Another Manic Monday...

oooh ooh! One more week, and we are flying up in the sky to the state of Oregon.  Who would've known when I first signed the contract last summer...

We are taking about 170 students to Salem, Oregon, USA for about four days. We depart Tokyo Monday, May 27, and we return Saturday, June 1.  WOW // on many levels.  The trip is called "Window on Willamette" (WOW) Study Tour.  Myself and my colleagues will be in a whirlwind of event after event on those 4 days.

Today was the start of the week, but I feel like it should be the end of the week. Rough day... Nothing in particular with the classes, but the fatigue and stress. I hope things get better... In my classes we are focusing on diversity, culture, tradition, language, etc.  It was a great start today! I'm curious how the rest of the week plays out.

Below is a video that a TIUA '12 Alum made of his experience in Oregon.
   

Week 6?!

Wow... About 12 more days I'm flying back to Portland, Oregon with 120 college students from Tokyo International University... wow...

I have been truly grateful and lucky to have such thoughtful and loving people in my life. My partner Saud came to visit me!  My first visitor in Japan.  I received a wonderful care package from my dear friend Rosa.  I also received a very touching card from my dear friend Ashley. 

Last week and this week has been super busy.  Some nights I stayed at work in the office until 9 or 10pm.  Tonight was the first night in one week to be home by 7pm!  Only because I had to come home and wait for my package to be delivered. If not I would have probably stayed until 8 or so. Oh my.... Working in Japan is a lot of work!   Especially, piloting a new program, teaching 6 different classes, working English speaking hours, grading, planning lessons, helping students... I may have mentioned this before.... Sorry, if I did. I guess I can't get over how much work there is to do and always more to do and even more added to that!  haha...

My package from Rosa.

My card from Ashley.

Saud & I. <3 

Golden Week

It is the last night of the holiday vacation.

Golden Week started last week with the Emperor's birthday. Yesterday was Children's Day and Boy's Day. So many festivities for this holiday. Many students went home. Some stayed around. I was fortunate to have my first visitor.

The English Plaza is about ready to open up next week. It will be a grand event. We went in to work on Thursday to get photos taken with the chancellor and for the ceremony of the plaza being finished. It was a nice small event.

This week we have four days of classes! Another short week, and then we have about three weeks until we venture off to Oregon. Oh my! Here we go...

1 month in Japan!

One month ago I arrived in Japan not sure of what will happen... Now that I have been here for one month, I think that 2 years will go by fast.

I arrived full of excitement and eagerness... I was preparing for this for about one year in Salem. I worked at TIUA with students from TIU, and it was a great experience. I truly value the study abroad experience because it had such a big impact on me. When I first studied and traveled outside the US in 2007, I had a new outlook on life.

I look at my students now, and I really enjoy teaching and getting to know them. I encourage them to try to do some kind of study abroad experience. I also get to meet with students that I taught and met with in Salem, because they are now back at school in Japan.

I am truly lucky for all that I have and get to learn and experience. Happy Friday!

First FULL Week of Classes... DONE.

This past week was filled with smiles, laughs, frustrations, restless nights lesson planning, anxiety, joy, surprises, tears, and hugs.

So much has happened that I'm not sure where to begin...
Monday: 3 classes.
Tuesday: 3 classes.
Wednesday: 2 classes + English Plaza, Lunch Meeting
Thursday: 2 classes + English Plaza
Friday: 2 classes + English Plaza, Lunch Meeting

On top of that I had my students schedule time to meet with me one-on-one just to chat about classes, family, hobbies, music, and goals after TIU. It was some of the best moments of this week... I get to see my students in class, but we are covering material and they are talking with classmates. I get to check-in sometimes in the beginning or after class, depending on time. It reminded me of why I am a teacher. Not for me, but for the students. I really enjoy spending time with them and talking to them about where they are from and what they want to do with their lives. {inspiration}

I received a surprise package from my sister. It was filled with yummy treats and goodies. I love oatmeal, and she sent me some! It is a wonderful surprise. Another surprise is that I will have my first visitor next week. Yes, my partner is going to fly 12 hours to visit me in Japan for 10 days. :) {motivation}

Amongst the stress and 12 hour days and working on the weekend and grading papers at home... I have a lot of positive things going on, and I need to keep those close to my heart.

Terrific Tuesday!

Playing karuta with English vocabulary words.

Happy Tuesday! I kept thinking in my mind that it was Wednesday... haha. Not quite...

Yesterday and today I kicked off the use of the textbooks with my students. It can be painful at times, but overall I think they were able to get into it.  I teach three 90-minute classes on Tuesdays. It's quite a fun marathon of teaching that I get to do!! It starts off at 9:10 and then I finish at 2:40.  Plus, I get a quick moment to eat lunch before the next class begins.

Writing about a picture.

 Today was the first day of writing with.  I had different cards with pictures on them laying face down on the desks.  The students each sat  at a different table and were given some time to write about the photo. They wrote about 3 different photos. It is interesting to see the various stories that the students came up with.

I am very much enjoying my classes and my students. Prep time is what eats up my days... I have been pushing 12 hour days these past two days. I hope I get to go home sooner next week as I get in the swing of things.

First Day of School, First Day of School, First Day of School!

Today was the first day of Spring classes. It was a lot of fun to meet the students today and start classes. I am happy to finally be here and do what I was hired for... To teach. It feels right.

Today I taught English Comprehension for two different class levels. I did similar activities in the classes, and with different approaches. It was interesting to observe the differences between the classes from the activities. The pictures are from today's classes. We played a variation of the game "Spoons." I used pens instead. I had sentences printed and glued on some cards, and students had to find a matching pair. As the students understood the game better after a few tries, they were really getting into it.

Yes, I did assign homework on the first day. Not everyone had their textbooks, and we will start it on Tuesday. I assigned vocabulary words from an article for one class, and the other class gets to choose five words they do no know from the books they started reading today. Now we'll find out if they do it by Tuesday's class!