Current mood:	exhausted
Entry tags:	jhs students, work

Smoking students, creepy dude and a tennis game
Monday I had two first year classes, but ended up staying for a third. In the morning meeting I found out that there was a fire at the house of two of my students – one of the girls is one of the “bad girls” meaning she skips class and comes late. The first class was OK but a little dull. I think one kid is trying to bully another, but maybe it is teasing. I am not sure and should probably talk to my teacher about it. The second class was TJ and SK’s. It was a bit less dull, although the subject matter (conjugations) is supposed to be hard for them. TJ left for about ten minutes because his head hurt. He was in one of his moods when he came back and just sat there. He also kept grabbing and touching my hands. Their next class was a time to finish their homework and ask questions about their upcoming mid-terms, so TJ and SK made me stay for that. TJ was in a really bad mood and I had to stand by his desk and give him sentences to write. When he would perk up he would continuously ask me to just do it for him but the most I did was fill in a couple of wrong letters. He was just as touchy though and if I would try to move half of the time he would grab me. I ate lunch with Ichiro’s class (although he was on the other side of the room and didn’t talk to me at all). When I was going to his room Loud Mouth saw me. He had the front part of his hair up and he said “I’m a girl!” in English as he walked away. I saw Megadeath right after and he was trying to hide from me (since I told him on Friday he had to come to my desk after school to do his homework). I gave him my milk and he said he would come Tuesday instead. Smiley walked by the teacher’s room while I was in there just before lunch and called by name, but didn’t stop. He does that a lot. Pokemon kept coming in and out of the room during various times and for a while was playing on the nurse’s computer. Two of the other “bad” third year girls hung out in the teacher’s room too (they are the ones I did purikura with). After school there was a teacher’s meeting so I was left in the teacher’s room alone with the (very cute) student teacher. As I was debating about giving him candy he gave me a piece so I gave him some of mine. He seemed busy with work so I didn’t want to talk and interrupt him for the most part.

Tuesday I taught with all three of the 3rd year English teachers. First up was Peppy’s class. That class was OK but recently Peppy hasn’t been as peppy as usual. Maybe I am just seeing her at bad times or something. It’s not like she isn’t happy to see me, but some of her energy seems to be gone. I went to drop something off in the teacher’s room and on the way I saw TJ and SK. TJ hugged me, which he has never done before. The next class was Pokemon and George’s class. I walked Pokemon down to class and George came in late. There is another kid I like in that class but I don’t know what his name is! He’s smart (although SCS and I played a joke on him). George sat there for a while and eventually I went back there and got him to start doing his work. I coached him through part of the lesson. I tried to do the same with Pokemon but for the most part he just did whatever he wanted. My third class was with the dancing class and Lee. It was OK but they were all a bit down. They had a new seating arrangement and two of the really talkative kids were put beside each other in the back which meant they just talked through most of it. Lee was also put by a “bad girl” and they spent a lot of time talking. I got them to do their work a bit in the middle of class. Before lunch I helped one teacher make the listening part of the handicapped class English test. As we were making it Pokemon came in to the broadcasting room and watched us from the booth. Afterwards he was in the teacher’s room so I made him stamp some papers I was grading. He tried to tell me that I should pay him for his work but I just ignored that part. I did promise him some of my lunch (and I gave it to him too).

I ate lunch with Loud Mouth/HeyHeyHey/Monkey Boy’s class. There was an empty seat in front of two girls I like. When they saw me walking up they told me to sit there and then they dragged their desks so that we were sitting in a group (that was the first time I have seen that happen outside of the third years). The two girls were funny. At one point we were talking about food and they were asking me what I liked better. Their teacher said something like “Rebecca knows a lot about Japanese food!” and they told the teacher to be quiet and stop listening. Loud Mouth didn’t really talk to me, but after lunch a kid who is in Megadeath’s class came by (he did the day before too). It’s the kid who kept stealing the fake cellphones from another lesson, Thief. He said “Rebecca goes to McDonalds.” So I asked him when. He didn’t understand and it took a few minutes and a few people to explain what it was, and he said “Sunday.” I told him “Let’s go” and then he asked me something that sounded like “are you mad?” I saw George again after lunch as he was skipping class and hanging out in the front office. I went to print something out and got pulled in to the conversation. His homeroom teacher came in later and said “I heard you worked hard in English today. I bet it’s because of the person in front of you.” I made him say a few of the things we studied today and his teacher asked him how to say some other things in English. During the last class Smiley was in the front office because they had to call someone or something, he didn’t know what was going on and kept asking his friend. I went to go walk around and look at the clubs but ended up talking to two first year girls for a long time. They asked me about my love life, then if I smoked, drank, etc. Apparently a bunch of kids at my school smoke. After I finished with them I watched this one second year girl (I think one of the girls I talked to at lunch) practice jumping for track.

