Why Typhoon Days are Good for My Morale

Last month, many classes were canceled due to a typhoon. Bummer, but I wasn't teaching yet, so it didn't much bother me. Silly boy, of course it will involve you: when they reschedule classes for next month, you get to teach them!

Sometimes a job is just a job. But other times, like today, a job is just a lot of fun.

This was the second instance this week of me teaching a makeup class. The class level is Crossroads, which means that my students are teenagers. Of course, dealing with teens is a mixed bag. Sometimes the kids you get are bored, tired, disinterested, or otherwise disinclined to participate. But, on occasion, you get kids who love to learn. Those kids all managed to gather in one group, and magically show up for class today.

The Crossroads curriculum is based around conversations longer than previous levels, and on writing and reading ability. Not only were the kids I had today sharp, but they repeated when I needed them to repeat, read aloud when I wanted them to read aloud, and earnestly tried to learn the material. Most of them could describe an English word with other English words, which, let me tell you, is not only a feat of excellence, but a great thing to have at your disposal when teaching new material; it's a tool for describing new ideas.

We played a few games, laughed a whole lot, and in general had a good time while learning. It was, simply put, the best class I've had yet. How do you improve on that? Well, it all goes back to that typhoon and the rescheduled class I had to teach today. You see, these kids had their class canceled last month, so not only did I get to teach them once, I got to teach them twice in a row! Sweet, huh?

No, the curriculum isn't the same for each class. In the first class, I taught Term 7 curriculum, while in the second class (the makeup class), I taught Term 6 material. So, it was fresh, and we had more fun the second hour.

On my way back home tonight, I slowed the pace of my cycling (down to maybe 20 MPH from my normal of maybe 24 or 25) a bit to enjoy the time. I was in such a good mood, why hurry and get home?

Earlier today, Mama (the lady that owns the restaurant across the street), who is both a kind and elderly lady, took me out for coffee and chat this morning. She brought pictures of her son and daughters, and we talked about them, and how she thinks I look like her son, who's only two years older than me. It was fun and quaint, the coffee was excellent, and as a small detail, the cups were made in England.

On a closing note, don't forget to check out the video of my apartment (if you're actually interested) and the photos of my time here in Japan (including supercars!) I know that at times I have a tendency to only write when things go awry, so here's an entry full of good times. Cheers.