A pretty good day

So, I have to work tomorrow (Saturday) because my 1st years are on a ski trip and they return Saturday night. Since the Ski trip is considered a school activity, they are entitled to a full weekend, so they will get Sunday and Monday.

Since it would be strange to have just the 1st years having Monday off, the whole mess of us gets a day off on Monday...

But that means we work on Saturday...

Of course, the irony behind this is that Saturday will be a Monday schedule.

And all of my classes on Mondays are 1st years...

Which are all on a ski trip.

So I get to go in and sit at my desk all day.

SOOOOoooooo

In light of this, I will tell you about my Thursday, because it is infinitely better than dwelling further on tomorrow.

Thursday started out with my special class of 3rd years. Like Mouse-Chan and Direct-Kun, these are kids who have issues with learning. The thing is that I teach this class with Mr. Second Year.

A while back I introduced a game using a styrofoam die I purchased at the 100Yen store (Like the Dollar stores back home, except the 100Yen has really good stuff). We toss the dice around and when one of the kids (or us) catches it, we have to read the number, the color (All 6 sides are a different color), or say the order (First, second, third, etc). This game is interestingly difficult for Mouse Chan and Direct Kun, but for my Third years, only the order part is difficult. But it's still practice, and it's good practice.

3-5 had 4 kids in it; two boys and two girls. One of the boys, however, has a history of being abused by his father and just recently he lost his ability to talk (Mental, not physical). I'm not sure what action my school is taking, I'll keep you updated. Needless to say, there are now only 3 kids in 3-5 (When that boy stopped talking he was moved to the "isolation ward" of our school where the counsellers work with the children).

So we are left with two girls and a boy. "A", one of the girls, has just recently joined us from another school. She is not the sharpest tack in my 3rd year classes, but she is no slouch either. I am still not sure why she is in the "Remedial" class. I have asked, but the answers are too difficult for my Japanese, and too difficult for their English... I'll learn about it later.

Anyway, A-chan is a tough case; apparently her mother was in an insane asylum and was raped, got pregnant, and had A-chan. Because her mother was insane, they took A-chan away from her and put her in a foster home.

This Thursday starts out with A-chan looking like this (Or some similar seriously dark issue) is weighing heavily on her. One of the things that I like about A-chan, though, is she is subdued, not sulky, not pissy, just subdued. It's like someone dimmed her personality a little.

We start to play the dice game, and Mr. Second Year and I, being mindful of A-chan's mood, sorta steer clear of her and really start picking on R-chan (The other girl) and H-kun (the boy). H-kun has been part of our general picking on because he is good natured and takes it well (R-chan does too, but H-kun is entertaining about it). In the past we moved from just tossing the dice to one another to playing fake-out games with them (Looking at A-chan and then throwing it to H-kun, Pumping the dice as if it were going to R-chan and throwing it to H-kun, etc). Today I really was making H-kun's life difficult. I asked him what was on the board and when he looked... well... anyway.

This had an unexpected side effect: A-chan smiled.... then I used A-chan as a launching point (By tossing the die to her and having her throw it back to me a couple of times, while faking throwing it to someone else), to get H-kun...

...and she downright laughed.

Score one more for our team.

My Thursdays are pretty packed, I have a pretty heavy classload, and they are all 3rd years and 2nd years (My Fridays are worse, but only because I also have a 1st year class, which just makes things hectic). So I stay with Mr. Second Year through most of the morning.

Then lunch comes around and I am supposed to have lunch with 2-2. As usual, I am forgotten. So Mr. 1st year Japanese Teacher calls up to the classroom.

Mr. Second Year is substitute watching the class. He'd forgotten me.

That's okay, we have never had lunch together in a classroom this year and this turns out to be for the worse for the kids.

Understand that Mr. Second Year and I are pretty close in humor and attitude, and we have gotten to know each other pretty well over the year, so I sit down and he starts out right away:

"Guy-sensei, I-chan here (Pointing to the girl across from me) is absolutely fluent in English."
He then translates that to her, she blanches.
"Really?" I say in English, "That's incredible!"
She starts waving me away in that panicked "No! Please no!" gesture.
"S-Kun there is also flawless... you should hear him, go on, S-kun, tell him!"
S-kun is a member of the Judo club... and he is a big fellow, bigger than me, and he is a genuine teddy bear. Not a mean bone in his body (thankfully). Of course, I'm not sure he has the hang of "Good Morning" and "Good Afternoon" yet... But he blushes mightily, and smiles apologetically, turning away from me.
"You know, Earlier today," Mr. Second Year says, "I-chan got so angry she threw her textbook on the ground and screamed at the teacher."
I-chan is one of my picture-perfect students. She's not very good at English, but she is one of those girls that you know has to go through regression therepy just to find a bad mood. I think she studies polite society on her off time. So, of course, she looks suitably horrified when Mr. Second Year translates that. I, of course, add my own mixture of "Wow I never knew" and "How amazing" in Japanese to her, much to her consternation.
Of course, she knows she's being messed with, you can see it in her eyes.
After lunch, I put my tray away and go over to I-chan, "Thank you for the company, and putting up with being teased."
She smiles a genuine smile and waves at me.
I pat S-Kun on the back, he grins at me.

Yep, score two for the Teachers.

I had some issues with my 3rd years, they are slowly slipping out of control as the year winds to an end... but I think I'll save that for one long, unhappy post in the future. For now, I'm content with the smiles.

--Me.