Cat and Mouse and Success

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30

I woke up panicked about the lesson for Kogyo. Yes, I had the practice midterm exam for them, but that wouldn't take all hour. What was I to do?!

At school, I hurried in and talked with my main teacher. She looked over my practice exam, declared it good, and we went off to copy it. She also said we should do the cat and mouse game I'd made. By this point, I was nervous about whether it'd work, but if she watned to try it, I wasn't going to say no. So, we went to class. I was nervous that the class would be an utter flop.

Actually, it ended up being a pretty awesome class. I bragged happily to Jason later, as he was online. I probably shouldn't be online at work, but I keep it to the side of my screen, so it's subtle and it helps keep me on task while I'm grading papers. Otherwise, I'm more apt to space off or find a more intense distraction. And I had a LOT of grading to do.

The other classes also went well. The cat and mouse game was a hit with the students. It involves dividing the class in half. Half is team Cat, the other is team Mouse. I have a map on the board and we go up and down the columns alternating teams as they give me a command (turn right, turn left, go backwards, turn around, go straight X blocks.) It meant that every student spoke at least once. Many were really excited. They especially liked the strategy, although only once did a team win (the mouse committed suicide and literally ran into the cat.) They especially liked it when someone gave the wrong command, because then the character (which I moved on the board) went the wrong way and they became more frantic to fix it. It was also good practice for me, as I've never been good with right and left. I messed up a few times.

The practice test went pretty well. Some sections were harder than the actual, while some were a bit easier, as I didn't have time do to much more than steal them off the Nishi midterm. But it gives them a good idea what to study. I made sure to mention dairy again in all my classes as that WILL be coming up.

Students especially loved the diagram of Hikon-yen on which they had to label the relative directions (up, down, left, right, forward, backwards.) It reminded me of a teacher I had at college who said that it's normal for students to start laughing while doing her tests. (it's true!) My students laughed and I was happy. They laughed again as my co-teacher sketched Hikon-yen on the board for me to label, as per the test.

I will never get used to walking past Kogyo's bathrooms and seeing my male students peeing at the urinals through the open doors.

By the time I left, it had been drizzling a while. I walked my bike outside the school gates, bidding goodbye to my students, before actually climbing onto it with my umbrella. Biking with an umbrella is illegal (with good reason!) but it was cold and it was wet. I did get a minor fright when an official motorcycle pulled up next to me at a stop sign. Luckily, it was just a postal official.

At home, I hung my clothes to dry and mourned the fact that I couldn't actually do laundry, like I so desperately needed.

I made home-made marinara sauce for dinner. It was quite delicious. I used up the end of my basil, so I need more of that.