GREAT days DO exist!!!!!

I had a GREAT day at school today!!!

I just thought I should let you know and add as a little reminder to myself that I have a great job with really great students (most of them) and a really nice, supportive group of teachers. So here is the short version of what made today so fantabulous.

Morning meeting--
I got invited to go with all the teachers to a play tomorrow. School will end a little before lunch with some shorter periods and then all the teachers will go to the culture center and then an enkai (drinking party?) afterwards. I will probably just drink a lot of juice.

2nd period--
I have one of my favorite junior classes on Wednesday. They are not the smartest, but they always greet me enthusiastically whether I am in the hall or at class. And they work REALLY hard! Today, we (the JTE and I) returned the midterm tests and then had a celebration of awards about the Olympic project. And then the students proudly put up their posters around the room. Before dismissing the class, I told them about the next project--commercials--and the kids really ate it up. They cannot wait to watch American commercials next week (a little bit of super bowl, herbal essence, diamond ring commercial, gillette, a little bit of everything).

4th period--
I have a good sophomore class. Again, they are not the smartest, but they do all activities in class with great enthusiasm. I (and I am sure they too) got really bored with reinforcing grammar points previous to midterms. So their project will be show and tell. I introduced Japanese-exclusive items to them today in the form of a Jeopardy game. They LOVED the game and it built their confidence to see pictures of things they KNEW. Then I had them do a worksheet activity of American-exclusive items that required them to talk to other students to get the information. And then they could draw too. Of the 8 pictures they had to draw, I really enjoyed looking at their interpretations of bison and cowboy. HA HA HA! So the sophomores will be in pairs and do a show-and-tell of Japanese-exclusive items like Anpan-man (anime), shitajiki (plastic sheet used between pages when writing), sumo-wrestling (Japan's national sport), and so on.

6th period--
Because my juniors are doing commercials next week, I had to clear some things with the head of the computer department. We met during one of his free periods in my classroom to setup my laptop to the school network and check to make sure the links worked. And come to find out, the head of the computer department speaks English! What?! He totally surprised me!
I have come to decide that secretly, all the teachers can speak English, but have been commanded to make me try speaking Japanese as much as possible. And it's good practice for me anyway so I can't really complain.

Okay, so that wasn't so short of an update as I thought, but it was a REALLY good day and tomorrow will be good too because it'll be an opportunity to spend time just with the teachers and not worry about classes!