I have to admit that this blog is a week or two old, but it was true then and nothing much has changed... so here it is.

Well, another week over.. this one has gone a bit slower than most.  Our third year students (Year 9 equivalent) are in their final few weeks of junior high school and are basically just preparing for entrance exams to get into senior high school, so I haven't had many classes with them.  

I think I've had on average about 3 classes a day.  

It has been very cold and rather wet (no snow this week!).  One of the disadvantages of wearing inside shoes at school is that I'm forever putting on cold shoes!  Shoes are kept in lockers in the front foyer - with the door open.  My shoes have been freezing!  No sooner do they become warm than I have to swap them for the cold pair!  

I have applied to do a Certificate of Education in Special Education, distance education through Flinders University.  I don't know whether I've been accepted or not yet, but that's the plan for my spare time at school.    

I've often toyed with the idea of doing special education and my time here has reinforced some of those ideas.  At both schools I am involved with students who have disabilities and/or learning difficulties.  I'm often surprised by the patience I have for students who are struggling.  I'm also been surprised that students have been willing to work with me even though it must be a bit scary for them to learn from someone who doesn't really speak their language.  I love seeing even very small improvements or an increase of their interest.  

Did I mention that I don't like the mayonnaise here?  I'm forever scraping it off sandwiches!!  (Eating lunch while writing this).

This week has been rather intense for the teachers (with lots of students sick, students smoking and running away to name a few) and I feel rather like I did at my first job - not really knowing what's going on..  It's been difficult knowing what to do in these situations.  At at the end of the day thinking that perhaps it's easier for the teachers to just let me do my own thing at those times.  That me helping isn't really much help at all.   

With that in mind I organised a Japanese tutor to really get my Japanese better.  While I've improved while living here (mostly listening) I'm still not very good and I think getting a tutor will be the best way to improve this.  First lesson is not for a fortnight (as fits around life..) but I'm looking forward to it.  One of my biggest problems with learning Japanese, is that their teaching isn't very flexible and they want to give me all the situations I can and can't use what they've taught me.  And yet, in real life they don't talk like that anyway!  So, hopefully this teacher will be more flexible... one can only try.