Today was a really great day at my favorite junior high. For a while now I've looked forward to Thursday every week, and I'm rarely disappointed. The students were all in pretty good moods, and so I enjoyed my classes. Playing a gambling game with the second graders was fun, as was watching the third graders take each others' pictures for a sort of yearbook thing they make each year. To make the other students smile, Yousuke was doing a weird dance. When that stopped working he switched to a comedy routine that I couldn't understand, but which was hilarious to the other students. It's nice to see them having fun.
Aside from classes, today was very satisfying in that I managed to socialize with the other teachers some more. At lunch I started a conversation with S-sensei, and he really got into it. I'm always afraid to interrupt what he's doing because he's busy nearly all the time, but every time I've started a conversation, he has responded very positively. So I was really happy. I pretty much just asked about his hobbies. He had to think very seriously before coming up with an answer to the question; he made some rather odd faces while thinking, and spun around in his chair a bit. One of the other teachers laughed at him. I'm assuming it was because he got so agitated over such a basic question. In the end, it turned out that he likes video games. He plays on all kinds of consoles: Wii, Xbox, PS3, and so on. He might've been talking about in college, though, because I doubt he has all that much free time anymore.
I also mentioned that rehearsals for the Genki musical will start this weekend, and he seemed really interested in it. Unfortunately I didn't have the performance dates written in my agenda yet, but I can always tell him next week. I'm hopeful that maybe he would really come. When he asked when the performance would be, it didn't seem like he was just asking out of politeness. And as the practices start gearing up, I'll have more to talk about. At this point I don't know much about my role, or the musical in general. Something interesting I discovered is that U-sensei, who comes in the afternoons to help out, apparently will be sign language interpreting for the musical. I didn't notice before, but a lot of the time when she talks to me, she's also signing with her hands. I couldn't entirely understand what she was telling me, so either she said she interpreted last year, or she'll be interpreting this year. But that was certainly a surprise.
After fifth period, nearly all of the teachers had to go do something at the elementary school. When it was time for them to leave, S-sensei asked me, "You have to stay behind?". He seemed disappointed. He said something to the social studies teacher, and although I didn't quite catch it, I think he was talking about the possibility of having another conversation when they got back. The social studies teacher probably would've joined in; he likes to tease me. But the English teacher was very insistent that I call a taxi by 4:00, and the taxi arrived before everyone returned. It's funny; at that school it sort of feels like the English teacher chases me out each week. I'd be fine with staying longer because there's always more to work on (and my hours there are pretty short to begin with), but at some point she starts pestering me to call for a taxi.
Anyhow, today was another good day at school. I've kind of made a resolution to talk to the other teachers each week, and especially to S-sensei because he's about my age and sits right across from me. So far it's working out pretty well. To be honest, I chose to recontract largely in the hope that I could stay at this school, but there are no guarantees. It's quite likely I'll be moved. But tomorrow I have an interview with my supervisor and her supervisor, and I'm going to take that opportunity to tell them how well things are going at that school, and what a good working relationship I have with the English teacher there. It might not make a difference, but it's pretty much the only thing I can do to try to keep my school.
No comments:
Post a Comment