September 05, 2006

Stupid grade 6s

What is the name of that song from Breakfast at Tiffanys? Moon-something... They play it over the PA at this school everyday at 4:30ish. I used to quite enjoy that song too.

Today I had my first classes. Grades 1,2,3 and 6. The first three classes were great. The little kids are heaps excitable and get involved in everything. I spent some time in the beginning just doing a self introduction and I had the kids come up and draw a map of the world where they thought Australia was and what shape they thought it was. It was hilarious! Only the grade 6s got the shape right but didn't really know where to put it in the world. None of them knew the Australian capital, or any city names. I told the grade 1s about the desert and from then on they couldn't talk about anything else. They were asking so many questions, all heaps detailed and I was just making it up after a while. I guess centipedes live in the desert??

I just found out that tomorrow's grade 6 class will be interrupted by the fire drill. YES!! Grade 6 sucks at this school. L warned me about it before, saying that the kids just sit there and stare at you and don't want to get involved in anything but I thought arrogantly that perhaps it was just her teaching style or the fact that she doesn't speak Jap or something. THen the grade 6 homeroom teachers were telling me the same thing and today I experienced it for the first time. They really did just sit there. One or two boys were loud enough to come up the front and help me out with stuff. Izumi came up for greeting time and when he said "What the weather like?" really badly all the other kids laughed at him! I got heaps pissed off by that because none of them had been willing to do it, but yet they were perfectly happy to laugh at the only one brave enough to do it. So I had a bit of a go at them about that and after that they really didn't like me that much. Most of the girls sat there repeating everything I said and making faces that indicated there weren't impressed and the boys seemed to be in comas. After the class the teacher stayed behind to tell me not to worry, I did really well, these kids are just buggered. I thought maybe he could give me some tips about how to get through to them, but all he said was "Yeah, they are like that in every class, I can't do anything with them either, on top of which, they hate English. Goodluck!" Thanks mate!!

Apparently it's not just that class either, there are 3 grade 6 classes and they are all the same. Weird. Must have been something in the water that year. So as you can imagine I am REALLY looking forward to those classes now.

Oh well, I will console myself with the little kids and try not to let them get to me too much. I have just been sent more stuff to translate from the BOE. At least this way I can keep abreast of what is going on with the city since it is all invitations and speeches and stuff! Inside woman.

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