I had my first emotional challenge at work yesterday since I have gotten here. It was more of me being disappointed with myself, but there was a student that catalyzed my frustration with the situation. In fact, she is probably one of my most challenging, if not the most, challenging students I have. She is a smart kid and always is one of the first to get the material in class, but she always tries to speak to me in Japanese (REALLY FAST) in class and often talks back. So on one hand I can’t understand her and on the other; she is fairly disrespectful (even by American standards). Anywho, I was doing an activity in class that required the use of two different students’ vocabulary cards. This one student and another were paired together and neither had put their names on the cards in order separate them after the activity was over. Wouldn’t be a big deal normally, but this girl decided to take a freakin long ass time to separate them and that time was taken away from the rest of the class. Ok, even that is fine, but when I tried to help or make her go faster, she would freak the fuck out and not let me touch the cards. Because of this, the class got out 10 minutes late and I had to rush through one section of a lesson and completely skip the other. GRRR!!
I was frustrated because I totally overlooked that the cards couldn’t be separated and the student’s behavior just put me over the edge. I was in a bad mood for about an hour after the class. It’s actually really saddening when I think about it. One thing I do not want to have happen here is to ever get frustrated with work, but I couldn’t seem to avoid it yesterday. All is good though. I am over it and will now be sure to make certain that an incident like this would not repeat itself.
The rest of the day went redeemingly well though. My last class has five adults in it, and they are all good fun people. Thus, the class went smoothly as any of the others and put me back in a good mood. Furthermore, one of my students told me that the class seemed like a party to her. This totally made my day and I finished it with a totally positive outlook. Kids may be a challenge right now, but the adults will keep me grounded and happy I think. I just really need to hurry up and figure the secrets of dealing with certain problem children.
Today was a particularly good day at work. My one kids class was relatively wonderful and my middle school aged class exceeded my expectations. Their shy as hell; which makes them seem less strong, but even the weaker student was catching on by the end of class today. Good ish!
Those that know me well enough are aware of how prone I am to making silly careless errors in life. Well I managed to pull two off today and ended up doing a lot of thinking on my toes 0_0 for the adult class I managed to grab the wrong lesson materials (book 2 materials for a book 1 lesson -_-) and got the wrong class cd for the middle aged class. What a mess, but I was able to adjust well enough to where the lessons weren’t overly (if at all) hindered. I just wrote down key parts for the adult class and got by fine while I spoke all of the CD script with different voices. The students weren’t confused or off set and did the tasks perfectly. So, I think it is safe to say that it was ok. Still, I will make sure it doesn't happen again.
So, the mom of one of my little molester students I will have tomorrow was in the class where I messed up today and I realized why the daughter is so strong in the class. Her Mom is awesome. She apparently went to a good English school before. It was easy to tell with her exceptional command of intonation, and incredible English memorization ability during the lesson. I was really impressed with her. Naturally, she asked how her daughter was doing . . . I didn't snitch that she touches my ass and stuff, but did tell her how strong her daughter is. She sounded relieved. I hope that I continue to teach both Mom and daughter ^_^
Tonight ended with a wonderful dinner with friends as we cooked our own okonomiyake (the server said mine looked the best =P ) had a couple of drinks and reminisced over songs that made us think of college and high school. It was one of those events that make life that much richer. I am going to bed with all smiles tonight!
Tomorrow is Friday. Not worried bout my little harassers and looking forward to getting to know my students and coworkers a little bit better.
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