It's probably not a good thing that, in so many cultures, teachers are always given a hard time. Dealing with kids - no matter what age - is not easy, even if you enjoy it. Japanese teachers work very long, very hard hours - just like American teachers! They probably don't get paid very well either.
I actually have a few students who teach English, which is why they are taking lessons from me, to improve their skills. They're terrible at keeping up with homework because, of course, they have plenty of work to do at home already. I usually don't assign much homework unless individuals request it, and my teachers are often the ones that look at me with pleading "please, don't ask me to do this!" eyes because they feel bad if they don't do the work.
Last week started off with a national "labor" holiday, which gave schools two days off to make a three-day school week. On Saturday, one of my teachers came in for her class, and I asked her how her week had been. "Hard!" she replied. "The long weekend was nice, but at work, it was a short week and very hard!"
When I was teaching in the States, I had a love/hate relationship with short weeks. On one hand, it was wonderful not to have to go to work. On the other hand, they were always the roughest weeks ever. It feels like the kids take all that energy and punkishness and save it to spend during the days that they ARE in school, thus doubling the amount of trouble they get into. I usually felt like I needed another three-day weekend just to make up for the four-day school week.
So, I replied, "Yeah, I always hated short weeks too."
And thus, we had a nice little chat about teaching in the public school system. At least she enjoys it more than I did. But she's a pretty awesome lady - about my age and one of my higher-level students. She never seems to mind when I start off on one of my tangents about where English comes from (our current unit is about learning new languages and how language is developed), and she's very good at trying to figure out definitions by analyzing a word's parts. She's one of those students that makes class more fun than just work.
Also on the subject of teaching and related duties, I was considering that this is my seventh week in Japan and thinking, "hmm, I'm surprised I haven't been contacted by anyone to set up an observation or a check-in or something." And thus, I am proved psychic, because today I got a phone call from our region office informing me that I will be observed tomorrow. "Just wanted to let you know so you aren't surprised when I show up!" he said. Uh, yeah, could I request more than 24 hours notice next time? Yeesh.
Not that I consider this a problem, because while Friday is my busiest day, it's also my least varied. I have three kids' classes and three Sprint 7 classes, and he'll only get to observe half of them because he'll have to leave early to catch his train. It's Kids Challenge week, which means that the kids will be taking their tests and not getting an actual lesson. (and that's a posting all in itself, because boy, do these guys take their tests seriously) So, I can't think that there will be much to observe. My first Sprint class is a one-person class, and she's a real sweetheart and very quick to learn. All I have to do is remember to follow the Sprint outline that was hammered into us at training.
Gee, that sounds familiar. It's the dog and pony show all over again. Not that I expected anything else, because this is teaching, after all, and teaching is all about showing off the dog and pony. Here's hoping that I know how to make it look good. At least this time I won't be worrying about keeping the kids in line . . . that was also three-quarters of the battle to begin with.
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