Sometimes fate throws you a bone

So my schedule got changed again today, my first junior high class got moved from Tuesday to Friday. The same day as my level 9 class. Unfortunately the two classes clash for a 1/2 hour and as Amy and I take both of them that is a big problem. The solution I have my JH class for an hour and my level 9 class for only 1/2 an hour. While Amy does a 1.5 hours slog with the level 9ers and then goes on to JH. Wahoo.

Today in my level 9 class I caught the kids passing around a note. It was mostly in Chinese so I wasn't able to read it but there was the name of the former teacher on it and by the reaction I got when I took it off the kids it wasn't a very nice note. I told them to behave or I'd show it to Amy. That shut them up. I'm curious what it said but at the end of the class I gave it back to the kids with a short lecture about respecting people whether they are here or not. I felt very official doing it.

My one on one with Rory got delayed as he wasn't around when we were meant to have the lesson but he showed up eventually and all was good. He's a good kid and quite bright. I know his dad was spying on us, I caught him a couple of times when we were doing role plays which involved one of us going outside the door.

As a teacher I do some very unorthadox stuff and I'm pretty sure if the other teachers knew I'd at least get told to tone things down if not stop them all together. I figure if I can get the kids to use English I don't really care how it gets done. So I've introduced dodgeball and baseball and various other games into the classroom with quite some success. I've promised my second junior high kids we could work out some basketball thing next class. Still dunno how I'm gonna do it but it will get done.

My junior high classes are two classes I quite like despite the fact they are two of my biggest classes. I let them do their homework in my class for the first 20 or so minutes while the play an obligatory boring as hell dialog cd. This is something that would definately be frowned upon but the truth is the kids get a stupid amount of homework. I refuse to add to it and if I can help them lessen the amount they have to do at home I'm gonna.

To be honest while there are some things that still puzzle me about my job and my school I feel quite fortunate. I've heard horror stories about the treatment of some foreign teachers and the truth is while I'm not best friends with the teachers I work with I do respect them as teachers and as people and I get along with them no problem. I rarely get critism and when I do it is very gentle and constructive which I appreciate the most. I know there are still many things I need to learn as a teacher but hopefully they will come with time and experience and a hell of a lot of trial and error!