A bear is going on a child hunt!

Chief says, and TV news confirms, there's a bear on the loose over in the river. Interesting morning for some bent old lady with an allotment in the riverbed?!

Same old kick about, Napoleon being a dick. The tall rangy mum interests me greatly; speaks English I think & has a brood of older kids. Cheerful chops gave a good nod & smile.

T'is Hallowe'en & a blessed early finish. Tons to do at work - examiner-related mostly.

Teacher Assistant Pro - bought it, but can I use it more than once?

Gave up on footy as Napoleon was being a ball-greedy twat again. Think he maybe noticed I didn't bother trying when he didn't pass or just robbed the other kids to set up a shot for himself.

Nowt doing as Madge's lot made their junk lot cars; taking registration off iPad with Teacher Assistant Pro the highlight. Sat on T to modify his behavior; worked. Stuffed pepper (chalk flavour) for lunch & hour + meeting with iLeader. Dec & Jan pretty much written off Jim Time, and seems she has been anointed chief of staff.

Running around outside, nothing new, waiting for day to end.

November's plan delivered - to me. Think it really ought to be the other way around.

Need Santa Dec 24, about an hour from 10am. Not the easiest day to find a willing lad/dad.

Gruffalo plan tossed. 15-second attention spans claimed, especially as all in English > was actually an issue last year? Don't think so...you could write the entire script in 90 seconds... Wallace & Gromitt a massive success previously, and I guarantee the Gruffalo is magical from our own pre-school experience. But, what do I know?

Shop for games & cards, large books (themed to seasons or series they know)?
Also potato pals would be great.

Dec/Jan Jim Time discarded crassly, so will be waiting for 5 min filling-in drill bollocks again.

Inspiring myself & conjuring games

Big job this am anchoring the pumpkin pull with birthday kids. Go Away Ghoulie Goblin sung out of context but a very loud "go away" at least.

Spent hours last night doing admin for exams which is obviously redundant, and does not impact my mood positively.

Sitting @ back of hall being completely bored & frustrated, especially as they expect an entire month planned & timed & translated by tomorrow. Lunch upstairs methinks?

Lunch thinking time = plans 1/2 made. IMHO bloody well done me.

In class, dreamed up very big tummy ache game. 6 groups by table, one large A3x2 sheet. Items on large (A4) card, not see-through, holes at top to hang off magnetic hook. Turns, in group to come & fetch, Jim asks each card what is it? & do you like? T helps keep tables in order.

• Play game + teachers before?!

Violent Femmes

With Bacardi in Legs11's class; like her a lot & her style but not as bouncy and in control of micro behavior. Does do things differently, especially praise. Obviously uses music more & has found scores for How's the Weather, and today's Ghoulie Ghost - this last edition of Jim Time was shite. I got hit a couple of times not playfully (after a fairly violent lunch). Go Away became flying kicks & punches, power slides & grabbing. Not in the mood on a Friday arvo.

Allied to this is feeling huge and having a really painful knee all week. Constant & fairly intense.

An appointment certifying one of our YLE examiners after classes.
All day Saturday to look forward to as well, workshop & Rei too. Work appointment after classes, meeting a publisher's rep for dinner & drinks. Get her talking about herself, give her some gossip, and enjoy the food (Doma Doma).

Mug shots, milk cartons and my bum

Today with pink but no painting, instead decorating cups to stick their mug shots on. Not for me to join in really, but tried to look busy. Finished lunch quickly, got Boss to help me set up iPad to projector. Took a bit of fiddling (half an hour) as he is hungover as usual, and has no clue what teachers are talking about, but final result is very clear, any app.

Blue lot  making houses from milk cartons. Again, nothing to do but get bum groped & bored witless. Apparently a double whammy Jim Time required at end blue & pink - not in the schedule either.

Where are my materials?

Situation normal - all messed up - pink instead of red class, owing to mums all coming to watch red. Not on the schedule? Think it was. Whither Jim?

Minnie cool with the change & used me/English nicely. Read Kipper story off iPad at end of day & got them very worked up. Success. Does this help sell the iPad idea? Doubt it...

Wearing my favourite England rugby shirt, did not want to get covered in pink paint - looks like another cardboard box robot on the go?

Afternoon shift with Madge,  & not my original LP as they'd equipped, but a repeat of the Go Away Ghoulie Ghost lesson. Had to hunt down materials upstairs because iLeader is off today (another reason I hate relying on other people to prep my stuff) off, & concertina 50 mins into 35. 4 corners for 4 groups of monsters/spiders etc works best.

Apps and stuff which I would like to use

These actually my notes for something else I am doing today in Tokyo, but are very relevant hence the share. Back in my corner next week :)

For YLE storytelling >

 Puppet Show demo and try it with one set of pics?

RB sentences - run video.

