#we haven't talked in a looong while but they're still awesome

[depvotee]

It's so funny to me to give my mom my perspective as a gay person bc she's goes

[fizzingwizard]

Random:

My shoes are broken so on Wed I tripped and smashed into the sidewalk. Scraped up one hand and knee. Haven't done that in a looong time, forgot how annoying the sting is. Several people stopped to see if I was okay, though, which was sweet. And the next day a woman who saw me fall actually stopped me at the train station to ask how I was. Aw, humanity. (I switched to another pair of shoes, but they aren't waterproof so *sigh* I have to go shoe shopping, which I hate. Why do people even make shoes that aren't waterproof? If it goes on your feet it should have defenses against the elements imo.)

We had our second yearly observation this week and my students were angels. I mean their halos were glowing aaaall day. I got nothing but great feedback and it was an awesome day, yay.

Last week a fast food place opened near my work and my coworkers have been going like every day. On the first day they all went together bahahaha. I resisted because I'm technically trying to not eat so much ~*bad stuff*~. But on Thurs, my coworker ate a big burger and loaded fries right next to me and I couldn't get the smell out of my head. So I had to go XP Honestly, it's good that I went, because the food I got was really pretty not good, so I was reminded that I... don't actually like that particular fast food place anyhow x'D So hopefully, despite it being so close, I won't be tempted often in the future.

Work bitching under the cut:

Over the rest of the week my students slowly morphed back into their usual gremlin selves x'D with Friday being the toughest day of all, because of course I was sick and so are a bunch of the kids, and of course, it was also the first day in a while where we had almost a full class (just one absence). My usual coteacher was out, the other was there, and great as she is she is still new and very young, so it leaves all the classroom leadership and behavior management to me. Hard enough on good days, but so damn tough when the kids are extra wired like they were on Fri. If the observation had been on Friday I'm sure I'd have gotten one or two critiques during the feedback session hahaha.

I do know what the issue is too, why some days are so much harder than others: certain kids aren't good grouped together. I have one student who thinks other kids are playing when they tell him to leave them alone or get angry at him. He just keeps chasing and provoking them with a big smile. After several months, he still doesn't understand anything we say to him in English. He understands Japanese, but there's understanding and then there's understanding, lol. We explain to him that right now it's time to walk and we will get to run once we are outside, but it doesn't stick. He's a sweetie who doesn't get angry or try to hurt anyone, but when you try to talk to him and explain things, he twists and goes limp and does everything he can to avoid looking at you and engaging, no matter how calm your voice is. So he obviously knows he's "in trouble" (we try hard not to make the kids feel like they're being punished, and to respect their individual wants and needs alongside what the class needs. But even two year olds aren't stupid: if they're the only one being pulled aside while the other kids play, they know it's because the teacher isn't happy with something they did. They don't believe smacking their friend with a toy tomato hurts anyone, but they believe the teacher believes it does... haha -.-;)

Among the other kids, it's a lot of very high energy boys who love to scream at the top of their lungs during free play. I know that if a teacher sat with them, she would be a calming influences. And I know that if I could shorten the length of free play time, this would be less of a problem too. We don't have so much trouble on days when for example Student A is there but Student B isn't, because they ping off each other and that gets the rest going etc. Unfortunately, when everyone is together, I'm not able to put a teacher in the middle of them due to having way too much to do in way too little time. It is getting better compared to the beginning of the year, when lunch time and clean up took foreeeever. The main reason is because the kids are for the most part eating by themselves and eating faster.

However, when the number of kids in the class is large, it's always going to need a certain amount of time. In addition, afternoons are SO tight. In order to do our afternoon activity, I need to be starting it at a certain time, and I absolutely need to be cleaning it up by half an hour later, because our room is also the nap room, so we need to put out all the cots. One quarter to half of our time is used just getting out all the cots and blankets four the two classes who nap in my room. That's also one teacher I don't have with the kids during that time, because she's doing the cots, and I need to change diapers as well as take kids to the toilet and teach their end of the day lesson, all within 15-20 minutes. Yesterday it was beyond impossible. We only got through it by hustling.

In terms of how to deal with the timing, I had a talk with two other classes a week ago about their schedules. They are not nap rooms, so their entire post-lunch period is all to themselves. They have half as many students as I do, but their kids are a year younger so do need even more help. That's why it's tricky, I can't push them to do things faster than the kids are able, especially since we're also always trying to foster independence, which means teachers can't hurry things along by doing it for them all the time. However, I did try to point out that nap rooms don't have the luxury of a full afternoon to do all our chores and activities, and that while our kids are a year older, they're still very young and there are a lot of them. So I asked that as much as possible, the other classes try to finish their bathroom breaks on time, so my class doesn't keep having to wait and wait and wait. The waiting isn't the problem so much as it keeps one of my coteachers in the bathroom for forty minutes. So I'm down one teacher when I reeeeally need all hands on deck. Last year this period only took 20 min and I thought that was too long. It's taking 40 min no joke and the reason is both because the younger classes are taking more time to start and finish lunch (they have to be in the bathroom before and after and we get held up both times) and also because my class and the other 2-3s class have 18 kids nearly every day. We don't take all 18 at once of course. But the bathroom isn't exactly a safe place, and yet we're always winding up with 18 kids from three different classes in there anyway... To me it's a safety hazard and I've mentioned it before. But I'm definitely a lot more cautious than many of my coworkers, and even the ones who say "Yeah, I agree with Fizz," just keep doing the same thing, so. I wouldn't say what we're doing is dangerous, but I do think it's inefficient and confusing, which can lead to danger. However, the main effect is the sucky timing.

For years I've felt that what we really need is 30 min more wiggle room. If we just had that, there wouldn't be these constant traffic jams. The school building is way too small for the amount of students it has (typical Japan) and if one thing is delayed, everything is delayed for everyone. So it's such a tight tight schedule. And we wanted to build in more flexibility this year, because there were so many new teachers (lit just me and my coworker who stayed from previous years, although another experienced teacher did transfer over and a sub who worked here before ended up sticking around a lot - but that's like 1/5 of the staff, all the rest are brand new and some are brand new to working with young children too). So we eased up the schedule, with the caveat that it was probably going to be too hectic at the end of the day for me and the other 2-3s class. However, I really don't even know whether the other class is struggling with their afternoons the way mine is. One thing in their favor is their classroom is next to the bathroom. They just send their kids back and forth from one room to the other. Mine is all the way down the hall and often, if you yell, no one hears you, so usually I have to take groups of kids at a time and keep them until everyone's finished. It would be nice if the other class was having the same issue as mine because then I'd probably get more support convincing the 1-2s classes that they need to try to stick to their schedule a bit closer, but. I don't really know what else I can do at this point: kids eat at the rate they eat, kids need to pee when they need to pee, and we teachers only have two hands apiece.

In the end I don't think any of this particular stress is anyone's fault, but the fault of the school's schedule, which is out of our hands. I don't get why we can't start class time 30 min earlier, it would make it all so much easier. I was told the reason once but I can't remember it. I'll ask again just because I'm curious. We are expected to do so much in four hours it's like. So much goes on in those four hours that they feel like a whole day, but once you're done with them you still have four more hours of work. It is really nuts to look at the clock realize that you're totally exhausted and it's only been an hour since lunch, hahahahaha.