Music for the kiddies

Every month now I put up a handful of song recommendations on the English board in the English classroom at my work.  Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, One Direction, Carly Rae Jepson, and a few others are quite popular among my middle schoolers, but I really want to try to expose them to more music than just that.  I also want to try Kpop with them, ha ha, but that's probably an already hard-to-justify endeavor.

Anyways, I spend some of my down time at work browsing the UK's and US's top 40's charts and other music sites to keep up with what's popular and screen options for my recommendations.  There's a lot of music that becomes popular with the kiddies, but omg, some of that music is soooo inappropro for young teeny boppers.

Exam Days

my morning commute

Exam days usually mean that my classes are cancelled, and I'm left to "work" at my desk.  

Sometimes, I really appreciate these days because I read a book, study Japanese and Spanish, derp around on the Internet, and just relax.  I get to work on that one manga I started forever ago.  And I do a little creative writing in Google Docs too.  It's nice sometimes to have what is the equivalent of an extended study period like when I was a student stuck at school with nothing to do.

Sometimes, I really loathe these days because I get so bored and antsy just sitting around for the work day while everyone else is busy running around administering tests and then taking care of kids and making sure they get out of school and then organizing and grading those tests from earlier.  I finish any work I have pretty early and then die of boredom inside.  When the students leave, I stand near the exit and say goodbye to them.  I get up a dozen times to make tea or coffee, use the bathroom, and find a reason to walk somewhere nearby like to check out the printers or maybe chat with a teacher who also just "looks busy."

cake made by a student

Today, I'm feeling more of the former, and I went to work not so early.  I took my time washing my hair this morning and then buying myself lunch at the convenience store before taking the bus.  (There's usually no school lunch on exam days since the students have early dismissal, which ends RIGHT BEFORE LUNCH.)  And today, I've just been chillaxing and taking my time to do any tasks I have to do.

Exam days are pretty fun and relaxing for the Special Education crew too.  One of the younger female students hung out with two of the teacher aids in the cooking room and made cake for themselves and a few of the other teachers who were in the staff room.  So sweet!  Both the treat and the thought!  I was offered a piece, and it was yummy.

I'm thinking about what reviews to write up next.  I finished watching Jessica Jones a couple of weeks ago, and two nights ago, I watched all of season 1 of No Game No Life.  And I can't stop thinking about wither of those shows!!!  I almost want to re-watch No Game No Life since I binged it, and it was over too fast.  It's such a pretty anime and so brightly colored. 　うわぁぁ～

https://images6.alphacoders.com/512/512323.jpg

Japanese Work Clothes for School

こんにちは。よろしくお願いします!

Winter has come, and that means winter fashion!  Yay!!

So this post is about what people wear to work when work is a Japanese public school and when it's cold.  ALT and JTE #OOTD, if you will.

ALT= Assistant Language Teacher (so usually the foreign teacher who helps teach English)

JTE= Japanese Teacher of English (usually Japanese native teachers who teach English)

OOTD= Outfit Of The Day

This post is mainly to help those who are thinking about coming to Japan to work as an ALT, like through the JET program, Interac, direct hire by a Board of Education, etc.  But I guess it's interesting just to see what people wear, too, right?

As always...
DISCLAIMER: ESID (Every Situation Is Different!)  
I actually dislike this acronym because I feel like it states the obvious.  Of course, ESID applies to working in Japan or working anywhere really.  Everyone knows you should wear a suit and tie or whatever other professional clothing that customarily matches a workplace position, but, especially for those who are new graduates or new to the working world or new to Japan's working world, we need examples!!  We want a general idea!  Some work places provide a very clear-cut dress code or even uniform to make it easier for us newbies while others don't seem to specify a thing.  

So yeah, ESID, or whatever.  Just know that the following examples are what I choose to wear and what other individuals choose to wear at my junior high school.  I feel that I would categorize my school as somewhere in between those super formal schools where everyone wears suits and the more casual schools where everyone basically shows up in sportswear since it's the most comfortable (and makes sense to wear when you're a sports club supervisor before and after classes, so why change clothes, right?)

Okay!

ALT #OOTD

If you're interested in what an ALT might wear to work, please watch the video below.  It's me!

JTE #OOTD

If you're interested in seeing what everyday teachers, including JTEs, wear to work, please scroll through the following pictures.  Each picture is labeled to give you a little more information about the teacher, but faces, names, and other identifying information are not given to protect the privacy of each individual, of course.  They all are or were my coworkers, and they all so kindly allowed me to take their pictures anonymously to help me out in making this blog post.

Here they are!

Female, English

Female, Math

Male, Vice Principal

Christmas Time is Here ~

I realize that I have been posting a lot of content that isn't necessarily related to my daily life in Japan, and sometimes I want to share a short little story, but I just forget to write it down here or think maybe it's not even worth mentioning.  Enough!  I do what I want!  So here's a little bit of what happened today.

Today I had class with the second years.  They made Christmas cards that I'm going to send to friends in the US, and some are whatever quality like you can tell they're just trying to get it done, and then there were some really awesome ones, and, of course, a lot of variety in between.

This week I'm also receiving the gingerbread cookies and Christmas trees I assigned two weeks ago, and the results are always interesting, just like last year.

Tales of Kyoto

One day my Kyoto-sensei asked me what my hobbies were, so I jokingly replied that my hobby is to goro goro (ゴロゴロすること), which means to lie around and be lazy.  He made this face and noise of surprise and was like, nah, c'mon, be serious.  We laughed, and the secretary joined in our laughing, and he was also surprised that I said such a thing.  I then struggled to list actual hobbies since goro goro-ing is legit my hobby.  I like to be lazy and do nothing and relax at home.  This is why I have been having trouble updating all these social media things because I come home and sit under my kotatsu and watch Netflix and Youtube and nap.  It's so cold, too, so once I get under that blanket, I don't want to move or do anything that requires leaving the warmth, ha ha.  I laugh, but I cry a little inside.

