Teacher and student

I’ve been accepted to the Liberty University graduate school to study for a Master of Arts in Teaching with a specialty in middle school English. My plan is to take one course from January until March, and then two courses from March to May. The first week of the two-course load will be my last full week of work in Japan, so the timing is pretty good. I’m still working on getting a few documents sorted before I fully commit to the program. And there’s a lot to think about, moving back to the US.

I’ve complained about my junior high school a lot, but last week one of the teachers came to me and told me that they want me to stay another year at that school. I really appreciated that, and I also told her that I was grateful for the opportunity to observe and participate in class (as calling my duties there “teaching” seems like an arrogant exaggeration). Of course I told her that I was going home next year, but anyway, the exchange did make me feel better.

Usually the socially challenged class is my least favorite to teach, but recently I had kind of a special experience. There is a girl in that class who has ADHD and sometime does no work at all during class. This day I was asked to work with her, which rarely happens. The last time I did so, back in the first term, she quickly got frustrated that I wouldn’t speak Japanese with her. This time though, she was much more willing to make an effort to understand. I think one thing that helped me was that, first thing I asked her how she was, and tried to respond appropriately to her answer with another question or sympathetic nods or whatever. Afterward, she easily made it through her assigned worksheet and then we talked. First we talked about ways to write the number seven, which she obviously enjoyed. Then I asked her about zero, and she didn’t understand but was so interested in my question that she called my co-teacher over to translate. So I was happy that a student would try so hard to understand me

I went to a men’s drinking party with teachers from one of my elementary schools and we had a great evening. The meat was fantastic--it was high-grade beef which we dipped in raw egg. The seafood was good too, especially the squid sashimi, although some of the sashimi was a bit too fishy for my taste. After the restaurant, we went to a "snack bar". Its closest American equivalent would probably be a karaoke bar, but I've never been to one so I'm not sure about that. Snack bars have a seedy reputation, but the one we went to was pretty classy. I sang some songs, two in Japanese and two in English, but I didn’t do a good job. Regardless, it was one of the best, most comfortable parties I have ever attended.

Yesterday I took the big Japanese test that I failed last year. Overall I feel that I did better, which was my goal. I managed to read and try to understand all but a few questions from the reading section compared to about half last year. I’ll get the results online in late January. And with this test finished, I have a presentation for my co-workers on Wednesday and a Christmas party for students on Sunday. After that there won’t be any particularly stressful events until the end of my time in Japan, possibly excepting graduate school assignments.