Hokay, so I have my laptop at work and I have about 10 minutes before it’s Cleaning Time. So, Imma try to do a little update for ya’ll.
So…what to write about…
Well, I haven’t been up to much aside from work. Am I a workaholic? Hmm…definitely seems like it at times…but really it’s just that this is one of the busiest times of the year for Japanese schools (or at least for my school).
Anyhoo, I’ve been prepping lessons, discussing them with teachers, teachin’ and playing with the students in the English Club. Compared to other schools, my teaching schedule is really odd and irregular. The only thing that has been staying is my bi-weekly 3nensei writing class. It’s not tough to teach but I have to ready to deal with translation variations and to give other examples or expressions on the spot. It’s not something I’m very good at so I’m always preparing for these lessons.
The 1nensei have all these orientation meetings, camp, physical examinations and summer uniform fittings to go to and so my lessons have been pushed and pushed back. At least I’m doing some teaching. Otherwise I’m just brainstorming and prepping for future lessons (a lesson well learned after my first year. Always have a lesson ready. For random “Can you teach this class now?” moments.
And soon it’ll be my school’s Culture Festival. There are soooo soooo many events going on those 2 days that I’ve never been able to attend all of them (it’s heart-breaking when you have groups of students begging you, and sometimes pulling you, to go check out their class’s program.) And prepping for it will start in about 2 weeks. If things go like they did last year, I’ll be uber busy again. So…I may disappear off the edge of the world for a bit. Haha. :P
(But I’ll give ya’ll a little chisme…I *might*, just *might*, play the piano for my school’s festival. That is, my skillz haven’t gone completely down the drain…)
Outside of the work-realm, I do have a trip coming up. It’s been a long-awaited, long-planned trip with my Oxy Ohana!!! And this time, we’re going overseas~~ We’re going to the land down under. But I still need to pack and prep for this trip…so I highly doubt I’ll be able to write again before the trip. So, I’ll see ya’ll in about a week or so~
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Hmm - Food For Thought
Ever since high school, I’ve liked to bake something for the holidays and for my friends for their birthdays. And I’ve still continued to do so. But lately, I’ve been told a lot that my cakes/chocolates seem like 売り物. Which means they can see it being sold in a bakery/store. Now add this to the “seeds” one of my friends has “planted” in my brain…and my mind begins to wonder beyond the daydreaming realm and into the possibility realm. I mean, I already enjoy baking stuff. So...why not have my own bakery/cafe???
Ideas Ideas.
But can we pull it off?
(Now, before ya’ll start to freak out and overanalyze “we” there, (*ahem, cheese-monkey, ahem*), I’m saying “we” because there’s someone, who makes fantastic coffee that could be combined very well with my “specialty” carrot cake, that I’ve been talking about this with)
Ideas Ideas.
But can we pull it off?
(Now, before ya’ll start to freak out and overanalyze “we” there, (*ahem, cheese-monkey, ahem*), I’m saying “we” because there’s someone, who makes fantastic coffee that could be combined very well with my “specialty” carrot cake, that I’ve been talking about this with)
New Beginnings
For the new readers:
In Japan, the school starts in April. So a couple of weeks ago, some teachers got shuffled about (it’s very common in Japan) and my new 1st years (what we’d call sophomores) have come back from “camp.” “Camp” at my school means that for 3 days, they go to a large campsite, learn the school rules, learn the school song, get to know each other, build bonds, discuss their goals for the year/high school life and get yelled at a lot. I’ve yet to go to one but from what I’ve gathered, that seems to be what goes on. They do come back more “high-school-student-ish” than “junior-high-school-student-ish.”
Anyway, so some teachers got shuffled about. Luckily, it wasn’t a huge blow as it was last year when half the English Department got transferred! It felt as though 1 teacher from each department was transferred. But I still find it a sad and unsettling time. What bummed me out this year was that my vice-principal, who was very 元気 and used to be an English teacher, got transferred after 1 year!!! Usually teachers don’t get transferred until they’ve at least been at a school for 3 years. However, some teachers end up staying a school for a really long time (Like my recently transferred 書道 teacher who managed to stay at my school for 22 years!!!)
