Elementary School

I had a strange dream, I think it was on Sunday night, in which my dad died. For some reason, this dream continues to echo in my subconscious even three days later so that whenever I think of my dad, I have to remind myself that he’s not actually dead.

My first elementary school classes happened yesterday. In general I was quite excited about it. When I visited the school two weeks ago, the principal was very nice, there was a teacher there that I had met previously who waved excitedly at me, and the English specialist of that school was young and cute and seemed happy I was there. On my first day there, I had four classes—two with fifth graders, one with sixth graders and one with third graders. The two fifth grade classes went very well. The first class’s teacher seems like fun but also well-disciplined, and the students seem interested in English. The second class, which was the English specialist’s class, also went well but the students were shy.

I ate lunch with a very quiet fourth grade class. I really enjoyed the fourth graders in Kikyo, so I’m hoping that this class will warm up to me quickly. After lunch I taught a sixth grade class. The teacher was very good, but I felt like I didn’t do things exactly the way he had planned and it ended up being a bit problematic for him. So next time I’ll try harder to do exactly what he tells me. The sixth graders were very nice, but there’s only one class in the whole school so it is the largest. After the sixth graders I taught a class of third graders. I had been given a lesson plan, but it was sparse, and I didn’t get a chance to meet with the homeroom teacher, so I was kind of flying in the dark. She asked me to read a picture book that I had never seen, and I felt like I didn’t do a great job. But the children were very cute and energetic (maybe even more so than at Kikyo) and the teacher was very nice but also managed to keep order.

I cycled both to and from this elementary school. Distance-wise it’s the same as going to the junior high school. However, there is a valley in between the school and the main highway, so I have to go down and back up. Also, there is a length of road without a sidewalk. In the end it takes close to 25 minutes to make the full trip, as opposed to 15 minutes for the junior high school, and I’m much more tired. So, I may end up taking the car most of the time when I go to Seba, especially in the summer.

After school I went climbing. I completed a cool red-level problem (red triangle on the Alps wall) on the second time I tried it. It felt really good.