IrishOboe

At Bible study at Adden’s it turned out to be just Adden and me. We had good discussion about Matthew three and four. Then he fed me obento from where he works and took me to church. Somehow what started out as being helpful got turned around to being helped! That’s part of what makes life so fun!

At church on Saturday we watched The Hiding Place instead of most of the service. Dad had read the book aloud after dinner when I was quite young, but I had a vivid imagination and the images I’d formed as a child came back to me as clear as day. I couldn’t have told you much about the story, but some scenes were so carefully painted in my mind that I was still upset some 15 years later about how the movie failed to capture what seemed to me to be key parts of the book. Namely, the miracles were left out, like how the medicine that was almost gone kept on dripping until they got more. Still, because the movie brought back the memories and images it was a very moving experience and I managed to keep my mouth shut on my opinion of the movie. There is still much to learn and reflect on from it. It also showed me once again that I am extremely affected by movies so I should be very, very careful about what I watch. I’ll go so far as to say I should not watch any, but saying and doing are two different things. . .

Even though it was late we still went out to dinner afterwards and my mind shut off and I was in bed though my body was at the restaurant. Too bad church goes so much passed my bedtime! Miwako took Leslie and I to my place and we went right to bed.

The next morning Leslie and I had some good talk after a breakfast of miso soup – I love that stuff now! She left in the afternoon to do some exploring and I spent an afternoon of quiet reflection. I took a long walk and on it discovered there’s an onsen about a mile from my house! I don’t understand how I can explore, and explore and still keep finding new places!

There wasn’t a leader for Bible study that night so I got drafted into taking over. It was an easier topic than last week, but we still didn’t get through it, partly due to the double language circumstance.

Unfortnuately, Monday was a little stressful so even though I felt nearly 100% going into the week by the time Monday afternoon rolled around I was sick again. Mistake number one was going to music class with 1-6 and singing with them. I should have rested my voice, but I hadn’t sung a German lied in so long it was too tempting! The second mistake was trying to speak loudly over my kids in class. I didn’t think I did that much talking, but I guess it was enough. The third and biggest stress factor was that I finally, for the first time I believe, got mad at my students. (As an interesting side note, to check that I’m not a liar I searched “mad,” “angry,” and “yelled” in my blog and came up with five hits total. Either I don’t get mad very often or I don’t write about it in the blog!) Each class has been a little disruptive during the Show and Tell Introductions, but they’re nervous, relieved to be done, or otherwise have something to say so I tolerate a little bit of noise between speakers and at the start of the speech (often they start before the commotion has a chance to die down), but this time the kids were just being plain rude as far as I could tell (I can’t understand them, of course). As the noise grew during one girl’s speech I couldn’t take it any longer and walked up to the front of the class to give a little lecture. I stood up so fast my chair fell backwards and this got the attention of the students. I also had no trace of a smile on my face, which never happens. Even when I try to act serious I can’t and there’s a smile on my face. Often when I have to correct the kids I do so in a fun, joking way that lets them save face and know that I’m not mad. It’s worked pretty well, I think. I have the respect of the kids (they do what I ask) and I haven’t had to humiliate anyone. So even though this was just the third class with this group of kids it appeared they understood that this was a rare change of countenance for me. I know they didn’t understand half my little English lecture, but they were silent and looked at me with frightened faces the whole time. I didn’t speak loudly and I ended with a smile, but my point got across because they were quite for the rest of the presentations. I was a little shook myself by my reaction. I can’t say I was in complete control of myself, though it appeared that I was. After discussing the issue with teachers and reflecting on it I realized that I don’t get so stressed if students don’t listen to me or do the work I ask or sleep in class. I don’t mind. I don’t think what I have to say is necessarily the most important thing for them at the time, but I do get upset when kids are rude to each other. I wonder how different my musings would be if I were a regular teacher. . .

Anyway, after that I didn’t have enough time to finish reviewing and grading the Show and Tell presentations before it was time for cleaning. I got a new batch of kids and they’d gotten used to being lazy in their other cleaning spots so I had a bit of a match of the wills with them, too. Of course that meant cleaning took longer (don’t they get it? If they just do the job they can leave quickly!) so I didn’t have much time before the ICC meeting. I managed, though, and it was fun to be with the kids (12 1^st years and 4 upper classmen!) even though we watched the Simpsons. The other day I had gone through an old drawer and discovered a How the Grinch Stole Christmas video. Since we had some time left I showed it, too. That was fun! The English was a bit easier to understand as well.

After ICC I made the round at a few clubs and ended up peeking into kendo club for the first time. Kendo is a kind of Japanese fencing with bamboo swards. They invited me in and let me handle a sword. It was interesting to watch, but it fails to fascinate me. I was touched by how the students welcomed me (there was no coach there at the time), both current and former students. I again found new respect for students who were quiet in my class as I saw them in a roll they’re comfortable with. Why am I so fascinated with the psychology of changed behavior in different circumstances? I realize that tends to be a quite a theme in my writings.

That was a fun end to the day, but it left me with only two hours at home before bedtime and I was sicker in the morning for it.

Somehow I managed to get through the morning classes. I realized at the start of my last class that I hadn’t really properly prepared for the new lesson. Maybe I should do that more often. I hadn’t worked out how I was going to explain the games and it turned out just fine. I was going to play a few games but the kids were having so much fun with “bang” that we played for 20 minutes. I divided the class into two groups (I took a group and the Hirose sensei took a group) and we “compete” by seeing who could get to the highest number. (Bang is played by counting in rhythm around a circle with “bang” substituting for multiples of seven. When a player makes a mistake the count starts over again.) Whenever a group made a new record it was recorded on the board so students could see how the other group was doing. I know I’ve had a successful lesson when I catch students doing the activities outside of class. With two minutes left after the lesson had finished a few groups got together and continued to play. Ah, it warms my heart! By the way, the record was scored by my team: 28.

That helped to boost my energy and I managed to finish up the Show and Tell scoring during lunch then I took another half day off. I came home, had some lunch, and took a nap. I felt much better after that. The rest of the day was a combination of rest and work and now it is the start of the Golden Week holidays! Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are national holidays and I plan to stay home and relax as much as I can! Tomorrow I planned long ago to go to a festival with Shimizu sensei, and that will be fun. The rest of the time I hope to chill!