Now, because I mainly teach the 1st years, I don’t get many opportunities to talk with the newly-transferred-teachers who are teaching the 2nd and 3rd years. But among the newly-transferred-teachers in my grade, one of them speaks Italian! He lived in Italy for 6 years so we can kinda communicate using Italian and Spanish. And I believe another teacher is a graduate from my school. Haha. It’s funny how many of them end up teaching here.
And it looks like I'll be teaching more classes this year! Woohoo~
Not only do I get to teach the 3rd year Writing class again, but I might get another 3rd year class to teach!!! Now, if I can find a way to enter the 2nd year classes...muahahahahahaha!
In Japan, the school starts in April. So a couple of weeks ago, some teachers got shuffled about (it’s very common in Japan) and my new 1st years (what we’d call sophomores) have come back from “camp.” “Camp” at my school means that for 3 days, they go to a large campsite, learn the school rules, learn the school song, get to know each other, build bonds, discuss their goals for the year/high school life and get yelled at a lot. I’ve yet to go to one but from what I’ve gathered, that seems to be what goes on. They do come back more “high-school-student-ish” than “junior-high-school-student-ish.”
Anyway, so some teachers got shuffled about. Luckily, it wasn’t a huge blow as it was last year when half the English Department got transferred! It felt as though 1 teacher from each department was transferred. But I still find it a sad and unsettling time. What bummed me out this year was that my vice-principal, who was very 元気 and used to be an English teacher, got transferred after 1 year!!! Usually teachers don’t get transferred until they’ve at least been at a school for 3 years. However, some teachers end up staying a school for a really long time (Like my recently transferred 書道 teacher who managed to stay at my school for 22 years!!!)
Now, because I mainly teach the 1st years, I don’t get many opportunities to talk with the newly-transferred-teachers who are teaching the 2nd and 3rd years. But among the newly-transferred-teachers in my grade, one of them speaks Italian! He lived in Italy for 6 years so we can kinda communicate using Italian and Spanish. And I believe another teacher is a graduate from my school. Haha. It’s funny how many of them end up teaching here.
And it looks like I'll be teaching more classes this year! Woohoo~
Not only do I get to teach the 3rd year Writing class again, but I might get another 3rd year class to teach!!! Now, if I can find a way to enter the 2nd year classes...muahahahahahaha!
News~
So, the news has changed a bit. A couple weeks ago is was pretty much nothing but HUGE BOLD headlines about the earthquake, tsunami and the of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. Now, of course there are still articles about all of them but there seems to be less (And that’s because I’m not much a newspaper reader…or news watcher…).
In terms of the news in Fukuoka, it seems to have calmed down. I hear less talk about it and it feels like things at work have gone into full throttle with the usual hussel and bussle of the beginning of the new school year.
So, everyone back at home/other side of the world. I’m still OK and there’s not reason to worry. ^^v (I’m also not lacking a lot of sleep. So I don’t need an intervention either. ;P)
In terms of the news in Fukuoka, it seems to have calmed down. I hear less talk about it and it feels like things at work have gone into full throttle with the usual hussel and bussle of the beginning of the new school year.
So, everyone back at home/other side of the world. I’m still OK and there’s not reason to worry. ^^v (I’m also not lacking a lot of sleep. So I don’t need an intervention either. ;P)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Ey, ¿que honda?
Hey readers! (And welcome, new readers!)
So, it’s been a while since I’ve last written. Quite a while really. But it’s not understatement when I say, “I’ve been busy.” If you any of you personally know me, you’d totally understand what I’m talking about. But besides that fact, in light of everything’s that been going on here in Japan (and in response to all the emails and conversations rotating around “Are you back yet?” and “You should come back,” comments, I figured now’s a good time to write again about my daily shenanigans and keep you guys in the low paranoia level.
So, let’s begin.
