Fifty - not out. Too old for this?

Choriso brought a little choir to sing at me & iLeader interviewed me. Nice!

Barn Owl booted a football up a mum's bum...hilarious, but then bizarrely then tried to rub it better!
I'd have been arrested for that!

Jim Time = "How's the Weather" building a roller. Stealing coffee & soft drink cans from the bins. Not as planned but process a success. I think.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock

Early departure for the clock museum. Strikingly attractive waif there as guide, excuse me, spoke some English too. Must go back & say hello properly.

Introduced my student (owns the restaurant next door) to Minnie. Too much bowing & high pitched platitudes.

High speed lunch, prepped Jim Time for next Tuesday which Sarong warned me about - otherwise would have been a disaster!

Corridor conflict with Yuki as usual, including another punch to the nuts. Blindsided and arms restrained by dangling others, I lost big time. This has got to stop.

To Luna where the Chinese torture continued....

At the back of the room

Tanjobi -Kai (birthday day) & some hot mums. Naughty me?

Decided I don't like the fake that is Barn Owl. Given her the benefit of the doubt (I got Choriso very wrong) but the jury is in. Nope.

Boss wearing really inappropriate shirt "The Front of Armament". What the hell? He'd get lynched for that elsewhere, especially US  & their tidal wave of school massacres. Really think very poor leadership being demonstrated (and for now we are only talking about clothing).

Disengaged all day really - rooms too full/teachers with a game plan. Lunch = got "How's the weather ?" finished. But crap I think.

The afternoon - Barn Owl athletics in the hall, avoided by helping super-slow girl in green class finish her lunch (was left on her own in the room - wouldn't like that myself).

Cranky, cheeky, boy in yellow class occupied the rest of my time in between The Fink Yuki biting me in the fucking groin. Jesus. Never, ever, ever, have I experienced that before. Even in New York. How the hell do you react to that?!

So much for the lesson plan - no furniture

Lesson plan all messed up :(

Planned to use chairs & tables for Jim Time, but lo there are none. Fuck! Sitting here getting pointed at trying to adjust on the hoof. Fuckitty fuck!

Roaring success! 

Bingo to "I see something blue/pink"

 colouring shapes asking 

'Jim Sensei, Jim Sensei, What colour?' 

Lots of review/production

Boss again impressed to bits (as with Brown Bear last week) in passing. But that is all he does. Has no concept of the lesson/objective/outcome - a snap look at the theatre only. Would feature in any actual feedback, hat tip in a blog posting or like etc to our FB page. Think not.

Funky mum announced herself an FB fan, by way of passing at home time. If only I could put kanji to kids' first names to inanimate profile pics...connecting the 'friends of' trail rather hard.

Mobile success

Open day for older kids' mums, and realised all the talent in blue class!

Minnie did a sterling job making simple, dangly mobiles with buddy pictures & stuff. Mums joined in, many babes in arms. Hikari's mum & twins' mum stood out.

Child assesses my infractions!

Water-bucket relay, getting pissed off with usual suspects (Yuki, Hikaru, smug face, bad little one, Manato). Tie stamping a new diversion. (Re-reading my notes, I am not sure what I mean either!)

Chikuwa & carrots for lunch, escaped green class to make something from Hungry Caterpillar. Days & numbers/fruit? Needed the time to sit & think about it, formulate a lesson plan as I was making the bits & pieces. This will work; that's stupid; that will take too long I should do it myself; the size is wrong; the font is wrong; there aren't enough components (need to divide by 32) etc.

Excursion to the fire brigade, same lot as above being shits. Guess the brigade will be busy tomorrow with typhoon damage? Fresh & breezy this afternoon. Job again to make sure nobody runs into a moving big red truck, gets their head stuck in a fireman's wellie or finds too much fascinating gravel.

Yuki bounced off me three times in succession in the corridor....
Strike One: a full on head charge saw him bounce into the shoe boxes.
Strike Two: a ramming assault = stood on the front of his shoe, landed on his bum a bit too hard.
Strike Three: punched me in the legs until he hurt his hand.
Funny thing was, he did an actual recount (like a referee justifying a yellow card) in the corridor pointing out where my offences had taken place. Wandered off to consider other options (such as behaving?).

