Lots of overtime recently, as I prepare my two JHS students for their speech contests next week. It’s kind of nice though as I feel like I’m racking up some good will points for staying until 6 with these girls, and even talked about the difficulties of overwork in Japan with my VP.
One who’s written her own speech is doing so well--right now it’s just a matter of polishing up those l’s and r’s (especially with the word “election”, whoops! That word is not making it into the scripts next year if I can help it.) and working on intonation. It warms my heart because she’s also a very shy student, much like some of my past Japanese students in America, and it means everything to me when the subject I teach can give them confidence! Is it too early to be bragging about speech contests yet? I really think she’ll make it to the prefectural competition in Sendai!!!
Eating lunch with the kids varies so wildly from being okay to incredibly awkward where I don’t say a word--it’s hard, because I know JHS kids want to talk to their friends (and ES kids need to have time to finish their food so I shouldn’t distract them from eating any more than they distract themselves!). But today I actually had a good lunch with the 3rd years, and it’s probably all because the homeroom teacher was making sure the kid next to me was asking questions and quizzing him on my answers, but as a result we had a good talk about Pokemon.
Also my entrance way cleaning crew was especially enthusiastic today in greeting me, and I managed to squeeze in a few instances to help out by holding dust pans and what not. I really need to learn these kids’ names before it’s too late and too awkward!
Tomorrow is another late speech practice day, especially since I’ll be driving from my most distant elementary school to make it. But I am well-stocked on leftovers in my fridge, and some fruits and veggies to supplement it! I even got some handmade hijiki from my local supermarket--bonus!
