Even Better day

Gonna try those photos again... YATTA!!!! SUCCESS!!!

May 17

May 17

May 17

May 18

May 18

May 18

May 18

May 18

May 18

This is that apple tart I've talked about (May 18)

The inside - to make you jealous

May 19

Sakura - Cherry blossoms at the school (May 20th)

Yesterday (May 22)

May 22

Another May 22

Yay! I had to go through a process to get these to work (upload them to facebook, then download from fb onto my comp, then upload them to here. Everything else I tried gave me screwed-up pictures!)

In any case, I've been RIDICULOUSLY busy. I worked most of last night as I mentioned and I just stopped working at some point. Then I finished the things I needed for my lessons today at school. I couldn't do anymore last night. THEN, today I got my SLP 30 minutes before I left the school. Aaaarrrggghhh! I just NOW finished with what I'm going to do for tomorrow and haven't even started on next week. It's very stressful for me.

However, my lessons went VERY well today. I taught a new lesson to a first grade class and though I've had some problems with that class in the past, today was GREAT. They were almost all involved and everyone loved and played the game! Even my reluctant students really got into it. :D (I taught "time" today.)

Then I taught a third grade class with the teacher who yelled at me since Fujieda-sensei is gone. Well I had changed the worksheet around and changed the language and he joked he ought to "have a talk with me" all the time since it makes me such a great teacher. I was FLOORED. Uhh... I'm just going to back away from that one.

Then I taught another third grade class another lesson I had prepared on making a summary. I scaffolded the CRAP outta that class and they did really well! It was SLIGHTLY boring (I mean it was about SUMMARIES), but mostly it was upbeat and fun. :) Oikawa-sensei, again, gave me a round of applause at my desk. :D YAY! I thought that the lesson wouldn't fill the whole 50 minutes so I had a game prepared but we didn't get to play it as time ran out. :/ Still, better that then have a whole lotta nothing to do.

After school (since that last class I taught was the last period), I helped the kids clean (as I always do), then FINALLY got my SLP and started trying to work on it. I was so overwhelmed I wasn't sure where to start. On top of that my lesson next week for the first graders is "dates." It's not that wide a subject, so I am trying to plan a lot of games. I'm not sure how to go about setting up a worksheet either. Yeesh. But I have faith I will be blessed with ideas. I was going to go to the gym today but with everything on my plate, there was just no way for me to be able to go AND get enough sleep for tomorrow. I'm mostly prepared for tomorrow and find myself just DONE with today. I'm currently living a fairly frustrating lifestyle. I get up, get ready for school, go to school and teach (yay for the teaching part), work my butt off during all my prep, wolf down my lunch then continue working, brainstorm on the bus, get home and work while I eat (you're not supposed to do that but I'm at home and no one will know! ... until now! lol), work until I can't stand it anymore, then blog and get ready for bed and go to bed. *sigh* I have to work some on Saturday but hopefully not TOO much.

I had a great mmm moment today too. I've been thinking about how in training Cedric (the beast, lol) told all these stories about students who would come to his desk during lunch and talk to him. I was feeling down that none of my students stop by. Then as I was waiting for the bus, as typically happens, the teams jogged by me. Two boys from Boxing Club, as they ran by, yelled to me. One said, "I like the New York Mets!" The other said, "I like the S(h)eattle Mariners!" Then it hit me: I AM getting that spontaneous conversation. Just because it didn't come the way that it came for Cedric doesn't mean it hasn't been happening for me. Also two boys (and this is the first time THIS has happened) "busted it." They started it and I was happy to bust back and they both exclaimed "Yessss!" - imitating me. Those were golden moments for me. A bright light in the ocean of work! I hope to get on top of it all soon. I don't want to feel as if I'm running alongside a freight train, hoping to hop aboard before I get to the fence in the train yard.

I'm slightly frustrated that tomorrow, on the day I get home early, I have to go into the office. *sigh* However, I'm hoping it will be productive and also not too long as I have A TON of work to do. (This is why I think I will have to work some on Saturday. Hopefully I can have all of Saturday and Sunday free. Especially since there are errands I have been putting off for a long time. *sheepish face* But it's because they're new and I can only do so many new things in a place where I barely speak the language before I feel overwhelmed and have to run home to a place in which I feel safe.)

So that was my day. I hope yours is going well/went well/will go well. :D My best as always, XOXO, A

Funny moments:

I forgot to mention one from yesterday. My new second grade class asked me, "What's your favorite music?" After I had made a face to the question, "Do you like One Direction?" I told them, and then wrote it on the board: System of a Down. Then I had this funny moment in my head imagining their faces and reactions if they bothered to look up and listen to System of a Down. I dress conservatively for school so I must seem like a grown-up (I think I've got them fooled! ;D) but if they hear SoaD.. LOL I wish I could see it happen.

P.S. Here's a picture from TODAY!

I just let down my hair from my updo and it did this - so I needed a picture! (It also kinda looks like I'm shirtless but promise I'm not!)