I can't seem to get up in the morning. I'm getting enough hours, but it's like I'm not getting a good sleep any night. It takes me way longer to wake up here than it does at home. And that's a considerable amount of time. It's like the first 2 hours of my day I just sort of walk around in a daze not knowing what to do. It usually takes me about an hour to get ready in the morning. An hour!! What!! I'm the queen of the 15 minute with a breakfast mornings. What is this hour thing. And then I'm at school and I just look at my planning books not knowing even where to start from. I've been trying to be better about planning at night when I'm done my shift. It can make such a difference. I can bang out planning for a Kindie class or any primary class in a matter of 15 minutes or so now, but only after having the class. It's the Adult and Jr. High classes that take so much longer. The texts for the Jr High kids all kinda suck and they're the ones who get bored the easiest. Well, Jr High and High School are about the same, depending on their language level. The higher the level, the more I can engage them, the less bored they are. The lower the level, the more they just zone out and stop trying.
I have started talking about Japanese food with my adult class today. We're going to exchange recipes. I still haven't figured out how to maximize their English content with it. They're still learning lots of words, but not in the way of usable spoken grammar. It's really just an excuse for me to have some fun in the class and to get them talking. I don't mind my Fridays. I don't really like them. But there's a few classes today that I like. It's like, I like the classes all separately, but put them all together at random times, all in one day, and I really don't enjoy the day. My last class is two High School boys that lived in America when they were little. They are both loosing their English and they know it. They're both super uber busy, as are most High School students here, make that ALL. I don't really know how to give them a curriculum that is going to pay off for them. It's like trying to make golf holes with a back hoe. Rather the wrong tool. It feels rather lumbering, clumsy, something that I can't find the right word for. It's not even that it's ineffective, a back hoe is quite effective at making holes, just the wrong kind of holes. It's the sense of blundering around with no real sense of direction and therefore I'm just making giant holes as opposed to specific little holes where little holes are supposed to go. They don't need a language overhaul, they just need fine tuning and I don't feel like I can do it for them. I am Spackler. I feel like Bill Murray in Caddy Shack. Stupid gopher.