Anyways, my Kyoto-sensei then went around telling everyone that my hobby is to goro goro, which produced much laughter.  Thanksssssssssssssssssssss.

Staying Positive

Hiiiii my dear readers,

So one of the things about how happy you are in life is how you perceive situations. If you focus on the negative, then the situation will suck, and you'll feel like everything sucks, and then everything actually will suck.  If you focus on the positive, a.k.a. look on the bright side, then even if there are negatives, you won't feel as suck or even you'll feel better even if it did suck.  At least, I feel like perception functions this way for me.

Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that I'm normally a cheerful person, but I will gossip and bash things and actions so quickly.  If I start even looking at one negative thing, then the rest of the conversation goes to shit, and it becomes a "misery loves company" gab fest.

This is what I mean.

I was planning a lesson with a teacher, and the thing is, our students have finished the textbook, and the last grammar point in the textbook was past tense, both regular and irregular.  We've been doing activities to practice the past tense for like three weeks now.  So I asked my teacher if maybe we could change it up a bit and review some other topic or just not make past tense the focus of the entire class time.  She agreed that past tense was getting old (ha ha).  Then I asked her what we should do, and she seemed to be at a loss and kept passing the idea ball back to me.

I suggested that maybe one activity we could do is listen to a piece of a popular American song and have students fill in the blanks for words they should know in the song.

Ah, that's too difficult for them. (In Japanese)

My teacher training kicked in.  Then I suggested how to scaffold the activity- how we could modify the activity to still address the same listening objective but put the task to the ability level of the students, "Okay, how about instead of blanks, I'll give them two or three words to choose from and they have to circle the word they hear?"

Hmmm, but that sounds not fun.

Tales of Kyoto

Christmas and the new year are coming up, and so many teachers and my Kyoto-sensei keep asking me if I'm going home for the holidays, if my boyfriend is visiting me or vice versa, what am I going to do to celebrate, etc. etc. etc.  Today, while we were both chilling in the kitchen area by the electric water kettles, my Kyoto-sensei asked me if I knew about otoshidama (お年玉).  Otoshidama are money put in envelopes and given as New Year's gifts, usually, to children.  I said that I did, and he asked me if I was going to be giving any (har har), and I said no and immediately stuck my hands out in a receiving gesture and asked, where's my otoshidama?  He laughed and told me to stop it and playfully slapped my hands away while laughing.

Later, we were still talking, but now Kyoto-sensei was seated at his desk, and I was standing.  Two second year students came in asking for Kyoto-sensei, Kyoto-sensei irrashaimasu ka? (教頭先生いっらしゃいますか。)  And then Kyoto-sensei replied back in Japanese, Kyoto-sensei died (教頭先生死んだ。) The kids laughed and asked again for him, but he just repeated that the Kyoto-sensei was dead a few more times, and then another sensei across the staff room chimed in with, yeah, there's no Kyoto-sensei here.

feeling a little down

Hey party people,

So this week is going kinda bleh.  I taught four periods of third years yesterday and one period of second years today.  Yesterday, for all four classes, all these kids would just not shut up.  Like, every time either I or the other teacher spoke trying to give instructions or just transition to the next activity, the volume of the room would just increase so that no one could hear anyone clearly.  It was really annoying.  And I don't like to yell.  I wait.  The third years' classes usually proceed this way with the other teachers yelling for everyone to be quiet and me just quietly waiting bored at the front of the room wondering if we'll get to finish everything on the lesson for the agenda.

Anyways, this time I got really mad because they were being really rude, and I yelled a little.

Tales of Kyoto

Today, I showed Kyoto-sensei, the vice principal, some of the paper gingerbread cookies that some students made.  He liked them.  He said they were cute.  Then I pointed out the gingerbread man with sketchy eyes, and he pointed to it and then me and motioned that that cookie was me.  I was like, nuh uh, and then I pointed to a cuter gingerbread cookie.  He then pointed to the cuter one and said, "me.  not you.  that is you," and pointed to the sketchy eyed cookie.  LoL, and then I pretended to be upset, and then we both laughed.  Good times.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another time, Kyoto-sensei came to use the laminator, which is on the desk next to mine.  He hadn't used it in a while and forgot some how-to's, and so I had to tell him that he needed to turn it on and wait 20 minutes for it to heat up (it was a really old laminator).  So he kinda chilled next to me while it heated up.  He noticed my work purse, which is a large navy blue Coach purse my aunt bought me as graduation present.  He told me it was very cool (kakkoii).  When I told him my obachan, aunt, bought it for me, he laughed a bunch.  I asked why, and he said it was funny that I said obachan.  I'm guessing it was funny because it's a more familiar and casual word than the expected obasan.  The san part makes it formal, and the chan makes it more informal and cute.

Tales of Kyoto

Hello beautiful darlings,

So I need to explain a little bit about the positions in a public school in Japan.  It's pretty similar to most American schools, but I want to provide some different label names and some information on the hierarchy.

Okay, everyone who teaches at the school is called sensei.  Sensei means teacher.  So we got our Tanaka-sensei, Kimura-sensei, Hashimoto-sensei, A-sensei, B-sensei, C-sensei, etc. etc. etc.  And they basically equate to our Mr. Smith and Mrs. Gomez and Ms. Brown of American schools.  (I'm seriously just using any name that pops into my head.)  Anyways, so sensei is reserved for teachers in a school setting (and also doctors, Ph.D's, and other positions, but that's a different story for another time).