now past the one month mark of teaching, i'm finally beginning to teach real classes instead of just doing my self-introduction day in and day out. at my junior highs, i'm finally beginning to team-teach with my teachers, and actually contribute something, no matter now small, to whatever the students are learning. at some of my elementary schools, the good ones, teachers are all ready with the materials i'll need to teach for the day, so i basically just show up, take a quick look at what they have lying on my desk, and 5 minutes later, i'm teaching a class. at the remaining schools, i have complete autonomy over what i teach, which brings me to the my last two days.
yesterday i was at my super huge elementary school, and it was my first time teaching the entire day. for 6 out of 6 periods, i went through each grade and taught them numbers, which i've now come to conclude: it's hard to count in english. today i went to two schools. my first school (which i'm in love with) is about 35 kids, while my afternoon school was my smallest (4 kids). i taught the morning school numbers, and at my second school, after an hour of doing origami, the everyone decided to just end school for the day so i didn't even teach anything (haha).
as these classes were my first real planned out classes teaching real material, one is bound to run into some problems. my first three classes yesterday were all failures. i wont bore you with why, but they were. by the end of 3rd period, i seriously began to think i was in way over my head, that teaching wasn't for me, that having to teach 60-80 students in one class is just psychotic and sadistic, etc. however, i changed things around for my 4th period, and it went absolutely beautifully, as did the rest of my classes yesterday. today, all my classes went beautifully too, which is why i'm writing in such a happy mood right now =)
there are some thoughts that have popped into my head over these past two days, that i just have to share:
On Numbers- numbers are hard to learn. who thought it was smart to call 11 "eleven" and 12 "twelve"? and why did the genius who named numbers call it fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen, but shaft fifteen from being "fiveteen"? never thought about that, did you?
- on the same topic, kids will consistently say "fiveteen" instead of "fifteen." can't say i really blame them.
- they also keep calling 12 "twenty." at first i thought that was random, but it makes sense. both start with "twe-", and if i were japanese and had the option of trying to say "twelve" or "twenty," hell yeah "twenty" is easier to say.
- for some reason, kids like to call 7 and 17 nine and nineteen. that's a puzzle to me.
- somehow, eight and eighteen got lost when being taught in japanese english classes. consistently between yesterday and today, i've witnessed every class be unable to count seven-eight-nine and seventeen-eighteen-nineteen. in EVERY class, kids ALWAYS somehow forget that eight and eighteen succeed seven and seventeen. they ALWAYS skip from seventeen to nineteen. the younger grades consistently skip from seven to nine. how is that possible? what is it about the number 8? isn't it supposed to be lucky?... this topic absolutely fascinates me.
The Bagyesterday, after my 3 straight failed classes, i was pretty down in the dumps (not to mention exhausted), when 2 fifth graders came up to me at the beginning of 4th period. they were giggling and super smiley as they approached.
Girl: "Evelyn-sensei?"
Me: "Yes?"
Girl: [Holds out a colorful, girly-looking bag] "I made this for you. Please use it!"
Me: [in complete shock] "Really???!! You made this?? And for me??!"
Girl: [Smiles and nods]
Upon further inspection of the bag, it was actually pretty well made, complete with a pocket inside for holding more stuff. it's only about a foot by a foot, but it's soooo sweet of her. when i opened up a bag, there was a note inside with "Evelyn-sensei"
spelled out of construction-paper- punched-out-flowers in japanese. At the bottom, they wrote, "
Kore kara mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu" which I have no idea how to even begin translating, but basically means, "I'll be counting on you," or "I look forward to working with you" maybe. two girls signed the note, so i'm guessing one made the bag and the other cut out my name.
at any rate, that put be in a great mood. i mean, who sits and home and decides, "i'm going to make a bag for my undercover gaijin english teacher"?? really, these kids never stop surprising me.
The Proposaltoday during lunch, i was eating with the 3rd and 4th graders when all the 6th graders suddenly appeared right outside the 3rd/4th grade classroom. one boy stutters something at me, and all the students inside and outside the classroom, as well as the 2 teachers in the classroom with me, all burst out laughing. completed stumped, i look to my advisor (i guess my supervisor) at that school, who was eating in the room at the time, and he says to me, "Joke, joke," all while shaking his head.
10 seconds later, that same boy appears at the door, and asks me if i can spare 10 seconds. sure why not. he walks up to me and says, "Evelyn-sensei.
Ore to ke-ke-ke-ke-ke-ke-kekkon [bunch of sounds i couldn't make out]?" Again, everyone starts laughing. my advisor then says, "Proposal. Marriage proposal."
Gosh, i'm so popular. only 21 and i already got my first marriage proposal!
just to complete the cycle of harassment, i went up to that kid (a 6th grader) during lunch while he was drawing something at his desk. when he looked up at me, i said to him, "
Ja, kekkon shimasu!" which means, "Sure, let's get married!" How i wish you could have all see the look of shock and horror in his face (lol).
The Countrymy second school today was my smallest school as i mentioned before. if you've been reading closely, you'll remember that this is the place where i had quite a bit of country-culture-shock (see what i'm referring to
here). today was no exception.
so what do kids in the country do to pass the time? like i mentioned some posts ago, they apparently love to catch bugs with nets. charming, no? today, i discovered something else they love to do that you can't help but think, "wow, that's such a countryside thing to do... would city kids ever think of doing that?"
since everyone decided to end school early, we walked the 1st graders down the road to meet their grandmothers to take them home. i went along because i wanted to score some 100 yen vegetables. however, the 4th and 6th graders weren't allowed to go home yet, so they went walking with me and the only teacher at school that day (only my advisor, Matsumura, and the tea lady were at school today.. the other 2 teachers were on a business trip).
after leaving the 1st graders with their grandmothers, the four of us walked around to the nearby stalls to buy veggies. as we headed back to the school, i heard the kids giggling and thought i felt something lightly touching my back, but i decided that i was just being paranoid. a few minutes later, i see akihito (the 4th grade boy) run past me with a whole bunch of flower buds stuck to his back. at that point, i started laughing uncontrollably.
the whole way back to the school, the kids kept picking these flower buds (which weren't sharp, but circular and pointy enough to get caught on clothing easily), and sequentially chuck them at one another, me, and Mr. Matsumura, trying to get them stuck on one another's clothing. just think of one of those games from way back in the day where two people are playing each other, each has a frisbee shaped disc on their hand that has a ton of velcro on one side, and the ball being tossed from person to person is wrapped up in the complimentary velcro material. the frisbee = everyone's clothing. the velcro ball = the flower buds. the objective = get as many flower buds stuck to each other's clothing as possible without him or her realizing it.
i laughed sooo much on that walk back, and it didn't help that i had five bags of vegetables in my arms. at one point, i tossed three buds at once at akihito and managed to get all of them to stick to his back and the back of his arm. oh yes -- i rock at this game =)
so next time you're in the wilderness or admist a bunch of rice fields and you're bored, now you know a way to pass the time!
--evelyn