Wednesday morning I was at the elementary school I like. The kid from last time that called me cute/pretty said it a few more times. I was scheduled to eat lunch with his class so I sat by him. He knows some English so he asked me a few questions in English. His last name is the same as TJ but I know they aren’t related. Besides, that last name is common. I also taught SCS’s little brother who did well and had pretty good pronunciation (we did weather and days). I went to my junior high after lunch and Pokemon came in. He had some nail he found and also played with his DS. He was going to give me his NintenDogs game but I told him no. He apparently hasn’t played it for like two years but the dogs were still alive (although dirty, hungry and thirsty). He came back later and I made him help me color my monster for the elementary school Halloween lessons. Later he was drawing some picture on MS paint on the nurse’s computer with another teacher egging him on (and then they set it as her wallpaper!). In the afternoon these two high school girls came. I thought I recognized them but I wasn’t sure. One of them came over to talk to me and the English teacher later. It turns out that I had talked to them before, sometime back in May maybe. One of the girls went to America and I helped her write her essay to go for the exchange program. She had suckers for all of the teachers and then a special home-made present for me and the English teacher beside me.

Thursday I had Beckham’s class in the morning. He kept asking the main teacher questions (what did you have for breakfast? What did you have for dinner?). He asked me what I had for breakfast and I told him nothing. He asked why and I didn’t really give an answer (I just don’t like to eat breakfast!), so he asked me if I was on a diet. I kept saying no, but when he wouldn’t give up I said yes. Later, he didn’t do his work and I ended up writing the info on his paper for him. One of the other students seemed to be jealous, but he is a good student and can do his work. I ended up having to write the answers for another student and then correct another’s spelling. After that class I went to get more origami paper from the second years English room. Loud Mouth’s class was in there and they seemed excited to see me. However, I couldn’t stay since I wasn’t scheduled to be in there. I told the teacher it was OK, but she said to take a rest since I volunteered to help with a later class. I ate lunch with MegaDeath’s class and again my seat was near Glasses and Megadeath. They didn’t talk to me as much as usual. When I walked in Thief ran over to the seat and said “my desk!” in English. After lunch I saw Smiley who had come to get some information about high school from his teacher. My added class was Megadeath’s and they were surprised to see me. The teacher told me she was going to be nervous to be observed but I tried to tell her I just wanted to help. The kids had to memorize a dialogue and then work on translating the next lesson. I stamped their cards if they could do the dialogue. I went to clean with some tennis girl I liked and she spent most of the time talking in that fake foreigner accent that I really don’t like. After school Pokemon was in the teacher’s room more. He ate his bread from lunch and spent most of the time playing around/stealing things from me. I made him mad by snapping. He can’t snap so when people snap their fingers he always gets mad. He kept saying that he wanted to go to my place because he thought I had a lot of games or a lot of American stuff. Eventually he left and I walked around to watch some of the kids practice.

Friday was the fall sports festival. The first and second years went off to compete at different places. However, it was raining so some of the teams didn’t go. There was a shortage of teachers since many of them are the coaches or in charge of the teams. So, I got pulled to do the morning homeroom for one of the first year classes. All I did was hand out a worksheet and take roll. I think I was supposed to tell them stuff but I don’t know what. I didn’t have a schedule to give to them and I figured they knew what was going on probably better than me. One of the part-time teachers came as homeroom ended and took my place. In the afternoon I was at the elementary school I like. I was pretty nervous about my Halloween lesson but it went over well. One of the teachers asked me to not use so much Japanese, which would be fine if I used it all the time. But I don’t usually. The only reason I did that day was because I was explaining about the holiday and wasn’t sure if she would be able to translate everything. It rubbed me the wrong way for some reason at the time, probably because as it is I have to do something different to suit every single teacher, and then their students, rather than teaching the way that I want or the way that I think is best.

I finished early and planned to go to the bank but that was a failure since the banks close at 3. I was pretty pissed and sleepy, so I went home and took a nap before my Japanese class. Japanese class was OK but that one guy is still creeping me out. He didn’t stare as much (or I couldn’t tell if he was), but he said stuff that made me feel slightly uncomfortable. We were practicing illnesses and giving advice. He said he burned himself so I told him to run water over his hand. He asked me to help. Both the teacher and I were like “huh?” I understand that the guy wants to practice saying different things so he changes it up a lot, but it is annoying when he says strange things like that. Later he said he was feeling bad, so I said to rest. He said that wouldn’t help, so I said to sleep. He said that wouldn’t help so I started saying other things – take a bath, eat something. He kept saying no and the teacher and I got a bit frustrated. Just accept the advice or something! I had dinner afterwards with another ALT (usually we eat before class).

Saturday I went to see the girl’s tennis match. I had wanted to see the baseball team but I couldn’t find the baseball teacher before I left (I should have asked him earlier). I like the tennis girls though so it was OK. They lost almost every single match, but they seemed to enjoy talking with me. It’s a little amusing because most of the first years call me Rebecca-sensei but the other kids have almost all dropped the sensei. I spent a bit of time with some of the girls I usually talk to and we chatted about a lot. I also talked to some of the other girls that I don’t speak to as often and everyone seemed happy to have me there. Both coaches thanked me for coming, multiple times. I ended up getting slightly sunburned on my face because I wasn’t thinking about that and didn’t put any sun block on.