Weekly Logs Dec.9-15, 2019

Monday;

At the beginning of the small class in the morning, I asked them if they had already checked the class schedule of the second semester. Some said yes but they also said that they did not find my name there. I told them that I would not teach for them in 2^nd semester. As a native Japanese teacher, I am expected to teach students of Japanese major. So I said them that it was very rare for a Japanese teacher like me to teach students who were not Japanese major. After the class I went to the teachers’ room and corrected students’ drafts for the monthly newsletter. Since I was waiting for other teachers who had their lunch, I missed my lunch in the teachers’ restaurant. I was making PPT for listening class in the afternoon by 7:30p.m. I evaluated some compositions in the night.

Tuesday;

Once I ate my breakfast, I started corrections for drafts of monthly newsletter. I sent OK for the final draft to one of five students. And then I continued to work for PPT of the listening class. It was ended by 6:30p.m. It took 12 hours in total this week to complete PPT slides for 90 minutes class. As soon as I finished it, I started another PPT that was for composition class. I stopped working at 8 p.m.

Wednesday;

I taught two classes in the morning hours. Two hours in the afternoon were spent for newsletter thing. I sent OK to two students for their final drafts. I continued to work to make PPT for composition class on Thursday and Friday. At 9 p.m. I stopped working without finishing it.

Thursday;

Since the deadline was coming on Friday for the newsletter, I got up at 5:30 a.m. and sent corrections to two students in the morning. I needed to complete PPT in the morning hours, so I worked on it from 8 to noon. I taught in the listening class for the 1^st grade in the early afternoon and then in the composition class in the early evening. I regretted that I made students write short essays during the composition class. Writing takes time. So I usually make students write their compositions as homework. But this time I wanted to cover up my ill-preparedness by writing activity during class. It must have been boring but difficult task for the students to write an essay by analyzing a graph (bar charts). After the classes I got back my residence and tried reading and correcting as many as possible by 9 p.m. because I hadn’t finished evaluation of Friday class’s compositions that were homework assignment of two weeks ago.

Friday:

In the daytime I just evaluated compositions. I could finish by the class in the early evening.

Saturday and Sunday:

Of course I tried working, but I have been so exhausted by hard work. I have not taken any single holiday since the semester started. I wanted to evaluate 40 some compositions, to prepare for my small class, and to start PPT making in this weekend. But I have spent most of the time on the bed. I have taken several times of nap, but my headache remains.

I found that several compositions were written in Desu-masu style. This made me very sad. I have told them so many times to write their compositions in Da-dearu style. They just continue to ignore what I said. How can I make a caution for them? I was taught in the training course for Japanese teaching that a teacher was responsible for anything, everything. So I cannot blame them. Students don’t understand the importance of writing style in Japanese. It was my responsibility to tell them.

It was just like go and back between bed and computer in this weekend.