This is a typical winter weekend for the Reeds: Ian and I hide out in our house, cuddled up beneath blankets and sipping hot tea just to keep warm. However, now that the days reach highs into the 50s, we’ve gradually been venturing out of our house, and I’m really excited about this! The ume (plum) trees are starting to bloom, I don’t have to wear AS MANY layers to school, and there have even been a few nights when we didn’t have to leave our air-con on overnight. As I wrote in the last blog, I went for a great bike ride on Sunday, and we had a failed attempt at hiking last Monday. Well, the weekend before was actually really nice outside. The weather was much milder, and we planned to go hiking with a few of our friends on Saturday. However, after it rained ALL day on that Friday I was afraid that the hike might be canceled. Even whenever I woke up on Saturday morning, it was very gray outside. We had planned to meet at 12:30, and fortunately the skies cleared for us. 
The ten of us piled into two cars and drove the nearly forty-five minutes it took to get to the trail head, which was way up in the mountains.
The hike was nice—not too steep or treacherous. It was just the perfect amount of workout. However, the last stretch to the top was fairly steep, and the ground was soggy and muddy, so we had to choose our footing carefully. Once we made it to the top, we didn’t stay there for very long. Even though the temperature was nice, and we had worked up a sweat on the way up, it was FREEZING on the top of the mountain. Without the protection of trees, we felt the wind, and it was NOT a friendly mountain breeze. 
Instead of breaking at the top like we normally do, all of us took the pictures that we wanted and then hurried back down the mountain to get back to warmth.
Something else happened last week that is worth writing about, and it was probably the WORST thing that has happened to me at the JHS so far. A second grade student intentionally threw a book at me because he was angry. That sounds bad by American standards, but in Japan (where children are taught to RESPECT anyone older than them, ESPECIALLY authority figures) STUFF LIKE THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN. It just doesn’t! Students know that if they SAY something wrong to a teacher, not even becoming violentl, they can get smacked across the face. (Corporal punishment is technically illegal in Japan but…….) I guarantee that had the kid threw a book at ANY of the other Japanese teachers, the WRATH OF GOD would have been brought down upon him. The teacher would have smacked him, given him a VERY sternly worded and embarrassing shame speech, and possibly even had a meeting with his parents. (After which, the kid would go home to his parents, been given a good whipping, and punished for who knows how long.) STUDENTS KNOW THAT YOU DON’T DISRESPECT A TEACHER.
Anyway….I’m getting ahead of myself by telling this story. This happened Monday a week ago. This kid is an absolute JERK. I never remember noticing it until last semester. He doesn’t give a CRAP about English. Every time worksheets are given out in class or the students have to work on their work book, he doesn’t. He won’t even touch it. An entire class period will go by, and he won’t have finished one question. Instead he plays with his pencil, picks his fingers, or whatever to waste time. I’ve tried to help this kid. I’ve hovered over him, trying to get him to write down answers, even giving him the answers, but he’ll blatantly ignore me. If I stand in front of him to help him, he will turn away from me and talk to friends. He’s always trying to disrupt people around him, and he has a few students who take the bait. He’ll do anything to get those friends to pay attention to him….throw an eraser at them, steal their pencils, flip his desk chair over so that he’s sitting on it wrong, etc. Also, anytime I accidentally mispronounce a Japanese word in class, he will laugh out loud. Other kids might snicker or stifle a laugh, but he has NO qualms about laughing at me. I’ve tried different approaches with this kid…..helping him, ignoring him, being nice to him, intimidating him, etc, but nothing seems to work. I’m pretty sure that my JTE could care LESS, so I don’t get any help from that angle. Final conclusion…..THIS KID IS A JERK.
