Work Troubles

I haven’t written much for the past few days even though I have felt better. Mainly I haven’t done much worth writing about. Wednesday I managed to practice violin a little bit longer, and Thursday I spent a good amount of time studying Japanese. On the other hand, yesterday I spent a little too long yesterday playing games (some Factorio but also Sudoku), and I woke up before 5 this morning and played more then. Now I’m feeling lethargic and unmotivated, and I’m not too happy about my current job either.

The elementary school is great. My co-teacher there always provides lesson plans and meets with homeroom teachers, including me when possible, but she also doesn’t take up all of my time. The homeroom teachers are all kind, and mostly nice to teach with too.

It’s the junior high school that I feel bad about. The head of the English department there is great, and I enjoy teaching with her. She makes reasonable requests and I feel that she uses me effectively in the classroom.

The other teachers are more difficult. The youngest teacher has some really good ideas so I like his classes, but I get the feeling that he doesn’t like having me in the classroom. He frequently cancels our lessons, and he’s not very personable. I can only remember having one conversation with him that wasn’t immediately related to class. I think my introductory slideshow impressed him, but after that he asked me to make a slideshow for him, and I think it didn’t turn out very well. Since then he has only had me come to class a handful of times, doing as little as possible.

The third teacher is new to the school, and I only have one regular class with her plus occasional classes with the special needs classes. The regular class is a bit painful because her teaching style is very Japanese-based (even though she gives a lot of English instruction). The worst part is that she frequently asks me questions without having prepared me. I’m getting used to this though. In the larger special class, there are many students and her expectations are beyond my comprehension, which frustrates us both. Furthermore, she makes frequent requests that are sometimes vague or sometimes (I feel) unreasonable. She’s generally nice, but sometimes the way she interacts with me gives me the feeling that she sees me as an unmotivated student rather than a co-worker and co-teacher.

Only one of the other teachers even talk to me, so it's pretty lonely.