Toki +1

I've made a comment about Tuesdays being Toki Tuesdays but today I had additional class so I guess that streak is broken.

First I have to go back to yesterday (and once again, funny moments included). Yesterday at one point while I was teaching a phone or some sort of device went off. There were wide eyes and gasps all around. The students get their phones taken away first thing everyday. Oh man... I just had to cringe as this girl gave up the device to the JTE. I had looked to see from where the noise was coming and then after that I had to look away. The dread in this girl's face... oh man. I then had to get the rest of the students back on track. I hope I helped take a little heat off her - as the consequence she will suffer later will likely be fairly harsh. It was both funny and horrifying. The students thought it was ME at first!! Come on! I (so far) know better than to bring my phone and even though I have it at school it is always on silent. I have used it a few times at work to look things up - like when I was making my Family crossword puzzle as I didn't know the kanji. I have tried to keep it in the middle of my desk and away from clutter so anyone who walks by can also see that I'm using it for work, not for fun. In any case...

Today was good. I felt better this morning than I did yesterday morning. I woke up 45 minutes before my alarm went off and I know I had some nightmare about missing my bus, or not waking up, or being late because I woke up terrified and couldn't go back to sleep. Yeesh. However, once I got up everything went fine.

Today when I got on the bus suddenly Bruce appeared! He usually takes a bus that leaves 5 minutes before mine and he was a little wide-eyed this morning. He sat down next to me and I greeted him. He then informed me that he had woken up in the middle of the night, couldn't sleep for a few hours then finally fell asleep an hour before his alarm went off... then he slept through his alarm. *wince* Luckily my bus takes him to the same stop - just a little later. I informed him I also ran a little late this morning (fuzzy head) and then proceeded to pull my makeup out of my bag and put it on. :) (I cultivated the talent of putting makeup on on the bus back in the US. It allowed me to sleep for an extra 5 minutes. I have avoided it up until today and don't plan on making it a habit. 2 of my students - males - were sitting right behind us. I wonder what they thought! lol)

We chatted about whatever and I told him how he was lucky he knows Japanese and can just catch another bus. I told him I would be lost if I missed mine and would just wait for the next one of the same number. I told him about how yesterday I could have left early but the whole bus fiasco. He said, "Why didn't you just walk out to the 4? (one of the few streets named in Morioka and a main street) You could catch a different bus back." Oh reary? DOH! I felt like a ditz and filed that information for later and hoped I could use it.

So you know how I was approached to write new text for the second year (what they call) "PE class"? (My only current second grade class) Well I had time today and had been given copies of pages about sports from other textbooks. So I read through them and picked one that had enough information. I isolated the grammatical structures their text was trying to teach and summarized the information using those structures and as simple English as I could. Well, I knew being fast would bite me in the butt and it did. I couldn't sit on that paper (I didn't know how soon the teacher needed it) and probably I'm a show-off so I put it on her desk with a note making sure it was long enough and simple enough. She LOVED it. But then she gives it back to me for ME to type. At first I was flabbergasted! Then it occurred to me that I could probably type it much faster than her. It takes me FOREVER to type out Japanese on my phone even when I use the English keypad so ya I'll do it. It was just like, "Oh great! *hands it back* Type it up and have it to me by Monday!" *shakes head woefully* LOL It's fine, I was just surprised. I told her I would do it tomorrow or Thursday. I believe it will be Thursday as I am not planning on lugging my laptop to school tomorrow. (I always do on Thursdays because that is when I finally get my SLPs for Minami for the following week and can actually MAKE the worksheets they want. So bringing it earlier is just a heavy thing for me to carry.)

Another thing: luckily I decided to make my copies for tomorrow (I have thus far done them the day of). I found out that one of the worksheets I made would not copy correctly. So I used my phone today in the staff room in a bit of a panic to find an acceptable replacement. The pictures I found originally took a LONG time to find, but (mmm) the first thing I searched brought up a picture that appears to be perfect! I already printed out the replacement worksheet and hope that it will all turn out good tomorrow when I copy it. If not... I'm not sure what I will do! Punt somehow... (I have some ideas, no worries.)

So today I was informed that 6th period was cancelled - I was a little disappointed as I had planned a Mad Libs game for that class (they are in a completely different place in the textbook than everyone else because their teacher just changed their textbook a little bit back). It was cancelled because of a huge PTA meeting. Not only that, I was informed parents would be observing me. ALSO, we were on a different time schedule. Eep!