Voice thread 

Phonics Farm - first sounds

Spell animals

Spelling monster - play various first, then show make lists option

Super Simple on YouTube > Halloween stuff

Go to YLE folder... 

Futaba

Chatterkids

Write about

Puppet Pals 2 tutorial

Shake a phrase - quiz me, story starter

So much for the lesson plan, again!

Fed up with point-blank shooting 'practice' in the yard, when they're hitting the little kids in the head etc and risking injury to me too (important!) as there are usually three balls on the go.

Jim Time this am with middle-aged crew - so 36 or so chirpy tots; started early with Bacardi, who at 11 (end time) said "It's ok, keep going til twenty past or half past". Love her to bits but fuck me, just knocked out 30 minutes at full-speed to match "must submit" plan.

Drew crayon faces onto painted plates (angry face), contrasting colors); taped on a clump of hair (pre-cut & tied thank you iLeader,) then noses. Told by iLeader to join in with crayoning while trying to write up these notes :( I do not need your micro-management. After all, had no lunchtime time as I was registering 90 library books. Consider context before elbowing-in with direction?

Read "Hairy Scary Monster" on iPad with Bacardi holding 

(oh for a screen?!)

kids found mini monsters (which giggle when touched) as I got into it. 

Actually surprised how much they liked it :)

Double standards - we've changed...

So all the fuss about today's big Jim time kind of fucked in the arse last minute, as none of the kids here - gone walkers en masse & I'm rearranged to the pm, if you don't mind?

However, can sit back & enjoy looking at Bacardi running a class on her own. Start with several nice songs & request I sing up my x2 songs as well.  Nice twist to registration = got the monitors to call out names. Made flowers with tissue paper, pipe cleaner & paper cups. Jim on cellotape duty; another notch on the CV.

Fried mackerel & for once no cucumber salad.

Made x4 sets of cut-outs for "Hello my Friends (trick or treating)" song for each class, then into Jim Time. Too noisy for me following coloring/cutting instructions (Choriso much better at this), but done & stapled to head bands (thank you iLeader x60; I hate other people doing my prep though). In hall 1st run through did not work well - half sat "go away", other half turning headbands around to go away. Version 2 much better, in groups, creeping towards others....natural "go away" needed! Music on hall PA much better, & Choriso a big help & supportive when I needed her feedback about tweaking the interactions.

Teacher on teacher, we speak the same language.

Halloween theme & burst lesson plans

Last Friday was going to be productive only it wasn't; about to nail down decent prep for next week & craft the much required lesson plan etc. Instead, dragged out to tail-gun a second expedition to Nonomiya shrine. Interested to meet the the Russian lady again, especially as she now knew my name. Curious.

 Painted remainder of paper plates.

Today? Til one am repairing lesson plan for 16th (why all the fuss?) & then have to interpret bits for my wife as she translated it. FFS :(

10:20 Jim time returned. 

Used Super Simple Songs' downloadable f/cards

 pre-teach characters > gestures to Let's Go Trick or Treating couple of run throughs + CD = not a bad start. 

Crayon-on faces to painted paper plates eyebrows etc

 teacher sticking on hair/beard & silly fluffy nose. 

Ran 15 mins over, but not my fault; iLeader & Choriso wanted to

(and what does that imply about the point of a lesson plan & no flexibility?)

Oden lunch, ugh, and shucking dried corn. Typhoon again missed but my mum worried again from afar.

I'm sorry, I haven't got a clue

Blood Moon eclipse last night; Choriso asks for comments & gets a lot - clear sky = good view. Explains it nicely & sets class up to perform in front of all the grandparents in the hall.

Feedback yesterday = delivered, not discussed.

A) iOS limit to notes recording...

• I do limit to my inactive times when totally uninvolved & teacher clearly not about to ask me to do anything. Be assured I'm usually finding ideas/apps/stories to match what they are doing/I think they'll be doing next - ie I'm always catching up & being caught on the hop with 'do you know this song?' or 'do you have something to illustrate this topic?' Would use iOS device with projector, but requires someone less tech savvy but 'in charge' to set up - assuming they're available at an instant's notice. My idea is to buy projector leads & my own speakers (Bluetooth & powerful). Insist wifi access for YouTube etc...

B) a.m. greeting & home time = "serious time"...

• do not understand the problem. Any case, every day different by previous activity, time pressure on HR teacher, mood of the day, and the teacher herself. Some involve me lot (Minnie, iLeader used to, Choriso), some dump me in it (Allan), some use me when they can (Madge, Legs11), and Fski has no idea what to do with me/tries to pretend I'm not there. Pinch of salt required with this.

C) lunchtime "join in" ... 

• This is #1 horrendous time for me, as is utterly unstructured. Solution I think = my table in a corner (1st table free?) & board games - their new stock eg alphabet squares, tummy ache...

Bumped into a Russian mum while we were wandering around a park nearby, apparently an English teacher.

We have a plan...it all makes perfect sense!