A pair of twin engine passenger jets flying towards Nagoya this morning, line astern but relatively low. Very strange and something I have never seen before. Did not show up on FlightRadar24...

Orchard Toys to the rescue

Orchard Toys games box arrived. YAY!

Tested Brown Bear story-order lesson plan with Choriso's class - needed a lot of help from her, which she is capable of doing as she has teaching/classroom sense - and she watches me/trusts me that I have a proper game plan (just need the L1 support).

Still very chesty.

Little Azusa helped cry baby Sa-chan out massively today, drawing mum/dad. Satori just gave her a hug & peck on cheek, threw fist at K-nob sitting next to her - good judgement! Sarong not very good at any kind of classroom management - macro or micro.

'Hamburg' lunch, which I dodged out of quickly to appraise games, photograph the assets & stick the rules onto the boxes.

K-nob has the horn for Sarong's ass. She pushes on with weak voice & poor explanations over background noise & fidgeting, misbehavior etc. At this rate, will be an unruly mob by July, & awful later.  One or two miscreants will not be picked out & the meek ones will get trampled.

UK Election Day - Tory (insert the worst swear word you can think of here) forecast to win.

Welcome back - already?

Not much of a holiday - basically only Tuesday off.

Chest rattling like a kid's toy; drowsy as Choriso takes roll call. Nodding off all morning actually - feeling ill & meds combo (plus lack of stimulation?).

Today's assembly in the hall dreary as well. Not Encho's best. Choriso is genki, Sarong unnoticeable even when she's at the front.

Horrible lunch; butt end of a cabbage, gooey fish (tuna?) chunks, miso soup & whatever unidentifiable other offering delivered.

My UK election dream result = booted the Tories out, a hung parliament with a Scottish PM. That would be funny, and counter-intuitively, good for the union, which I think is vitally important.

May Day - I need a double lung transplant?

My chest is gurgling like a busted water pump, despite 12 hours kip overnight - conking out during dinner in my front room last night not a very common occurrence.

Brazilian Steve's mum hung around in the yard & wouldn't leave this morning, catching iLeader's beady eye & Encho's concern. Not sure what the story was with that. An individual mummy with a concerted football theme. Watch this space?

Coughing & wheezing, meds onboard & still sleepy. Hope there's an early finish like yesterday?

Squeaky voice & mixed tempo Barn Owl class, sticking bits onto koinobori, which I helped Choriso with yesterday at eye & tail steps.  

Have no rapport here in this class; she has her own slightly annoying way of doing things and not much in the way of connecting with me.

Emergency Exit

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Jim was unable to attend school today.

He got as far as Lawson's, and pebble-dashed their khazi - thanks for the conflicting meds (infection since March, not to be rid until bloody June!)

Did get to work, gingerly, just in time to wave goodbye to everyone. Last thing I really needed was an immediate u-turn to cycle another 5km on a torn ring!

This is not a love song

Not in a good mood this morning, & barmy Kotaro throwing things at me/his mate yelling at/buddy standing directly in front of me....trying very hard to restrain reflexes (not teachery ones).

Sarong does not have control of her groups. Older Jim Time lot not paying attention & compared to yesterday very poor. Would not be quiet/pay attention. Allowed to slouch (pet hate) or goof off in the corners. Not sure her dangling boss's son off her hip the best idea - in fact think that is the worst outcome of his tantrums/attention seeking.

Wasp alert - large bugger and clearly dangerous; but more interesting was Kento's knob, being exposed constantly, while his back to room. Going for a walk & whipping it out everywhere. Free play outside = totally different. I have no idea what the psychology of this would be, but would be fascinated to know!

Syouri needed me at lunch & piggy back/cuddle later - nearly fell asleep! Sarong doesn't set the pace, class all over her. A struggling starter, but I think the school dumped her in the deep end with the Boss's kid as public enemy number one.

Minnie helps save my bacon

Remembered Jim time at midnight; last night's quick plan, photocopied everything this morning and had to start 1020. Bit of a dash.

Minnie very helpful and very useful:did very basic 

"What's your name?" 

"Hello hello" 

"Everybody Up" to start.