It was the last few minutes of class, and I was circling around the room helping students with their worksheets. I noticed that jerk kid was reading a book…..not an English book but a just-for-fun book, so I tried to close it on him. However, he pulled it away. I reached out and grabbed it, but he was too strong and tugged it out of my grasp. I pointed at the (blank) worksheet on his desk (which he had had for over twenty minutes) and told him to work. As I walked away, I swatted him across the back of the head. He immediately yanked the book he was reading out of his desk and hurled it at me with as much force as he could gather. Everyone stopped what they were doing, turned around, and stared. I SWEAR TIME STOPPED. There was this huge pause in which no one did anything. I didn’t move, jerk kid didn’t move, and everyone else in the classroom just watched. Hindsight is 20/20, and I know now how I should have reacted, but at that time I had NO IDEA how to process that. Should I yell? Smack him? Laugh it off and ask “Was that your best shot”? Run out of the room crying? I had absolutely no idea! Unfortunately, my JTE didn’t see it happen, so he was confused as to why everyone was just staring at the back of the classroom. He walked to the back of the room and told jerk kid something. By this time class was over, so we did our goodbyes, and I raced out of class with one destination in mind…..the bathroom.
I crawled onto the toilet and just released my emotions. It’s not that I was sad…..but more like angry/embarrassed/shocked/confused/upset. I’m not sure how long I was in there, but I heard shuffling around in the hallway, and my name being said. I dried my eyes, and as I left the bathroom I ran right into my JTE. He seemed a bit confused and asked what happened. I told him the story, tearing up toward the end. I’m pretty sure that he had NO IDEA what to do with my emotions because he said, “Um…….sorry. He….gets angry sometimes.” I get angry sometimes, too, but I don’t go around throwing books at authority figures. Then he told me that there was an assembly at that time, and we needed to go to the gym. I said OK, but my mind was already made up that I was NOT going to that assembly. I really didn’t care what happened to me if I didn’t go. I didn’t want to be around anyone at that time, so I went back to the bathroom and just waited it out. Since the assembly happened, I didn’t get to talk to my JTE about it anymore until the following day. I asked him if the student received a punishment. He said, “I talked to him about it.” THAT’S IT. Please refer to my above statement as to what would have happened HAD IT BEEN ANY OTHER JAPANESE TEACHER. I feel like any other teacher would have taken this incident more seriously. However, my JTE has a pretty good don’t-give-a-crap attitude, so the jerk kid pretty much got away with murder and continues to be a jerk to this day……. GRRRRRRR!!!!! 
Now on to something a little happier…..I have been trying to lose a little winter weight. Giving up sweets for Lent will definitely help, but I also want to get a little bit more toned, so I’ve been lifting weights. ……..and by weights I mean heavy things around the house…..and by heavy things around the house I mean my fabric softener bottle. 
Don’t judge! I weighed the bottle, and it was just shy of five pounds. I realize that this weight will only go down as I use the bottle, but for right now it works well! As I watch TV, (or even Skype family back at home!) I can do reps with the five pound weight to get rid of my bingo wings. Now if only I could lose this muffin top as well……..
Yesterday I ate lunch with my third graders at the JHS. I was overwhelmingly surprised that I actually had a good conversation. A couple of the girls who I sat next to are always nice to me. We talked about Valentine’s Day, and then one of the girls from a neighboring table actually MOVED to my table in order to speak to me. GASP!! That never happens! She asked me what my favorite One Direction song was, and then I asked her the same question. We started to talk about Taylor Swift, and before I knew it lunch time was over. Instead of watching the clock and praying for it to speed up so that awkward lunch time could be over, I actually enjoyed that lunch period!! 
After lunch, I went up to the library to read for a bit. Every time I take my Kindle up there to read, the kids are amazed. I don’t think Kindles are very popular in Japan because they keep thinking that it’s an iPad and try to touch the screen. Once I show them that you can’t touch the screen but can control it with the buttons on the right side, they give me a look of “What is this contraption??” Some of my third grade boys wanted to play around with it, so I let them. I showed them the categories of books listed: Melissa’s, Ian’s, books about Japan, newspapers, and other. After I said, “These are Ian’s books,” one of the boys said, “Ian! Ian my best friend! Best friend Ian!” 
I don’t think that boy has ever talked to Ian, but apparently him and Ian are best friends. I love the words that come out of my students’ mouths sometimes! However, then the three of them hovering around me reverted back to their immature selves and started calling one another “gay” while pointing fingers at each other. “Melissa-sensei, he gay!” (kid being pointed at VEHEMENTLY shakes head) “No! No gay! Him gay!” (different kid being pointed at shakes head and points back to boy #1) *sigh* Middle school…….
That’s all the blogging I’ve got for this week. Happy Friday, y’all!!
No comments:
Post a Comment