My Job ...

After three months, I finally feel as though I finally have a handle on what exactly my job is. My first few weeks were very confusing with a lot of schedule changes, inconsistent days, flip flopped lesson, and meeting literally hundreds ｏｆ Japanese people that I could not keep straight. The first month I didn't usually know where I was going until I ｗａｓ already there and once I finally figured out where I was going I was attempting to memorize names and recall familiar faces. Finally, I feel as though I know what I'm doing, what I want to do, and what is expected of me.

Basically I work at five nursery schools (ages birth through five) and once a week I go to the local university to give lessons.　I give English lessons to groups of children that are four or five years old and private English lessons to children of various ages (6-19. I also work with groups of classroom teachers, head teachers, principals, and professors.

My weekly schedule looks like so:

Monday:
Futuba Nursery School
2 Children Lessons (4 year old children)
2 Private Lessons (Children ages 6-17)

Tuesday:
Tomiyama Nursery School

2 Children Lessons (4 year old children)
Chogukuen University
1 Professor Lesson

Wednesday:
Kanada Nursery School
2 Children Lessons (5 year old children)
3 Teacher Lessons
Chitose Nursery School
2 Children Lessons (first and second grade children)

Thursday:
Chitose Nursery School
2 Children Lessons (5 year old children)
1 Teacher Lesson
Joto Nursery School
1 Teacher Lesson
1 Principal Lesson
1 Private Lesson (9 year old child)

Firday:
Chitose Nursery School
2 Children Lesson (5 year old children)
3 Teacher Lessons
1 Children Lesson (third grade children)

For a grand total of 26 lessons a week.

Got all of that? Can you understand as to why I was confused for the first month? I still get confused when there are schedule changes or lesson times switch, but I'm getting better.

I only see the children once a week, which can be frustrating. I feel like the old art or music teacher in elementary school that worked off of a cart and came in once a week to do a thirty minute activity. Only I work out of a bag. It's definitely a big change from having my own model classroom and my own office.

There are still things that I struggle with from time to time but now I know who to address my questions to, what concerns are safe to discuss, who's up for a good joke, and how to work the copy machine. :) Things are good.

much love
-tara-
xoxo