"How are you?" song was a mistake

 to do the Janken race after all they want to do Janken. but that's pictures for Chickory in her new photographer role. 

Played animal match & set player order & no leaning/pushing policy. Worked fine. Challenged players to draw their own weird animal > Chatterkids app + What's your name song; 3 results

Reading BIG book version of "No David" - big success

Walking-tour tail-gunner

Green hell. 
Windy & chilly, but no rain at last.
Bike dripping wet so drove anyway.

Tail gunner for walking tour, back streets. Job = keeping the stragglers out of ditches/gardens/dogs, give a yell if a car is coming and try to think how I could possibly keep a conversation going with self-interested nippers holding hands at knee-height in a foreign language going for very much longer than I have achieved so far.

Don't touch the barbed wire fence...
Don't touch the lamp-post; how many dogs do you think have marked this spot on canine FourSquare?
Don't lick your hand after you just touched that wall/fence/plant/car/boy...
Don't walk on that flimsy grating...
Don't eat snot...especially somebody else's?
Don't scream...

Taking the chance to photo familiar things for Yuki, in the hope that a visual organizer might help. Not my job, but keen to see outcome - if any. Trying to think of workable format. Think playing cards & magnets? Choriso likes the idea.

Curry rice, Yuki now decided he would spit at me. Charming.

Planted flowers in the afternoon and generally enjoy myself - same same on course at my school later.

Fisting crayons, anyone?

Cherry blossom streaming off the trees today

Very tired sleep, drove again due rain. Noticing new things after Dot's highlights yesterday eg miscreant Kotaro in blue the only one fisting crayons; his picture is shite (immature & lacking any definition - despite being one of the biggest/oldest/gobbyest). One leftie, which I think Yuki is too. Think Dot's easel idea important too.

Barn Owl plays piano with wildly changing tempo & in different keys. Knows what she is doing (?) but is doing it differently. Started a song I don't know this morning & expected me to join in & carry it on...sat still & looked confused! What would you do, dear reader?

Dogs' heads origami not done step by step but left to do it once shown. Drawing around it very revealing of kids & group think - similarities by table. Teacher wrote students' brief descriptions of their pictures on the back & reads these to class. 30 of them, so kids still again. Very.

An expert visits and my early childhood development exposed

Self-regulation = self-esteem
Fidget toy or some kind of sensory tool
Visual schedule photos overcome lang reception skills lacking
Give him some control of that, move a magnetic thing over to "finished" box. All here is auditory input - so he can't tackle it?

Turning around = receptive
Staying out = doesn't know what is coming next. Give him control.

Oooooooiooooooooooo: not sure what this note means!

Use vertical surfaces to draw/cookout
Develop shoulders & wrist muscles, & tactile, multi-sensory & gives kids a template

Slack faces indicates low muscle tone & neandertaling up.

Xxxxxxxxxcxxx. Xxxxxxxxx
Dot's brief analysis a big insight for me wrt behaviour & management thereof.


Jim Time shrank to 20 mins with an 11am buzzer. Up up, Hello, walking & in the jungle = all go, fully active & tiring.

Quick lunch & tried to escape, hovering in hall. Yuki found me to count rocks, Choux Creme jealous.

Meeting iLeader the main focus = shopping tips for her trip to Waikiki & brief explanation above. Not sure it went in/passed muster?

A very demanding boy - my job?

In-class debut with Barn Owl hijacked by Yuki from the green class, who seems to behave "better" when sanction of not playing with me applied. Not doing a year of this, ffs. Patience very fucking thin.

Thursday morphed into Friday as well, being manhandled & for bonus points puked on by Yuki again. Shattered & at my wits-end by home time, with Choriso looking even worse. This included trying to keep a promise to Syouri (odd Yuri's little brother from last year). Essentially sitting next to him while he did nendo. Yesterday was nodding off next to Anri, a lovely girl, doing her coloring? Jesus on a bike, hypnotic.

The Rhapsody

Today included Barn Owl going weird like an evangelical nutter at Easter - rapture or something as she expected me to perform like a clown at the drop of a hat. Oh, Jim = instant Jim Time?

No, you may not have me jump through that little hoop.

