Lunch with the 9th Graders

"You have tests next week? What tests?"

"English. Math. Social studies. Science. Japanese."

"I see. It sucks to be you."

"Yes."

"Do you understand what that means?"

"No."

"Well, 'it sucks' means it's bad. Kinda. 'It sucks. 'The movie sucks.' 'To be you' is like, anatani natteiru. Being you, it sucks. Understand?"

"Yes, I do."

"Well, sucks to be you."

"Yes."

Octopi

Yujo handed me the small octopus. "Tako." He said.

"Octopus." I laughed as the invertebrate tried crawling up my arm. It held on and struggled against me, but I finally had it cradled in my palm. It calmed down sufficiently and I carried it along as we waded across the shallows, looking for more octopus.

I'm not sure how they did it, but Toshiki seemed the best hunter. He led the other boys--I followed behind with my octopus friend--and pointed into the clear water when he spotted something. He and Okuma-sensei warned us a few times of puffer-fish and another nasty lobster-looking creature with barbed stingers.

We collected six more octopi. Then we returned to school, Satsuko-san threw them on a skillet and we ate them.

Raining Flowers

Recent e-mails from family and friends asked about my sudden silence. March has been a busy month. It's the end of the school year and everyone is busy with preparations and leavetakings. In honor of that, here's the 9th grade class:

Sick and Absent on Ie-jima

Not me. At least, not at the moment.

I was out sick on Tuesday from a cold that crept up on me over the weekend. It was possibly the best sick day I've ever taken. My coworkers actually brought me breakfast and lunch straight to my door, and though I didn't eat it all, it was a thoughtful and effective way of checking in.

I had a surprise though when I went back to work on Wednesday: twenty 8th grade students were home sick with influenza and the principal had gone ahead and cancelled all their classes for the rest of the week, the Minnesotan equivalent to five consecutive snowdays.

Lucky little bastards. What American student wouldn't kill for that?

Seeing as the 8th graders are the majority of my schedule from week to week, I suddenly had a lot of free time, which I effectively devoted to origami flowers. Since the 8th grade is in charge of making decorations for the graduation ceremony next week, the responsibilities fell to the teachers. However, I'm still bored, and having studied Japanese, worked on my taxes and prepped for next weeks classes, I find myself updating my blog.

Does blogging about work count if most of your coworkers can't read English?

I had fifth graders at Nishi elementary today. Teaching them was unexpected--I had prepared for sixth grade--and therefore had to wing it.

I do quite a bit of winging at elementary level. Every few weeks, I'll show up to class only to find the schedule has changed and no one thought it prudent enough to inform me until I show up 15 minutes before class. Usually I'm bumped in favor of cultural lessons in dancing. Sometimes I'll insist on joining the students, though primarily I'm assigned another class. This event happens enough that I tend to bring an extra lesson along that fits all levels.

But the Nishi fifth graders are a handful: 37 strong, they're the most intimidating class I've attempted to teach. To further complicate matters, they're the ones most often bumped from my schedule. As a result, they're English skills are lacking.

My lessons in elementary school have been on the upswing: I'm planning and teaching better and I'm trying to give students something more than rote memorization. More and more of my lessons consist of songs and games to keep them interested. However, after fourth grade, songs become something stupid and games can be more disruptive than education, particularly if you're dealing with 37 students and depending on their homeroom teacher for crowd control.

I like their homeroom teacher: Satoro-sensei is a good teacher and I have nothing but respect for the man who can handle 37 students. He had to discipline one loud student, but that student came back and we had a good lesson.

It went well. My last class with the fifth graders had been a disaster, trying to teach them an English phrase through a game and none of them would pay the least bit of attention to me. Today, however, I took them through countries and how to ask and respond to questions about where they are from. I had to use Japanese a few times to facilitate, since most of them are not used to English commands other grades have grasped through more exposure and classes, but most caught on quickly, and by the time the period ended they were busy asking each other what country they were from.

It is becoming increasingly easier to joke with students. One kid was insistent that he was from Jamaica, and we had some fun ribbing about his Caribbean desire. It appeared to set them at ease and make them pay attention a lot more than by simply ignoring the behavior. And it felt a hell of a lot better than trying to drill the information into their heads.

Reading: I started Catch-22 about a week ago and interrupted it with Jose Saramago's Blindness. Blindness was one of the most engrossing* books I've read in a good long time. It was impossible to put down, most probably because of the page long sentences. Its sequel is on my reading list.

Watching: Caught up on My Name is Earl episodes. Enjoyable, but now that I'm caught up, I might crack and start in on Heroes episodes.

Playing: I continue to push through Final Fantasy VI Advance in Japanese, which is a nifty learning tool when you've played the English version so many times and memorized the dialogue.

*Does anyone use "engrossing" for anything other than books?