As I’m writing this, I can’t remember when was the last time I posted. I don’t recall if I wrote before/during/after winter break…but right after winter break I’ve been pretty crazy busy. Mainly due to 2 projects that work that just sucked any free time I had. One more than the other (like, I even lost some sleep…ugh…)
Project A: Video Lesson
When I went home for Christmas, I made sure to take pictures of pretty much everything I did in LA and took video when it was possible. (Taking pictures wasn’t too difficult since some friends already call me “paparazzi”. It was the taking video bit that I’d usually forget about…). After I came back to Japan (and spent New Year’s with a friend and with my host mom), I started to work on a video for my students. I’m not a computer geek and computers tend to hate me so it took some time to learn the tricks of iMovie and get the music to start and fade out where I wanted them. Then I made questions for the students to answer, did the lesson 10 times (new readers: I teach all of the first years, equivalent of sophomores, and there’s 10 classes of 40 students), graded their handouts and recorded their scores. Right after this I started planning and preparing for the English Speech Contest.
Project B: English Speech Contest
So, in my school, all of the first years must write their own speech and then we hold preliminary rounds in each class to choose the student who will continue in the Speech Contest. Usually there are about 2 students per class that continue with the contest but occasionally we pass more. Anyway, the time consuming part was getting them to start to write their essays. Most of them didn’t seem too thrilled about it so getting excited for it was a bit of a challenge. Learning from last year’s craziness, I did more lessons with them on how to write. I knew it wouldn’t be easy but I didn’t expect it to be heavily overwhelming for some students. So I made sure to explain everything. But, for their rough draft, once I finished correcting their grammar, I wrote questions all along the sides to help them expand their speeches (and to make it more coherent). THAT took way more time than I had anticipated.
And then, in came a busy cloud. 3rd year’s English Essays!!! This year was the first time I taught at least one senior class on a weekly basis. But usually my part is done by winter break (since they’re mainly preparing to take their college entrance examinations). However, many of the teachers were asking me to help with the English Essay portion of their entrance exams! So, on top of grading/correcting/commenting/asking my 1st years’ Rough Drafts, I was lesson planning/prepping/correcting/guiding/advising the 3rd years! So, I felt like there weren’t enough hours in a day.
This went on for about 2 weeks.
Once I finally finished working with all the rough drafts (did you do the math?), I did 10 lessons explaining more on writing a speech, giving small grammar lessons (based on common mistakes I corrected), answering questions and talking one-on-one with the students who were either slacking off or having a really hard time, I thought I had some free time. But no. As soon as I had finished that second round of classes to start them on their 2nd drafts, their deadlines started coming in. So again, I was correcting all of their speeches. But this time around, as much as I wanted to, I didn’t ask them questions to help them with their speeches because the semester was almost going to end. I needed the last week of the semester to hold the preliminary rounds.
And the last day of the rounds was my busiest day!!! 1st and 2nd period I had preliminary rounds, 3rd period was a co-worker’s Open Class (so I checked it out), 4th was another preliminary round, then I had lunch (oh yea, I had skipped breakfast so I was soooo hungry), 5th was the last preliminary round, 6th was spent tallying up the points, going over my notes to choose the best speaker and writing the list of the students who will continue in the contest and finally, in the 7th period, I announced who would continue.
Phase 1 of the English Speech Contest ended. Oh man…I slept so much that weekend. And it felt sooooo nice.
Now, I’m busy with other things but at least now I shouldn’t be working too late…
Phase 2 will start when the new school year starts. So…maybe mid-April?
Bleh…I only wrote about 2 things and one of them took so much space…
Anyway, clearly, things are fine in my area. Maybe my next one will be more on what’s been going on but first I wanted to let ya’ll know why my replies to your emails have been delayed (or very short-answered…)
So, it’s been a while since I’ve last written. Quite a while really. But it’s not understatement when I say, “I’ve been busy.” If you any of you personally know me, you’d totally understand what I’m talking about. But besides that fact, in light of everything’s that been going on here in Japan (and in response to all the emails and conversations rotating around “Are you back yet?” and “You should come back,” comments, I figured now’s a good time to write again about my daily shenanigans and keep you guys in the low paranoia level.
