Minuta and skin

[parasitegirl]

 is time once more for the minutia. Work is slow and not much has happened over the last few days. I can’t think of much to tell you.

 

BOE:

 

From now on my teaching schedule will be barren of schoolroom teaching until late September. This makes me sad, but it would be true even if I were at my old job. Summer time comes and teachers continue to work but students enjoy a vacation. When school starts up again it is sports-festival season, so everything else gets pushed aside. I usually go stir crazy every year at this time, but this was often mitigated by the fact the principal told me to sneak off after lunchtime once August came and that I could pop in my earbuds and sew to my heart’s content once my work was finished.

 

I am currently writing lessons plans, two per grade, but that soon will also be finished. My lessons plans are primarily in Japanese (the goals, supplies, instructions) with the speaking parts in English, but I also have to make a 100% Japanese version so that my bosses understand the execution of a class. I have two more to go before the deadline of the 17^th. I’m milking them.

 

They also require my usual output of visual aids.

 

Many are rehashing of old lessons I’ve done, or lessons from Junior Columbus (a textbooks series from the Super English Teacher), but there are some new ones as well. Because these lessons are done at multiple schools, and the schools are unequal in how much they will prep, I’ve lost some of my favorite plans that require school-specific prep (“Where is this?” a lesson involving close-ups of objects and areas in the school…and similarly “Who is this” questions and close-ups of teachers…not to mention treasure hunts and multiple-part lessons). I am most proud of my “costumes and music of the world” lesson, which I am doing the illustrations of Flamenco, Debke, Capoeria, Fancy Dance, Korean Fan Dance, and Thai Classical Dance costumes and where we will also listen to the different music and try to match the music with the costume and country. Colors, clothing, flags, countries, music…it’s got it all (6^th grade)

 

The Milkman’s Sister and I will film bare-bones videos of the 3^rd-6^th lessons in preparation for a seminar in late August where we present these lessons to the teachers who will be participating in them and the schools in general.

 

This summer my task seems to be creating 15-class-hours of lesson plans for the 5^th grade. This will mentally wear me out. I have ideas, but I don’t know how theoretical I can be about what I’ll be allowed to do. I also need to start getting my hands on more idea-provoking teaching materials for kids (Eigorian, shows for American kids…) With 15 hours I’d want to explore hands on things like making popcorn, mixing water colors, P.E. Skills… I’ll have meetings about this at the start of August.

 

I’d love to make simple hand puppets…but that would be at least a 2 day lesson (plan your puppet, sketch designs, create a backstory, list what you need. Make your puppet, present your puppet (name, country, hobbies…)).

 

If you have any random ideas, memorable childhood activies, or things you’d wished you’d learned…shoot them at me.

 

My lack of teaching time will have one island of activity. In two weeks the ALTs and I will be teaching a special summer course. I’ve made the lesson plans, supplies, and talked with each ALT about how to do this. It will wear us out because we will each be teaching our lesson (or 2 lessons) 6 times a day for 4 days. My lesson is the infamous “India” lesson…where I make kids try some challenging yoga poses and then teach them the deadly game of Kabaddi.

 

Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi!

 

Teaching Dreams:

I do miss my old school. I miss knowing the students well. It’s not as bad as it once was, but a few weeks ago I had a nightmare about my twin.

 

For those of you new, My Twin is half of a set of identical twins. I taught them from 1^st grade through 3^rd grade. My Twin was in a class I used to assist in math and I was usually assigned to keep him on task. The twins also live near me and were (still are) habitually late. I often walked to school with them as we talked about coffee and poop.

 

I still run into them some mornings when they are super late and I am on my way to the train.

 

My Twin is well documented on my blog, from his 5-10 minute “monkey dance” wherein he stood up at his desk and did a sort of jumping up and down gorilla dance because he was so excited about the fact that it was his birthday (the teacher continued to teach and he eventually sat down) to his “pencildicking” phase. My Twin became my favorite student and I was his favorite teacher. His unprompted goodbye letter to me is one of the two I keep on my desk. He lists Twister and “Original Dance Party” as his favorite English class memories.

 

My nightmare was simply that I was walking to the train station in the rain and encountered My Twin, standing alone at the side of the road, sobbing. He then grabbed me and held on for dear life. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong or stop the tears. I awoke crying.

 

My Goddamned Eyeballs.

 

The process of getting used to hard lenses is in its 2^nd week. This may take a month. Today I’ll take them out at 4:30, after nine hours of wear. The comfort that I now feel in the first four hours of wear (which was unimaginable just two weeks ago) gives me hope that I’ll eventually be back to my highschool / early college full-time schedule.

 

I’ll soon be replenishing my sunglasses collection. I only have one huge Jackie-O pair right now.

 

My Skin:

Is back to normal. It is no longer allergic to everything and peeling off in chunks. For about a week the only thing my skin would accept was raw aloe (which is a little stinky.) The Burts Bee’s sun block seems to be the only stuff I can use right now, the fine collection of high-powered Aveeno and Nutrogena sunscreens cause my skin to react in a nasty fashion. I am not enjoying this whole “Skin sensitive to sun and sensitive to everything that blocks the sun” phase of my face. Because we’re in rainy season, this isn’t a huge issue right now (although, of course, I use sunscreen in overcast weather…because I am appliance white) but it soon will be an issue again!

 

After years of fighting it, I will be buying a sun-umbrella for my afternoon “fuck, I need to move around” walks.

 

Bling:

I continue to work on the fire costume…and no longer think of the designer as a “cracksmoking bling-whore”…

 

Our own Mekyria beat me out on buying a rhinestone necklace in a floral design (I’ve been realizing that I need to get a few larger necklaces for my costumes…my neck bling is a little minimal) but I did get a green set for my green costume. If it shows up tonight I’ll pack my green for tomorrow.

 

BD:

Friday Night:Anatolia

Saturday Morning to Afternoon: Ansuya workshop

Saturday Evening: Legend.

 

Feeling much better about drum solos.

Working on my glutes. Everywhere I can. It really is amazing that I don’t get train perverts.

Type your cut contents here.

Comments

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

Once again I'm sorry I don't still have my childhood book of random "try this at home" science experiments. There had to be some in there that would be good for your situation, but all I remember right now is relatively less exciting stuff like melting a string into an ice cube.

[parasitegirl.livejournal.com]

I wonder if that..."boy for boys" (can't remember what it;s called now) would be a good resource!

[peanutlovelove.livejournal.com]

I will try and send you some of our good science ideas stuff. As I'm sure you already know kids like and are impressed by the simplest things.

My kids loved making their own cameras last week. Like this:
http://www.csiro.au/resources/ps1wc.html

My friend has a website you might want to check out
http://theclevermom.com/

[divarenee.livejournal.com]

Since my trip to Japan is right before the Level III I will be starting every morning with a mini-Suhaila workout, including glute shimmies. You are most welcome to join me.