how to teach (part 2)

training - day two

on my way to training the second day i grabbed my lunch from the department store on the way to the school. the basement level of the store was filled with little stands and booths - part food court, part marketplace. i picked out a ready-made tray of food (since i didn't know the names of anything) and went outside to find a bench to eat on. my meal consisted of some chicken on a stick and a couple of grilled rice balls accompanied by some unidentifiable condiments.

back in class we were taught about more pieces of the nova class. we learned some basic classroom management tactics. then we taught parts of a couple more classes. it was stressful. the idea that some day i would have to fill out student evaluations for 4 students in the 10 minutes between classes seemed ludicrous. my biggest challenge was still developing role plays - my stories were far too complex and involved.

the ever adventurous jeremy and i found a little counter service place around the corner from nova for dinner called yoshinoya. there we feasted on bowls of miso soup, and rice topped with thin slices of beef (this was before the american beef "mad cow" scare) for not a lot of yen. let me tell you, this is heaven in a bowl, topped with pickled ginger. it wasn't until much later that i discovered that this was a large chain in japan - alas, not in marugame.

that evening in my hotel i found an episode of one of my favorite shows (favorite after the x-files), ALIAS on tv. i was so excited that i didn't even care that it was dubbed in japanese.

training - day three

by the third day i was really starting to feel confident in my classes, provided i had my lesson plan in hand. i was even starting to see how maybe i could write comments in less than 10 minutes. still the thought of teaching classes back to back was a little un-nerving. my lesson planning was still taking forever. at this rate i feared i'd be spending all my waking hours trying to plan my classes.

this last day of training was a very sad day, as well. no, not because i was sad to be leaving okayama (though i was - i like cities). not because i was sad to part ways with weird jeremy. but because my venus de milo pen finally kicked the bucket. *sigh*