Today I was at my small junior high in the mountains. It was a pretty standard day; I took a taxi to school, arrived somewhat early and was asked to make several heavy-duty worksheets before classes started 2nd period. I had three classes (one with each grade) and spent the rest of the day typing up worksheets and working on a poster for the 1st grade classroom. As usual, there wasn't really any down time.
Somehow, though, I was in a really good mood today. I felt at ease in the staff room (not that this is unusual in and of itself) and found myself smiling at the other teachers when I passed them in the hallway. I felt sort of a mixture of affection and pride for the students. Most of them are smart kids, and even the ones who struggle keep trying. I also spend enough time with them that I'm getting to know their personalities. They're a really interesting group. One of the 2nd graders makes me laugh every time I see him. He's a small and fairly childish student who is always chattering away, usually in Japanese but occasionally throwing in a few words of English.
I'm also feeling hopeful for the new school year after having my first class with the new 1st graders. There are only two of them, one boy and one girl. When I met them, I figured that the girl was the brighter of the two since she seemed more alert and actually tried to engage me in conversation. But then today the boy surprised me by being quite fast to complete all of the activities. He had seemed a little withdrawn at opening ceremony, but today he spoke up whenever the class had to repeat after me, and he seemed cheerful as well. Though the activities we did today were very simple and somewhat repetitive, the two students were enthusiastic and appeared to enjoy them. I think I'm going to like these guys.
While I still don't know the reason for it, today was a really pleasant day. Even when I was scrambling to put together new worksheets, I was in a fairly good mood, and I enjoyed being in class with the students. My last task of the day was basically arts and crafts, so that was fun, too. Though none of the new teachers have spoken to me, I'm hopeful that we'll get along. One of them even seems to be around my age. I think this is his first teaching job out of graduate school, and I get the impression that he is very enthusiastic about teaching and serious about doing a good job of it. He sits right across from me in the staff room, so maybe I'll attempt to talk to him sometime.
There isn't really any news to share today, but I wanted to write about this so that I'll have a reminder of how good my job can be. I think today was the best I've ever felt about being an ALT. I was walking around all day with a warm fuzzy feeling. Hopefully this isn't a sign of a mood disorder or a brain tumor or something. Most likely it's just that I'm finally realizing that TJHS is a great school, and that there's actually a place for me there. I'll almost certainly be staying at my current schools for a full school year since there are no new ALTs coming to the Board of Education this year, so I don't feel so temporary anymore.
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