"ONE WEEK" EVALUATION

So about two weeks into my work I had my one-week evaluation. I was terrified. I showed up for work over an hour early to prepare for the lesson and make sure it went over smoothly. I took the teacher's manual to McDonald's so the other teachers wouldn't see me preparing and jotted down as many notes as I could for how I would properly fill the 40 minute class and reminders of things that I really should be doing and saying. I wasn't really sure if the fact that this class happened to only be one student was a good thing or a bad thing, I guess it will be determined by the student.

I was going to be evaluated by Dani. As I explained before, Dani is a big, imposing Australian woman who may take her job too seriously. She is strictly "by the book" and when other teachers heard that she would be evaluating me they looked like they felt sorry for me and gave me a few pointers. Just before we were about to go in for my evaluation lesson, Dani asked me "So which lesson did you choose?".
Ryan: "The one on exaggerating."
Dani: "Why did you choose that one?"
Ryan: "I thought it sounded like it would be interesting."
Dani: "Well you can't just choose a lesson because it will be interesting for you," she snapped.
Ryan: "Actually, I meant interesting for the student."
Dani: "Oh, well don't you think that lesson is a little above his level?"
Ryan: "No, I think it looks great."

So the lesson went about as smoothly as I could have hoped. The student was fantastic, and I'm wondering what I would have done if he wasn't. He was eager and creative with his responses and things seemed to click in him right away, it was good. After the evaluation, I had a one-hour discussion with Dani. It seemed that it didn't go too badly, though she still had a fair amount of criticism for ways that I could improve. Actually, it all went pretty well and she seemed friendlier than I thought she would be.

That being over, the rest of my Tuesday classes were fine. I taught a class on story-telling. I really like teaching this one because I get to make the students tell stories. Their stories are usually really, really uncreative, nothing interesting ever happens, so I always try to spice them up. There will be, for example, a picture of a woman with groceries who was obviously locked out of her car and the student will have to explain what happened. They will always answer something like "She forgot her key." and I just keep asking questions to get them to elaborate. I have started asking them to include at least one monkey in their stories, which always makes things more fun for everyone.

I had another class that day on how to strike up a conversation with someone. I had the students pick a famous person who they would like to meet and pretend they saw them sitting in a restaurant and explain what they would say to strike up conversation. It usually involves a Japanese actor or actress who I have never heard about, but one medical student I teach insists on meeting Harry Potter. He is obsessed with Harry Potter. He told me Harry Potter has made him decide to become a magician. He's in med school and I really don't know what he means by that. I'm just happy I'm not among the aging Japanese population that will have to depend on such doctors.

Speaking of Harry Potter, I still haven't seen that movie, although it's been a looming goal for my past two weeks. The movie theatre here in Umeda just plays it at such inconvenient times, ti makes little sense. I checked today and the latest showing in English is at something like 7:30pm while I'm at work. The only showing that I can safely attend is at 9:30am and there's no way I'm making it down for that. Since I'm scared they're going to stop playing it at the end of the week, I've decided to go home to change into my suit and go there for the 1:10pm show and then go straight to work. You'd better not get me fired, Harry Potter.

Tuesday night I officially finished The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson. It takes me ages to read a book and finishing one this quickly was a great milestone to complete. I think it's because I have no TV or internet at home and really have nothing else to do. This was a great book. It recounted Bill Bryson's giant road trip around the United States in the 1980s, gives tons of information about small-town America and I really recommend it (or any of his books). I hadn't planned on reading this one, rather just mailing it to a friend of a friend (long story) but happened to read the first paragraph and was hooked. It goes like so:

"I COME FROM Des Moines. Somebody had to. When you come from Des Moines you either accept the fact without question and settle down with a local girl named Bobbi and get a job at the Firestone factory and live there forever adn ever, or you spend your adolescence moaning at length about what a dump it is and how you can't wait to get out, and then you settle down with a local girl named Bobbi and get a job at the Firestone factory and live there forever and ever."

Wednesday morning I had to get up early to go meet Megumi in Umeda. If you don't remember, Megumi is a former student of mine (I already have former students) who agreed to do a Japanese/English language exchange with me. We met up at noon and she was in what seemed to be business attire with a pink blazer, I could tell she meant business. We discussed Japanese and English at Starbucks then afterwards she showed me around Umeda a little bit and she showed me it was ridiculously helpful. I've been exploring this area every day for a couple of weeks and thought I had it down-packed, but she showed me the good stores, helped me find out information about buying contacts and showed me where I could buy clothing and a toy for my cousin. Also, we went to the internet cafe afterwards and she showed me what to press to change the language here on my blog, so I can now stop complaining about not being able to read anything.

Yesterday, one of my groups of students stank, in both the literal and non-literal sense of the word. When I came in, the class had a combined smell of tobacco and urine and things just got worse from there. I think this was the worst class I've taught yet, but luckily it was the last of the day and I knew that if I could just pass the time I could get out of there. The class involved Kazuko, who has been putting complaints in about me for talking too fast. I don't know why they keep putting her in my classes. She obviously hates me. Despite being like 45, she seems to have a generally bad attitude. I think I caught her rolling her eyes at my teaching methods. I was enfuriated! I wish I could give detentions.

After work last night, Janette invited me to come for coffee with her, Rebecca and Adrian. At first I said no and made up an excuse, but then changed my mind when I found out that they were going to the izakaya and there would be an opportunity to drink. I'm still pretty awkward around my co-workers, so it's a little weird and I should take the opportunity to drink with them whenever it comes up. Janette is really nice, she lives in my area and offered to help me out with anything I need. Adrian also lives in my area and the three of us too the train home together and got out in Minimakata to walk the rest of the way because that's how they do things.

Today my roommate Will left on a 5- or 6-day trip to Korea. It was really exciting. I don't know why, but I love when my roommates go away. I think my apartment is just too small for three people, so two seems fine. I'm probably going to move out of my apartment in a little while because apparently Nova overcharges us and we can get better places for cheaper if we do it on our own.

OK, I'm going to try to see if I can catch Harry Potter, talk to you soon.

And just in case you didn't get a chance to see the last post, I put some pictures up into an ImageStation photo album:

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2116536733&code=19610468&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite


Ryan