The first class I taught today was the same class I taught first yesterday. So they got me two mornings in a row! They were surprised to see me but we're trying to get them caught up as there were those 2 Monday holidays. In any case, they were a lot of fun today. :) Then I taught a class with Mr. Toki and demo-ed the latest new worksheet. He LOVED it. I hope the students liked it as well. They did really well. I have the smartest and best students! :D Then... the dreaded last class.

I look forward to this class every week. They are bright, and precocious. They challenge me and tease me and I love teaching them. They are just so FUN! Well, today we all got observed by some stone-faced parents. And I MEAN stone-faced. I smiled at them but none of them smiled back. Yeesh. I mostly ignored them and pretended they weren't there. I just taught my class the way I had planned. I hope that they weren't disappointed or upset or anything (seeing as they were stone-faced and then going to a meeting with the teachers and administration). Man I wasn't even worried about it until just now. *sigh* Well, I did my best! The lessons vary so much -- training this last Saturday taught me some things that I need to change and incorporate and since those worksheets were already okayed and printed last week I didn't touch them. -- I made sure to bow and thank the parents for coming. -- Anyway, sorry, as I started to say usually this class is precocious. Today they were practically militant! The parents really did a number on them. The students were on their bestest best behavior. It made me a little sad as they usually make my week and they weren't themselves. :/ Oh well, there's always next week! -- Oh and that reminds me. Apparently Monday-Wednesday of next week are going to be crazy with scheduling. We'll see how it all affects me when I get my SLP.

Instead of 6th period, the students had their club meeting except for a few that were showing the parents their talents. I'm so grateful (mmm) that one of the teachers informed me about it and told me I could leave after. I was so excited to see my students doing what they love! I got to hear my friends in the brass band play, then watched the basketball team show their stuff and 5 male gymnasts. WOW! The kids are SO, SO talented! It was really amazing to watch. Seeing those gymnasts also reaffirmed my want to be more flexible and strong. I had been planning on going to the gym today and that just helped me to decide that I was DEFINITELY going. So, after that meeting I called Interac to make sure I could leave early (the demo was done at 15h00 and the rest of school was meeting with the parents) and they said ok go ahead and take off! So I walked out to the 4 (yay! I got to use Bruce's suggestion right away) and caught a bus back. The walk took 30 minutes and it was HOT out so I could feel my resolve to go work out lessening. So the minute I got home, I changed and took off to the gym. I biked there - a 25 minute ride to a location with which I wasn't familiar ... and found out that I needed to have special gym shoes for the gym. DAH! Japan you defeat me again! *sigh* It may have been a blessing in disguise. It was incredibly stressful for me to venture out and down roads I have never been down. New places are hard for me - especially when I feel far from home. (Eventually the route will become familiar and a part of my surroundings as the route to church has become for me.) I DO wonder what they thought when I walked in at the gym though - pouring sweat, wanting to sweat some more, and then couldn't so I went off the ride back and sweat some more! So, I got in a workout... I just didn't get to lift weights. I told them I would be back on Thursday and took off.

I've planned to work out on Tuesdays and Thursdays since I told the elders I would help with their English classes Wednesday evenings - I still haven't made it down there... things keep coming up. I am, however, determined to make it down there tomorrow. I'm trying to get my act together this week. Service (at least every other week) with the elders doing the English classes, lifting weights twice a week, and practicing guitar. So far, so good! (Feeling the heat today has made me quite glad that the sun goes down so early here! Hopefully it will be going down as I get home so it will be cooler to bike to the gym and then be down by the time I'm riding home to cool me off. (I, obviously, got there earlier today as I got home from school early.)

When I got home I made some dinner (I had, unfortunately made soup a couple nights back and a hot dinner when I was pouring sweat just wasn't appealing) and sat down and ate. Well, I let the food cool to lukewarm and then ate it. LOL I drank the rest of my purple carrot juice (picture below) and read a short story by Stephen King. After that, I sat down to fix my worksheet (done) and print this. Hope you're all having a wonderful day/evening! XOXO, A

These are from last night: (May 13th)

Happy hour begins!

I love playing guitar!

Fear the claws!

Are you afraid yet!?

These are from today: (right before I went to the gym)

Blinded by the white!

proof of my good hair day!

last but not least: purple carrot juice bottle! - the fruit and veggie juice from this brand is AWESOME! it's about 50/50 - I had one that was 70/30 veggies to fruit and it was WEIRD - it was like someone had flavored my regular V8 with a little apple juice - not good.