So, let’s begin.
As I’m writing this, I can’t remember when was the last time I posted. I don’t recall if I wrote before/during/after winter break…but right after winter break I’ve been pretty crazy busy. Mainly due to 2 projects that work that just sucked any free time I had. One more than the other (like, I even lost some sleep…ugh…)
Project A: Video Lesson
When I went home for Christmas, I made sure to take pictures of pretty much everything I did in LA and took video when it was possible. (Taking pictures wasn’t too difficult since some friends already call me “paparazzi”. It was the taking video bit that I’d usually forget about…). After I came back to Japan (and spent New Year’s with a friend and with my host mom), I started to work on a video for my students. I’m not a computer geek and computers tend to hate me so it took some time to learn the tricks of iMovie and get the music to start and fade out where I wanted them. Then I made questions for the students to answer, did the lesson 10 times (new readers: I teach all of the first years, equivalent of sophomores, and there’s 10 classes of 40 students), graded their handouts and recorded their scores. Right after this I started planning and preparing for the English Speech Contest.
Project B: English Speech Contest
So, in my school, all of the first years must write their own speech and then we hold preliminary rounds in each class to choose the student who will continue in the Speech Contest. Usually there are about 2 students per class that continue with the contest but occasionally we pass more. Anyway, the time consuming part was getting them to start to write their essays. Most of them didn’t seem too thrilled about it so getting excited for it was a bit of a challenge. Learning from last year’s craziness, I did more lessons with them on how to write. I knew it wouldn’t be easy but I didn’t expect it to be heavily overwhelming for some students. So I made sure to explain everything. But, for their rough draft, once I finished correcting their grammar, I wrote questions all along the sides to help them expand their speeches (and to make it more coherent). THAT took way more time than I had anticipated.
And then, in came a busy cloud. 3rd year’s English Essays!!! This year was the first time I taught at least one senior class on a weekly basis. But usually my part is done by winter break (since they’re mainly preparing to take their college entrance examinations). However, many of the teachers were asking me to help with the English Essay portion of their entrance exams! So, on top of grading/correcting/commenting/asking my 1st years’ Rough Drafts, I was lesson planning/prepping/correcting/guiding/advising the 3rd years! So, I felt like there weren’t enough hours in a day.
This went on for about 2 weeks.
Once I finally finished working with all the rough drafts (did you do the math?), I did 10 lessons explaining more on writing a speech, giving small grammar lessons (based on common mistakes I corrected), answering questions and talking one-on-one with the students who were either slacking off or having a really hard time, I thought I had some free time. But no. As soon as I had finished that second round of classes to start them on their 2nd drafts, their deadlines started coming in. So again, I was correcting all of their speeches. But this time around, as much as I wanted to, I didn’t ask them questions to help them with their speeches because the semester was almost going to end. I needed the last week of the semester to hold the preliminary rounds.
And the last day of the rounds was my busiest day!!! 1st and 2nd period I had preliminary rounds, 3rd period was a co-worker’s Open Class (so I checked it out), 4th was another preliminary round, then I had lunch (oh yea, I had skipped breakfast so I was soooo hungry), 5th was the last preliminary round, 6th was spent tallying up the points, going over my notes to choose the best speaker and writing the list of the students who will continue in the contest and finally, in the 7th period, I announced who would continue.
Phase 1 of the English Speech Contest ended. Oh man…I slept so much that weekend. And it felt sooooo nice.
Now, I’m busy with other things but at least now I shouldn’t be working too late…
Phase 2 will start when the new school year starts. So…maybe mid-April?
Bleh…I only wrote about 2 things and one of them took so much space…
Anyway, clearly, things are fine in my area. Maybe my next one will be more on what’s been going on but first I wanted to let ya’ll know why my replies to your emails have been delayed (or very short-answered…)
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