Pocky Day! 11/11

So apparently today is Pocky day in Japan, so Happy Pocky Day! If you don't believe me, just watch these commercials!

Why is it Pocky Day? Well, because it's 11/11, I guess it represents 5 Pocky sticks...You see it?! Yeah, I didn't know about it either until someone in one of my classes mentioned it! Unfortunately, I didn't have any Pocky to celebrate....:( Maybe next year. I guess it will be better next year because it will be 11/11/11, meaning there are 8 pocky sticks represented! This will be the most for the next 100 years until it becomes the year 2111! So I guess I'm not missing out on too much this year, haha.

Well, besides the Pocky Day fun, today was another day at the middle school. I had 3 classes in the morning and then was done for the day with class! Woohoo! But it still ended up being a pretty busy day. I finished up the classes, and then had 4th period free. During this time, I was creating lesson plans. I mentioned that earlier this week some student teachers were at our school to observe for this week. Well, next week I will be teaching with them and running class. So I spent 4th period looking online for lesson ideas and anything I could find that would help. Then during 5th and 6th period, I met with them to create the lessons and plan out what we would do for the classes.

Well, we finished that up and I was going to make some copies after school. I ran into the English teacher for the 1st and 3rd grade classes and showed him what I was going to make copies of. Then he pointed out that for the 3rd grade classes, what I was going to make a copy of was not exactly the grammar point that was going to be introduced for Monday...uh oh...

Well, good thing I didn't make copies of that worksheet otherwise it would have been a waste of at least 70 copies or so. Well, I'm glad that I ran into him, because we would have been teaching the wrong grammar point as well on Monday! I guess it pays off to plan ahead and not procrastinate! Well, I met with the student teacher again to point out the mistake and so we started planning again...almost from ground zero...:( But we finally came up with a plan and are pretty much good to go for Monday, I think.

Although planning out lessons and getting a class organized can be good, it's much harder than you may think! There are just some lessons or days that you cannot think of a good lesson plan! And on days when you're tired, it's nearly impossible to come up with any ideas or types of activities! So the student teacher and I were sitting there after school for awhile trying to come up with ideas and neither one of us could come up with much! Haha....well, we finally have something so hopefully it will work out alright. She seems nervous to start teaching on Monday, though. Since she is still a 4th year in college and hasn't taught in front of students yet, I can definitely understand how she would be nervous. Heck, I was even in those same shoes 3 months ago when I first got to Japan!

But I guess I've been up in front everyday for the past 2 months so I've been getting used to it.

On a different note, I love how easy it is to get cheap, fresh sashimi from the grocery in Japan! I got a pack of sashimi at a reduced price. In Japan, there is a large variety of freshly made food ranging from meat, rice, mixed vegetable or meat dishes, and sashimi/sushi. After a certain time, the grocery wants to get rid of the food because it will go bad. So that means that they put a massive discount on the items just so they can get them out the door faster. By massive I mean 30-50% off and meaning very cheap food. So I got a package of sashimi for dinner which I ate with wasabi, rice, and other vegetables and such. The package was cheap to begin with. It was only about 400 Yen (about 4-5 bucks). Well, it was on sale for 40% off which meant that it was reduced down to just over 200 Yen! For fresh sashimi that was really good, I can't complain! Gotta love it!

Well, it's not the first time that I got sushi from the grocery for that cheap but I just finished dinner....so it's fresh on my mind.

Anyway, back to lesson planning and getting ready for my day at elementary school tomorrow!