I Survived the First Day of Classes

Yesterday was the Opening Ceremony of the third and final term of the 2020~2021 school year. This morning we kicked off classes. Yes, I do work on Saturdays. My school has a unique day off schedule. All teachers have Sunday off. In addition to Sunday, each teacher gets another day off which they call a research day or "kenkyubi" (研究日) in Japanese. Each teacher can request to have either Mondays, Wednesdays or Saturdays as their research day. Because of this system, each class has a main homeroom teacher and an assistant homeroom teacher. On the day that the main teacher is off, the assistant homeroom teacher will do the duties for the class like a substitute teacher would. My research day is on Wednesday. I love having Wednesday off because it splits the week into two. It is also great to have one day during the week to run errands, pay bills, and do things that might be closed or crowded on the weekends. Another nice thing is that I have the whole Wednesday off, but I only have to work a half-day on Saturday. Saturday's schedule is simple: three periods of classes and then dismissal. Lunch is not served on Saturdays.

I teach three classes of 2nd graders on Saturday. It's pretty hectic because it means teaching three classes in a row. Today's lessons to teach were very easy as it was trying to ease students back into routines again. Unfortunately, my teaching partner was absent. He had a pretty hectic and exhausting week and just didn't have the strength or the energy to have to deal with some of our wild 2nd graders. With the exception of international schools and perhaps some private schools, most schools in Japan do not have a substitute teacher system. When a teacher is absent, the headteacher or subject coordinator usually assigns another teacher to cover the assignments or classes of the absent teacher. Luckily, I knew my partner was going to be absent so it was easy for me to know what I needed to do and be able to get through all the proposed material in that short period of time. I was in no way bitter or upset having to teach all 3 classes by myself. In fact, I am glad that my teaching partner took it easy and did not try to overexert himself. Thanks to his highly organized planning, it was much easier to make the transitions and keep the class doing learning activities. The children were very active and energetic this morning. Some of them were probably struggling to get back into school routines. I was able to teach the three classes without any problems. After school I drove to Yamada Denki which is an electronics store. Right before Christmas, I decided to treat myself and buy a new iPhone. As I talked with the sales representatives, he proposed that I update my devices. I was using an iPhone 7 which we upgraded to an iPhone 12. I've been super happy with my decision. When I bought the phone, they informed me that my iPad was outdated and it might be a good time to replace it. (I agreed.) By getting an iPad along with my new phone, I could get a better phone/data packet. The new ipads were not yet available so they told me that they would call when they came in. Now, I have 2 very nice iPads at school, but I just needed to update my personal one. So the store finally called me to tell me that the iPads were in which is why I decided to go after school. We got all the necessary paperwork out of the way and then I was able to take the new iPad home.

Tomorrow is grocery shopping day so I'm going to call it a night here so that I can wake up bright and early. Besides, I can barely keep my eyes open tonight! That being said, I survived the first day of classes teaching all 36 students in their own homeroom classroom by myself today. I deserve a triple scoop parfait, but I'll settle for a good night's sleep!

xox

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