First Day at School

Hey everyone,

So, these past couple of weeks have been pretty boring. Mind-numbing, actually.  It's difficult to sit around thinking of lesson-planning ideas when all I want to do is leave school because I'm the only one at work. Well, yesterday and today were different! Yesterday I finished my introduction lesson plan and showed it to one of my JTE's (Japanese Teacher of English, these are the people whom I will be working with) and she thought the students would like it. I also showed it to one of the other JTEs today (my caretaker/supervisor who I don't teach with) and she seemed happy about it as well. Japanese adults don't seem very animated...so I wonder how they act in the classroom. There's one really genki (energetic) teacher who the students love! It makes me wonder how the students receive this behavior. Do they like it? Or do they probably not care and sleep through the class regardless of whether I'm uber-genki or not?

Today, I had to make 2 speeches in front of people! I went to the early morning teacher's meeting at 8:30 and was seated next to the Kyoto-sensei (vice-principal). He made his speech and then asked me to introduce myself. My caretaker told me to make the speeches very short...30 seconds or less ("The shorter the better"), so I introduced myself, they clapped, and went along with the meeting!  I could understand much less than 50% of the conversation...I need to study more :/

After that, I went downstairs and filled out a bunch of paperwork regarding my passport issues while the students were cleaning the halls. I didn't go outside to check what they were cleaning, but the cleaning process seemed loud!! Lots of clanking sounded like it was coming from a huge machine. I'll go outside to check next time for sure. But after cleaning was over, I had to go to the gym for the second term opening ceremony.

The second term opening ceremony started with the school song...and everyone sang! I felt kinda awkward just standing there not singing because I didn't know the lyrics or melody.  o_o;; After the song was over, everyone sat down and Kyoto-sensei made a long speech. He said something about the US landing on Mars and something about looking for alien life. Or not. I heard "uchujin" which is alien, so I'm guessing they were talking about that for a little bit. I wasn't paying attention because I was nervous about speaking on the stage in front of that many students haha... Anyways, time went by and they announced the section where they were going to introduce the new ALT. I followed Kyoto-sensei onto the stage and he had prepared a speech about me! He said my full name, where I'm from, hobbies, etc. It was kinda awkward...he said my full name and then the students started smiling and talking to other students around them.  Maybe they like my name? I blame Fullmetal Alchemist for making my last name popular in Japan... But yeah, everyone seemed interested in my soccer tidbits and the fact that I liked anime/manga! After he talked about me, I had to give a short 30 second or less speech about myself into the microphone. It was terrifying, but everyone clapped after I was done haha I went back to my seat and my caretaker told me I did a good job as I almost fell over in my chair. Once clumsy, always clumsy, I guess ^_^;

I talked with the JTE that I'm team-teaching the 3rd years with, and he seemed really nice! He also majored in Linguistics and seemed to have worked a lot with English Literature. I had to give him the outline for my introductory lesson and soon had to work on the next couple of lesson plans. Making lesson plans is kinda difficult... =/ While I was trying to make some on the school computer, I heard some students talking about how the Kyoto-sensei called out my name. So, I heard "KRISTIN ELIZABETH ARMSTRONG" being yelled in the halls...it was kinda creepy. I hope they weren't making too much fun of me ^^;  I felt like a celebrity after the meeting...students said hi back to me enthusiastically, and one girl kinda squealed/giggled after I said hi to her! It was cute! :] It seems the students recognize me now, and they were talking about me even after the ceremony had long passed. At least they know my name! Most of them are gonna have to deal with me for the whole year! :P

That's it for now...I've gotta get back to lesson-planning. I'll write again later!  :]

P.S.  Ah, I forgot! I was supposed to have classes tomorrow, but they got cancelled. Yay!  xD  So my first time teaching is next Monday....and I'm terrified! But it should be fun :]