ups and downs

So yesterday i wrote this in my journal while hanging in Kyoto (in a failed attempt to meet up with Ted & Michelle Johnson who were here on Term in Asia):

I'm really growing to love work. Okay, growing may be a bit of a cliche word to use, especially considering i've really only had 2 days of actual teaching, but they've been great. Partially it just feels good to have a full schedule and avoid sitting in the office all day, twiddling my thumbs and looking guilty at the teachers running around the building. With actual work to do the day passes much more quickly and happily, with visits from students i've met, papers to grade, and classes to visit. The students see me busy just like the other teachers, and I feel like i'm finally gaining the respect and ditching the resentment of the rest of the faculty. Plus the time in class lets me bond with my english teachers.

By far the favorite is Nishibori sensei, who i call by her first name- Keiko. At 23 Keiko and i have much in common - a similar love for Kyoto (where we both were last night) and boredom in Aisho, similar age and experience level in teaching, and actually similar levels of experience as she is not yet certified to be a full time teacher. She works with the special ed students (even though her only qualicifations for special ed teaching are exceptional patience and a huge heart) teaching them math, social studies, japanese, and english. I am welcome to come into her class anytime.

Tsutsumi sensei runs a close second to Keiko. She is in her 30s and completely adorable and sweet. She teaches english to the first and second years (7th and 8th graders) and is totally wonderful. Unlike lots of the other teachers, she never seems to busy for me or stressed out or abrupt or anything. The kids love her too, even if their behavior is a tad out of control in her class.

Ono sensei (the third year - 9th grade - teacher) is great too, and far better in class than i expected. She is perfectly willing (really expects) to let me take over class completely. Unfortunately she is exceptionally busy and we haven't really had any friendly conversations about my curiousities about students or certain classes or about my life. I'm really excited to see if she relaxes a bit at this weeks' enkai.

After working with the teachers for nearly 2 weeks i feel less guilty about having favorites among them than i do about having favorite classes. Already i love the special ed class so much more than i can say. There are 8 students and they are all so eager to learn, to talk to me, and have much better english than i expected. I also love one of my third year classes like crazy. They were the only class to ask me questions after i gave a self introduction and their english is exceptional, making them soooo easy to teach and fun to talk to outside of class. They even understood my Horoscope board and could find their signs and read about them. It was great.

~~~~~

So yeah, rewriting this reminds me that not everything is shit. I mean, today i left school feeling really down but it really will get better. So the day was okay, but i was disappointed to find out almost immediately that my schedule conflicted with that of the special ed class so i wouldn't be able to be with them at all today (they do have some classes i'm not really supposed to go to because Keiko doesn't teach them). Then there was all this confusion with changing things around to practice for Sports Day (which is Friday) and one of my third year classes was cancelled so the whole school could go outside and practice lining up and raising the flags and stuff for sports day. It was also at this time that i noticed that i was the only teacher (besides the principal) wearing nice clothes - somehow no one had informed me that i should a) have sweats at school at all times and b)put them on for this occasion. Now i'm not even sure that i really have attire at my apartment that would satisfy the requirements, though i guess tomorrow i'm supposed to try. Hmmm.

The bad day continued during lunch when i spilled the hot water from my cup noodles all over my hand. Eeek. Then things were fine in my first year class, but my last class of the day, a class of third years, was miserable. This was only the second class i'd taught with Ono sensei and it was so different. This class was less gifted than the other 9th graders i'd taught, and also had WAY more attitude. Plus Ono sensei acted like it she was aligned with them against me, making things even more boring than they had to be. It was awful. 3 kids slept through class and she didn't even say anything. When no one volunteered in the class to answer questions on a worksheet she said nothing and didn't even try to cajole people into helping, so i read virtually every answer back to them. SO much for speaking practice.

The only glimmer of hope came after the class when the main group of 'too cool' kids noticed i had an eyebrow ring in my pictures (i have to take it out for school) and decided i was cooler than they though. What a hopeless situation.

Then it was after school. I graded a stack of spelling tests and headed to the pool to swim off my rage, only to find it CLOSED!!! Ugh. I decided instead to enjoy some great western food for dinner (mexican was the plan) so biked to the grocery store to pick some stuff up and came out to find that a) i had bought too much to fit in the basket of my bike and b) it was raining.

Needless to say not my best day. Hopefully the next few will prove themselves to be infinitessimily better, especially Friday's Sports Day and enkai. But i'll keep you posted.