lady-sensei

121108 thurs 11:10pm

oh my GOSH! the challenge kids test is crazy!!! and it’s driving ME crazy!!!
cuz i probably have the most kids out of the three teachers in my school which has the highest percentage of kids out of ANY geos school in all of japan!!!!!

i have sixty kids. 60!! in 18 classes!!!!

i have to administer the three test levels to all my kid students, class.. by.. class. some of the classes have only one student. some of them have six. and it’s sooo hard to administer the test to the youngest ones!! where so many things are going on at the same time! this one’s still on the last question. that one’s making circles down the page. this one’s climbing down her chair and playing hide-and-seek with me. that one’s asking if his answer is right (in japanese, of course. “kore?”). they often make circles just to make circles... but we don’t want anyone to fail, so i have to stop myself from giving them hints. [sigh] but for the most part, they know what they’re supposed to know... which is great!

the test obviously checks for the four parts of language: listening, writing, reading (or letter recognition, haha), and speaking. so for the last part of the test, i have to ask each student five simple questions... individually. and for most of them, their speaking skills are actually kinda almost... nonexistent. ay yay yay. sooo painful to ask questions and still smile at them. but the ones who can answer make me sooo happy!!! it’s like, “misaki... how old are you?” ... “i’m five years old!” and my face beeeeamms!!! hahah.

oh. and thennn! i have to correct the test!! check answers. calculate score. and write positive feedback!!! for each student! soooooo time-consuming!!! [sigh] wow. i corrected ten tests today after my last class and it took me over an hour! gees.

but there are only two days left of this annual week-long test! yes!!! the teachers have until the 27th (so two weeks from the end of the week) to give out the results. and at least i’m keeping up with the marking daily. omg, i’m just not looking forward to saturday... i have 18 kids that day!
oh! and i forgot. i still have to make certificates! and put grade marks for each of listening, reading, writing, and speaking. great.

oh AND i still have to draw those five posters for the kids’ christmas party this sunday. i already come an hour early to work everyday. i guess i have to come two hours early for tomorrow and saturday! ahh! this week is crazy!!!

random note:
i’ve realized just what perfectionist kids these are!!! when they make circles for “yes” (x is “no”), they make the most perfect circles. they also make the most perfect lines to do the matching sections... most of them actually use little 6-inch rulers! and if their circles and lines aren’t perfect, they automatically grab the eraser. (after each class, the table is full of rubber shavings!) and of course their perfectly-sharpened pencils, erasers, and rulers are all neatly positioned in the correct places of their highly-organized rectangular pencil cases which could very well be their first gadgets, they’re that cool. (haha, i actually remember my beloved awesome (and very asian) pencil case.. and actually being quite like these kids... so i guess i undertand. haha :)