New Faces

Debut with Sarong in her class, & very underwhelmed. Colour by numbers with a weak voice & lack of personality; looks & sounds like she still has the old college playbook in mind & unable to react/interact with kids. Piano time = lack of participation > correction, just faded out.

Making hamburger papers as marker things - slow. The afternoon walk around the school & yard exploring rules, but with no authority or attention. Barn Owl looked fine, strange voice but audible; this one conveys no message - just copying bits other people have shown her. No flow.

Helter Skelter

This year's dummy-spitting performed by Syouri-kun, being looked after by Rambo. Madge hovering as Sarong assumes her room; smocks on, who am I sitting next to drill?

Barn Owl has a circle with introductions going on, & Choriso plows-in, piano blazing (already won the get ready in the hall prize). Minnie's debut nose bleed already tackled.

iLeader as Regimental Sergeant Major; the Boss greets assembly everyone & picks out names in each class sitting nicely. Teachers quick self-introduce themselves... Minnie won.

Tsutomi = middle lot, 5 teachers on deck today, so keeping out the way
Hana = older lot, Minnie taking the lead.

At first glance, Barn Owl has the miscreants, Sarong the armchair ride. Curious to see which of Allan's bad boys grow up.  Will Super Dry be a baby with Minnie ?(I think so).

Obviously so at lunch, found my level with Minnie. Kids testing parameters, establishing dominance. Revisit the useless nendo time, with MMA from some.

Rain cancels the walk around the block = request for 20 mins or so; quick plan for super easy intro, but even that had 50% conking out tired & sleepy. Long day for all (Minnie herself even yawning but says doing Ego Benkyo - English homework).

PANSIG coming together. Good.
Death up Luna street? Confirmed.
Angrily storming out of the house last night upset my daughter...almost as much as me.
Request to teach a part-time class at Epson - hilarious!

Thank you for all your input - and don't come to the graduation ceremony.

Last day on the job as an official part-timer.

Very angered to be UNinvited from graduation ceremony tomorrow, especially as was given the impression my attendance was so crucially important since last year. To be quietly dropped in Week 51 frankly stinks.

Won't have the opportunity to say goodbye properly today; expected to slink away quietly? Actually no, Choriso makes a point of telling kids today is final innings. Bless her.

Assembly anoints girl with 0 absences this year

Says goodbye to kids going to other cities & USA.

Announces a single teacher leaving; Fski of all people sporting a sparkly new ring & moving to another prefecture. Win for the home team I'd say! Have never thrived in her room, & her children tend to be less directed than any others.

Kids fed lines to remember in ceremony; hardly express their own feelings/voices!

On, off, on, off: Karate Kid scheduling

Jim Time for 60...

cancelled last week, 

on again inside since Friday, 

off this am but on again,

outside this pm. 

Pissed off. 

My prep assumed Bacardi would be within eyesight! But no, running the audio from the office behind the hedge at the far end of the yard and over a hedge? For fuck's sake, and then at crap volume? Can you make my job any frigging harder?

Madge a massive help outside, basically running the show as kids either collecting gravel or trying to hump my leg. Either way, paying stuff all attention to me.

Not frantic but concentrated lesson plan prep this morning; good excuse to bail on yet more graduation ceremony preparations & lunch bollocks (green, wasn't missed).

Up up up (Everybody Up song)

make a massive circle

Janken race in middle, losers run chaotic. Fun? 

I see something blue etc (recycled posters made last week) but too many making head start. 

Tag "Stuck in the Mud" finished everyone off - hot & dusty.

 Was presented with a paper plate, as this last JT

Chief says that another school nearby also having a foreign player in next year. Who is .......?

Ten minutes online finds a tattooed Saffer chancer, not local and not destined to become one. 

Heads in the sand

Woke up on the floor with no heater 5am, after battling the fallout from an online forum where my expert background was slagged off; then overslept. Damn.

Built the stage, sat in pink but mixing classes = seeing Sarong in charge of Red, about to do origami; bit of a timid non-event.

Pissed off with ETJ Owners. Like EK's double-fisted reaction & Malcolm's 'What a joke' comment. Without informed replies, blind will continue to lead the blind. And I shall desist forthwith getting involved at all. Last one out turn the lights off?

