Sho mo nai!

A day in the life of B-notes.

The first entry here was what prompted me to type these all in today. These are the eight students out of the 21 third year students (grade niners) who hand in their b-notebooks every day like they are supposed to. The other 13 don't hand them in at all. And the class spoken-English-prodigy is not among the eight. (oVo);;


Friday, October fourteenth

Today was holiday. I got up at 11:00. So my mother got angry.

In the afternoon I must help my mother and glandmother. I was very tired. But my glandmother gave me some money. It made me happy.

At night I went to bed early because tomorrow we went on outing. I'll be fun.

-Misuzu



Friday october fourteenth

Today is cloudy.
I used the computer.
Recently I can't sleep early.
Because I don't become sleepy.
So I use the computer recently.
I've studied about the computer.

-Marina


Friday, October fourteenth

Today was a holiday.
It was sunny.
I didn't have breakfast.
I played a video game.
But it wasn't so interesting.
In the afternoon I played with Kouhei.
We played a video game and watched DVD.
Kouhei went home at five.
I was tired.
I had dinner at six.

-Masayuki


Thursday, october thirteenth

I got up at seven.
I watched TV.
I had breakfast.
I went to school?
I played English game.
It's exciting.
I had lunch.
I played baseball.
I had a good time.

-Naohiro


Friday, October forteenth

I got up at seven thirty.
This time I used an alarm.
I studied English and science in the morning.
They were difficult for me.
In the afternoon I went shopping and I bought a book.
The book was "Kinonotabi the Beautiful World" It was interesting.
After dinner I watch TV.
I went to bed at ten.

-Yoko


10.14.木

Today. Kouhei and. Hiroki
今日.　耕平君と.　弘記君
and. Royout. comd
と.　りょうた君　が
my house. from. morning.
朝から. 来ました。
we. played. video game.
私たちは.　ゲームをしたり.
and. baseball. in.
野球を.
Hukugawa grand.
福川グランドでしました。
baseball was. very hot.
野球は. とても暑かった。
of course. of course. of course.
もちろん
wouldyoulikeanotherpieceofcake?
もう１きれいかがですっか
No thank you. No thank you.
もうけっこうです
I've had plenty. I've had plenty.
おなかいっぱいで

-Takehiro


october thrdteenth Friday

I go up at six.
I ate breakfast.
I watched TV.
I played video game.
It was interesting.
I played baseball.
I went to bed at ten.
I had a good time.

-Kazuki


Friday, October 14

Good afternoon.
How are you doing?
I'm very sleepy and cold.
Thank you.
Today I go to shopping.
I bought these raincoat for 1,05 yen.
I bought these comic book for 4,10 yen.

-Narumi


Misuzu and Masayuki are two of the best at english, Masa being the school brain who gets 100 in almost everything. Yoko is upper middle or lower upper. The rest are average-ish. This is one day, you don't see that some of them (yes, I'm looking at you, Nao) wright almost the exact same thing every day. Masa and most of the others write by pattern, using the same pattern everyday. Takehiro tries to write different and interesting things everyday, but his English can't support what he wants to say. But he makes me really pleased with the fact that he continually tries! Marina has an unusual way of communicating her thoughts that is kind of amusing. She's pretty crazy in reality too, so I don't try to change it much. Misuzu is possibly be best overall. She writes on all sorts of different things, and she writes everyday. Another student, Ayumi, used to do likewise but since the speech contest seems to have lost motivation. Eri, the spoken English star, was looking at Misuzu's b-notebook (the a-notebook is for textbook and class use) in class today and promised me she would write one for tomorrow. Perhaps this time she will maintain it until the end of term? Doesn't hurt to hope, I guess. Nothing improves their English like actually using it!

This is a significant part of what I do every day. Unlike most ALTs (JETs) I am in nearly every class where textbook progress is made. This means that I conduct very few full lessons by myself. Really, I only ever plan a handful of complete lessons each year. The rest is coming up with 10 to 20 minute warm-up games (word games, conversation practice games, memory games etc) to start the class, and then being a part of the textbook teaching. So I am there to help students make correct sentances, give natural pronunciation to mimic, say when a sentance is odd, or to give a context for a strange sentance in which it could make sense (very fun). And to draw pictures at random and try my best to help make everything understood. So outside of class, the biggest thing I do is mark b-notes. This has been my last year and a half. My previous Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) was really disorganised but better at leading a more student centered class, I think. Well, as far as teaching in Japan goes anyhow, so we did more double-team teaching rather than tag-team teaching.

I don't know why I reflect back on all this now all of a sudden, but maybe someone will find it interesting. It feels like I almost never write about what happens at school, perhaps in the same way that kids never really tell their parents what happened at school that day either. A lot happens, but little that makes great telling. I do work, but it's only my extra-laborial activities that I feel like I need to tell everyone about. Shows where my passion lies, I guess.

No passion for teaching, but junior high kids are some of the coolest people in the world.

posted by Fletcher @ 7:53 p.m.