LizzBuenaventura.com

Three more exams tomorrow: Kanji, Essay Writing in Japanese, and a Japanese Listening test. Just a little bit more and I'll be free of the wretched institution that we call University. ;)

I did my teaching rounds today, though my students weren't my usual fare; another teacher went back to her country for the holidays so I took over her classes. I love kids, but it's always difficult to take on a new class (specially when they're in the 3-4 year old range). Kids take a couple of weeks to get used to new teachers, and the fact that I'm the English teacher just makes it that much more difficult.

Still, I always like the challenge of finding out what makes a kid warm up to you quicker, and today was no exception. My first class had a whooping 19 kids. Considering that normal English classes are comprised only of 12 at the most, this was a pretty big deal. I ran out of breath in the first 15 minutes after screaming/singing the "Hello, How are you?" song. Heh. Good experience, though.

The second class had a regular 5 students, 3 of which were absent that day. In contrast, most of my games could only be played with 4 or more kids, so I was actually pretty mellow during this lesson. Needless to say, these kids ended up warming to me much more than the first class at the end of the day. Proximity + one-on-one always makes it go quicker.

All in all, a pretty good day. I'm exhausted, but in a good way.