It's been another one of those crazy busy months - I spent most of last week running around like a blue-arsed fly trying to get my presentation together for the JET Mid-Year Conference in Fukui, and the entire week before that was taken up with editing JETfuel. JETfuel was a pretty mammoth job this time around, but I reckon it's our best issue yet (you can see a photo of the latest print issue below and the online edition can be found here, although only a few articles have been added so far).
The Mid-Year Conference went pretty well too - I foolishly agreed to make a one hour presentation about motivating students, and I've spent the past month cobbling together lessons and trying to figure out how exactly to stop my students falling off their chairs with boredom. I photocopied a few successful lesson plans and handed them out, then showed some videos of my students doing some drama, which went down well, so I think the whole thing went OK. It's all I've been able to think about for ages, so I'm just glad it's all done.
Later on I was one of the comperes at the post-conference Pub Quiz, which was great fun, but unfortunately I indulged a bit too much in the free beer and didn't quite make it to the club night afterwards. Yes, that's right, you guessed it: I fell asleep on the bus, then paid a taxi driver 3000 yen to drive me round and round until I could remember where I lived. Classy.
Other than that, I saw the new Harry Potter film at the weekend, but failed to spot my sister (she's one of the extras - according to my mum you can see her in the scene where they draw the names out of the Goblet of Fire). I did manage to spot my sister's friend Megan though, which was quite exciting - she plays one of Cho Chang's best friends.
I also got a couple more fancy origami letters from Chihiro, which always cheers me up. All the first years at my school have to write at least 5 letters to me every term, but inevitably they leave writing them until the very last possible moment, right before the exams, which means I now have a pile of approximately 400 letters on my desk waiting to be marked. They're usually pretty much identical too - the standard "My family has a dog. It name is Taro. I like Taro etc etc", so it's always a nice surprise to get intricately folded letters from Chiharo. Last time it was a hedgehog, this time it's a pencil and a heart - what will it be next time? I'm actually really excited to find out, but I'm not sure if that makes me dedicated to my job, or just sad.
Finally, it's bloody cold. But the school rules state that heaters are not to be turned on before the 1st December. NO MATTER WHAT. Which is why I'm wearing gloves as I type this on the school computer, whilst I listen to disgruntled mumblings among the English department about "inflexibility". Bets are being circulated about how many staff members will come down with frostbite before the Great Turning On this Thursday. Roll on heated classrooms.
1 comment:
sucker. our heater's been on for weeks now. And I swear at one point after the students had left i saw it being cranked up to like 27, which is way past warm biz temp. maybe i can't read the heater setting though.
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