DAY 83

a.m. I was at the Japanese Immersion School for the morning. They started with a morning meeting where they sang a Japanese folk song, “O Canada! (!)) and the Star-Spangled Banner. They are going to be singing before an upcoming Whalers (Jr. Hockey League) game, so that’s why they learned the Canadian anthem. I enjoyed the group singing, followed by group exercise which was easy to follow even though the directions were in Japanese.

The kids were rather chatty and not as responsive as the class I worked with there before, but for the most part, it went okay. What I hate the most: lesson plans that are missing or confusing. This morning I was supposed to teach 1st grade math – usually no big deal – but on the last page of the workbook, I had no idea what the kids were supposed to do, and the Teachers’ Edition was not where it was supposed to be. I should have just skipped the page. Ten minutes before the end of class, another teacher came in and showed the kids, but it wasn’t enough time to re-do everything. Then their lunch cards were missing and in some schools, that means no lunch – but the principal said not to worry about it. It was frustrating not being able to do the job right.

p.m. I taught 4th grade in Westwood for the afternoon – always a challenging bunch, and I’ll be at that school most of the week.
Most of the afternoon went okay, though we didn’t have enough time, with all their interruptions, to finish all three tasks set before us. At the end of the day I needed to zip out as quickly as possible to get to my class at Henry Ford College, so I determined to take the kids down to the hallway outside the cafeteria so that when the bell rang I’d save on about 5 minutes of nonsense. Well, you’d have thought I was suggesting a Constitutional amendment – “We’re not allowed to leave the classroom until the bell rings!”  “The principal will make us come right back upstairs!”  I told them that today was different and that we were going down before the bell rang and that I was in charge and that they would not get into trouble with the principal. After a good five minutes of arguing and almost physically having to pull the last 3 kids out of the room, we made it downstairs, spoke to the very helpful principal, and heard the bell ring.  Honestly – if it’s THEM changing a rule it’s no big deal, but let the guest teacher do it…..