Surppriiise!

Haha...so today I started the morning at an elementary school and taught the 4 classes in the morning periods. The first two were the 3rd and 4th grade and so I did a major review of all the things we learned during the year and played games throughout the class. It was a fun time and I think they enjoyed it. Then I had the 6th grade class with whom I did a T/F game with questions related to America. Then we played BINGO with the correct answers. And for the 4th period I played games outside with the 5th grade class. This was tons of fun! We played a game that they would call "Cops and Robbers" and then we played soccer. After having run around for only about 10 minutes, I realized how out of shape that I was! I hadn't gone running for awhile now, but phewww! I was out of breath!! Haha....oh well, I guess it was good exercise for me and a sign that I need to get back into running and doing some form of exercise. It was a fun morning and I'm glad that the weather is finally turning nice again.

Then in the afternoon I headed over to the junior high school. I didn't have anything in particular to do, but I wanted to go over there just to catch up and make sure there wasn't anything I was missing before the graduation tomorrow. When I got to the school, all the students except for the 3rd graders were cleaning. But the 1st graders haven't come for a majority of the week because they are under house arrest for being sick...and they can't come to the graduation ceremony tomorrow! And so that means it was only the 2nd graders at school! Haha! Well, today was mainly the big day to prepare for the graduation ceremony. So I helped out where needed by putting up posters, moving stuff, setting up decorations, and goofing off with the students....hey, it was a fun time and I hadn't seen them for nearly a week, so it was good to catch up with them again. But one of the girls that is in the music club said, "Kent, we need you to play drums tomorrow!" which took me by surprise. I didn't quite know what she meant and I thought she was just joking. But in reality, I was needed to play the drums for the graduation ceremony tomorrow! Since the 1st graders can't come to the graduation ceremony tomorrow, there are a fair number of the music club members missing as well...including the drummer. About half of the music club members are missing so it's going to be a thinner sound than usual. But the music teacher also saw me not too much later and practically begged me to play! Haha, I was definitely going to regardless but they were all relieved that I was willing to play.

Well, I set up the drums and will be back at it again. I love playing the drums, so I have no problem and no issue with playing for tomorrow. I'm just glad that I am able to help out. I think that it is funny, though, that the ALT will be playing in the band tomorrow and that the school is not only using me for English, but for music! I played in the fall culture festival, at the elementary school graduation, and now the middle school graduation! They are really getting their money's worth from me! Haha!! Well, I guess I will be a part of the ceremony tomorrow but I'm not looking forward to saying goodbye to the kids. I had a lot of fun with them and wish them the best of luck. They are really good kids and I hope that at least a few of them will continue studying English and travel to an English speaking country someday to practice English or to visit.

Lastly, the preparations for the school graduation look very nice. I'm looking forward to seeing what the ceremony will be like...and just hope...that I won't shed tears.....:(

Apparently in Japanese ceremonies, everybody is very serious and dramatic....especially about the crying part. They say even the toughest male teachers burst out into tears. So we will see what that is all about!!