hi all,
This week has gone pretty well. I finished watching Chobits, and I've been teaching about 4-5 classes per day, which gives me about 2-3 hours of free time to grade papers, read my sci-fi book, and study Japanese.
Today was my first day of teaching at my elementary school. I told my teachers at the junior high yesterday that I would be teaching at the elementary school today, and they were all surprised. I guess I probably would be too: I've been teaching there for almost 2 months, and then suddenly I start teaching random Fridays at a different school? Anyway, I got over to the elementary school without too much trouble. It is pretty easy to find, and the people all were very friendly. A few of the staff members, including the principal, speak pretty decent English (although not as good as the English teachers at my junior high). Like at the junior high, several were very friendly and chatty off the bat, but we'll see if they stay that way at the elementary school.
They basically went over some pre-made lesson plans with me, and then I taught them: the Japanese teachers work in the background, while I go through gestures, drawing on the board, etc, to help the students get through my all English self-introduction. I only taught 4 classes: 2 5th year classes, and 2 6th year classes. Apparently elementary school here goes for 6 years, not counting kindergarten.
One last thing is that they want me to stay a little longer than I'm contracted for one time each month to teach some of the teachers English. I need to ask Heart if this is cool, and if I can get paid extra for this, since I'll working slightly longer than normal.
Tomorrow, I head into Shinjuku to extend my housing contract.
Cheers
