Things have mostly been looking up since my last post.
Teaching at elementary school really is somehow the magical cure to an ailing spirit. Even if it is really tiring, it’s rewarding because it actually feels like I’m doing something. I’m usually in charge of the lesson contents, so even if my lessons suck (which they sometimes do) at least I’m accountable for it. (Unlike at my jr. high where I just sit and have nothing to do for most of the day.) Plus, with the except of some too-cool-for-school 5th and 6th grade classes, the kids are pretty great. Even on the worst day at elementary school, some kid is bound to say something funny. (Recently I’ve gotten a lot of “How did you get that big if you don’t drink milk?” Oh, the propaganda of the Dairy industry.)
Recess has been good lately too. Not that it’s ever really bad, but sometimes it’s just kind of boring. In the past few weeks thought I’ve played really good games of ball-tag, dodgeball and kickball.
Jr. High in contrast has been quite slow. This is largely because we had our sports festival this past weekend. We practiced for it for the past 2 months, which obviously cut into class time, which is why I haven’t had many classes lately.
The idea of Sports Day is quite fun, but I was quite tired of the whole thing by the time the actual day came around.
All of the students are divided into color blocks. In this case, red, white and blue. Blocks compete against each other in a number or various events. There are standard ones like relays, tug-o-war, and variations on 3 legged race, but there are also some crazy ones like a dry land version of chicken and boys being carried on poles like monkeys.
In actuality, by the time it’s time for the real event, half of the students are already injured in some way. The nurse definitely had some not-nice things to say about the chicken game.
I mean, it was all pretty entertaining (at least at first), but I’m rather glad it’s over now so I can hopefully have classes again, and at least pretend to be a functional teacher.
I’m still a little homesick, but I’m making my plans to go home in July. I’m really looking forward to it, and time usually passes fast here, so hopefully it’ll be that time before I notice.