October scheme.

• No schedule am = 10-15 mins Halloween hello, same idea goodbye time when no schedule. 
• Oct 28 = do some performance to fit birthday day
• Long days no schedule 5-10 mins Halloween vocabulary on demand & 5-10 sayonara minutes. Halloween story book (I'm thinking app as we don't have much up that street at the office) instead of their reader.
• Oct 15,17,28 ,30 = longer goodbye time - song + some teaching, eg vocab via f/cards
• 5 Jim times = 30 minutes a pop
• 18th = skeleton/dem bones song
• Hello trick /treat song

• 14/17 use same LP 
• 16 = all 60 in hall, practice the dances & something else
• 21/24 = same LP Halloween theme, same LP twice
• No Jim time before 14th, just music.
• Give iLeader heads up before big Jim Time for her to help out
• Music onto memory stick? Can they manage that?
• 31st half day
• Oct 7 paint the base plates in the hall
• 14 & 17 = activity time = crayon on the face. See p398  - eyebrows, eyeliner, bags under eyes, scar, mouth + half teeth, glue on fluffy nose. iLeader etc will do hair & strap
• Bring my mask & pumpkin pics ; use American pre-school stuff
• Start with trick or treat song, then intro culture (as above)
• Give the painting etc 15-20 mins ft
• 16th, hall with 60 ~ dream up a dance to dem bones & 2 teachers dressed up in skeleton t-shirts & activity to fill up 30 mins. iLeader needs plan by 10th (absent on 16th)
• 21 & 24 older lot, 30 mins something different wrt Halloween
• Oct 18th 9-12 dads' open day; autumn/Halloween them. Join in with my son? Bit of showing off with songs.

Want a sodding plan for home time bollocks, 17,28, 30, 31 (extended so book or s/thg) - as if that is ever going to work. Always something else crops up or some mini-drama to attend. Am there, ready & set to go. Cannot write down the improvisation required! Daft.

Can I tell you a secret?

For what it is worth, today I made a formal note for myself to start searching for my own replacement here.

I do not think I can find an English housewife with nothing else to do - one without kid commitments but with teaching experience, free time for this much work but not needing more, a visa, already here in town, and willing to put up with eg Sports Day bollocks & no hard & fast curriculum, let alone schedule.

For the world of me, no way to dig up one of the above. I cannot use Facebook or my school would be a laughing stock - and we'd be gazumped. I cannot advertise a part-time job with these parameters, and I will not hand-off this precious job (yes, the money counts too) to any old unemployed Pom hanging around.

This job needs youthful vigour & enthusiasm, eagerness to join in - including learning the language like I don't - and have a go. This means someone relatively 'new', keen to please and not to concerned about their 'image'. Obviously someone who has not got the 'been there, done that' t-shirt which any ex-teaching mum would have. Doubt they'd ever listen to me, come to the school in their free-time to prepare or do anything without the meter running.

Also doubt the staff here, and certainly the peripheries, parents etc have any idea I actually leave here to go to my full-time job? Nor any comprehension what I do most weekends?

Just sharing - lest anyone think I can continue to do this for very much longer? I'm burning out, and podging-out with stress/inactivity/stress. Not about to make a hasty move...and while I'm sharing, Y totally disagrees as we are making a profit. Kind of kills off her other complaints about me never being finished early, never looking too cheerful, hard to wake up in the mornings, not doing housework.

Watch this space.

Blown away - stick this in your pipe

Domestic issue with my son and a breakfast disagreement has my mood carried into the day (as well as a bruised hand due the hole I punched in a wall) including the meeting with iLeader. Suddenly micro-managing lesson plans after wasting my time in August & September? Are you totally off your heads?

Could not write a more farcical requirement, given the utter shambles of a job I have been expected to try & do the last two months. Now we want to have everything written down in advance, with timings & materials translated a month in advance? Stroll on - as if your lot take ANY notice of what I share in terms of photos, recordings, material, feedback (giving up on Edmodo), ideas (ditto Google Drive), messages (Line/Messenger). Breath-taking chutzpah.

But lo, a little later, when my classroom role is uninfected with bloody sports day practice, aerobics for MTV, drumming for the deaf, a required lesson plan or anything specially prepared...

3 songs with the left-hand tiddlers

They sang totally without me

CD player set very low volume, me in front prompting

 Allan & K2 totally blown away!

And blown away why? Any chance the little bit of learning they do with me goes in better/deeper because of the way I make it work for them - and the fact they can do it, like doing it, do it again? 

To be totally honest, this minor miracle of memory from the 3/4 year-olds made me feel 20 feet tall, as we have not been able to do anything for weeks. Just imagine what an uninterrupted charge of English could have achieved? Could be doing Macbeth by now...

Hand still hurts, wall still has a hole in it. Pity any of the hierarchy or my wife couldn't have witnessed this either.