If Ever I Needed A Crooked Mexican Doctor...

...it would be now, when I'm having elementary school after elementary school shoved into my already full schedule and I need a prescription for, I don't know, some uppers that are illegal in 48 states and Puerto Rico.

"Uppers"...geez, do they even say that anymore? Oh those kooky kids and their newfangled words. Can't we just name drugs after, I don't know, dead European royalty? Like, I can go down to my neighborhood dealer and slyly ask him for an ounce of "Ferdinand" or some "Igor" or some crap like that.

Where was I? Right, little embryonic kids and their energy-sucking powers. So Japan passed some educational legislation recently extending the English curriculum to include 5th and 6th grade elementary students, but without sufficient resources to cover more teachers, or exactly what the parameters of the new lessons will be, or where the new classes will fit in the daily schedules. So here and, from what I hear, in Hita it's pretty much up to the ALTs to do the government's job and develop the program. I don't feel I'm developing much of anything though. For one thing, of the four schools I'm doing more and more frequent classes at each has a different demand for what I teach. They vary between conducting proper classes with handouts and stuff to just playing games with kids for an hour or two. Secondly and most of all...I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO TRAINING OR KNOWLEDGE IN HOW TO DEVELOP A CURRICULUM!

So I'm going out of my brain stressing over whether or not I'm going to teach the right things each outing and the kids view me as a big, moving playtoy to climb on or chase or take things from. Playing tag and all is fun, sure, but I'm so exhausted doing JHS classes in the morning and playing at elementary schools in the afternoons.

Funny thing happened on Thursday though after I conducted a couple of classes at Ota Elementary. Many neighborhoods have PA systems to alert of local accidents or disasters and whatnot, and the keepers of the speaker controls rests with the nearby community hall, fire department and school. So while driving away from school the vice principal comes on the speaker and from all directions for kilometers around I hear "Matt-sensei is leaving the our school. Let's all thank Matt-sensei for his hard work." It's gratifying to know that I rank up there in importance with earthquakes and house fires to warrant use of the neighborhood speaker system.

--Matt