cartoon of one sensei sneaking up to me like a ninja, to tell me to separate my garbage.
Cute place card for our after-sports-day party.
Notes and kanji practice to round off this journal.
Inside cover of my "new" one. I keep a picture of my cat (...three years dead, but I at school I lie and say he's still alive :[), the feather is from my elementary school (I have no idea what for) and... yes, those are my vital statistics. I had a health check and the doctor said I need to lose weight :/
Breaking in the journal. This one's from Muji, and it was ridiculously cheap.
Copied the pool schedule from my last journal, still trying to get to grips with the damn thing!
Turns out the girl in elementary school with the English qualification is the daughter of one of the teachers I work with at my other elementary school XD
I was not told that the board of education were conducting inspections. Until after my class had been viewed :/ On the plus side, the only one that matters for me is the one I've already been warned about, which my "real" bosses - the staff who co-ordinate ALTS - are scheduled to come and watch. I have plenty of warning for that one, thank god!
Stream-of-consciousness stuff. "What's that lady drinking, and where can I get one?!"
Photos from summer!
October planner.
Getting sick.
Another surprise English Club!
It was only my second class with my Special Needs boys, and my last one was a self-intro - so just me talking. I didn't get any notes from the previous ALT, so I was still trying to suss them out, ability-wise, at this stage. Lovely kids, though <3
My cold hit just in time for International day. I looked and felt awful, and to be honest, I can't remember much of what I did.
I was, however, happy to receive new inks from the Goulet Pen Company. I couldn't sleep that night, ended up dwelling on relationships long past.
Note from one of my students. Most of the kids are determined that I should get together with the young, recently-transferred English teacher :/
Sometimes I worry that I suck at my job :(
Possibly the weirdest encounter with fifth graders, ever. Hilarious kids that I don't get to teach.
School sports tournaments mean classes are cancelled for the day and everyone can go off and support. At least, everyone but the poor third years!!! The past two tournaments - spring, and last year's autumn tournament - were both on cold, rainy days. Imagine my surprise when we had red hot sunshine... I came home with sunburn!
Womanly issues >_<
I've had a Monsters theme for my English club at one school. In the most recent class, I described monsters and had them draw them on the interactive whiteboard. I wish we had a better programme than paint, though :[
The kitten was found by my third year girls. We had "Cleaning Activities" in and around the school grounds/neighbourhood, and they found him all on his lonesome :(
We had a typhoon, endless rain. I ended up taking a taxi to work, and forgot my usual pen. Which I eventually found under my bed.
Pusheen <3
And in the back of the journal...
Bary-san (local mascot) post-it markers. With notes for an online scrabble game I was playing with my mother (I won.)
Ink tests.
Back cover.
A running theme in the past few weeks is me writing, "I need to start swimming again soon...". It still hasn't happened yet, no matter how I plan for it.
People to write to, and lesson plans.
More lesson planning. Got to do a Halloween lesson with my SEN boys 8D
Freaking out a little bit in the top left hand page, because my school's PTA attempted this dance. It was epic.
(I tried it for myself once. I fell over.)
Planning food for the week and figuring out what I need to buy.
I learned that ricotta is impossible to get hold of in Japan. Perhaps I just haven't found the right place yet. I also had "International Day" at a friend's Elementary school, and they supplied us with these adorable stickers. I'm also trying to write more Japanese, because I don't practice anything I learn. The name of the bus stop outside the school I visited consists almost entirely of kanji I've studied, and the one that I haven't (石) is pretty simple to write so I picked it up anyway - so there was no excuse for me NOT to write it properly.
It's never good for me to start talking politics. It happens so rarely that I even surprised myself...
I was working when the US election results were announced, but at lunch I checked the internet on my phone and found out. Congrats, Bronco Bama ;)
I know this was a mammoth entry. Thanks for reading :)