Ask me nicely & have a plan - I'll play

Coughed up a hay fever fur-ball overnight. Maybe I should not have responded to so many EIKEN questions on ETJ last night? Bugger it, questions there to be answered, and I'm one of the very few people in the country who could possibly field them

A gloomy day with Midori gumi ahead...hall full of mums getting their last experience of kindy for the oldest kids' lesson, Madge & Legs11 running the gig smoothly with iLeader fluttering around. No furniture in green, plastic mats on floor instead, drawing a face & sticking a star on the back.

Oldest ones gone to see the local elementary school, so the place was quiet, played outside. Aggro tw&t boy (not Wataru) shouting at me like a cheap pro wrestler. Looking for a fat lip.

Ate lunch quickly, but not sure if it was fried tuna or chicken!. Disappeared to work on Jim Time upstairs; Minnie asked me to join in her colour class. No problem, she'd prepped & had a nice plan - and she asked nicely.

Contrast that to the final seconds of the day, when Fski glances up expecting me to 'do' something! Nope, I think I'll decline that hospital pass. Sort it out yourself, why don't you?

Hina Day & reset hiring button

The Danish teacher project is Kaput due her biological clock; exasperated. Spoke to her on skype and checked her out on FB & Youtube. Would have been a tremendous addition. However, would have had to endure my own domestic protests probably much worse than the Kindy itself, due to nationality & location (ie not being here already). Hiring is going to be a bitch of a job, given the microscopic overlap of parameters I am expected to meet. Won't.

Today = mixing up groups ahead of next year, & maintaining rank by saying thank you to elders & gambatte from the the toddlers. Allan unable to function with me and Sari in her room! Could see her gears popping, migrating to Minnie's lot a very nice outcome. Madge's alpha males came in & predictably misbehaved; newspaper shrinking Janken game. Stayed for lunch.

Escaped to prep JimTime, which must be changed to indoors. Rain/mud.

Furniture wrangler

Disengaged in yard, & being the spare part on floor at back of yellow class. Had an absolute gutful of obnoxious Ibuki already, hitting & poking & taunting me. Thick shit will cop a walloping some time.

Mochi bashing in the forecourt; Boss never joins in these things, just wobbles a camera on a stick. Must be a good camera with tremendous image stabilisation.

Totally not in the mood for arse fiddling today, set to snap at any forearm venturing near my choco starfish. Usual suspects being too demanding.

Graduation practice had one lad lost in the hall as he didn't know his birthday! My key role today furniture wrangling & admiring Madge's bum of steel.

Not even Photoshopped out

Overdid it last night...Inert in the yard; birthday day so that routine in the hall, uninvolved but on show. 

At least I was in blue class today and acknowledged. Lunch = help all 4 classes with tea (blue most polite, green least - who would have guessed?)

Graduation photos minus me - so not even photoshop required. Absolutely gutted; didn't really dawn on me until I was cycling home. My input, love, care, time,

 "entertain this lot" job of 60 instead. Chaos in the hall, free play.

Copenhagen > Singapore > Bangkok > Matsumoto?

Excited about my mate's discovery of a 10 yr vet Kindy teacher looking for a job from Bangkok. I love the way my friends look out for me and the way some things slip in to place when you need them to.

Wagged lunch to email her; a Danish lass, pretty, can sing and has a YouTube channel to prove it. Boxes ticked.

With green (groan) & lanky new Kana, who is nice & careful with the kids. Boring day. Quick song to younger kids' mums who are moving up. Skipping & stuff in hall, no real involvement. At least hay fever drugs work.

Blue class all said thank you - made sure they got one hell of a slap on the back from Choriso = red letter day.

Strong medicine

Think I must have overdone the cold meds today, as my notes make no sense/all too vivid machinations of working in an all-female environment? Think I need another lie down.

Mackeral

Still 3 classes MIA, pitched in with Minnie, but ended up nodding off as Allan made butterfly paper cup photo holder things.

Heavy fried mackerel sent me direct to the jacks.

Drew a puzzle piece for missing /Hh/

fairly on the hoof Jim Time

using ABC floor tiles minus inners

 & x2 jigsaws to establish letter order. 

Traced shape of letter to make standing alphabet, then static as stuck along wall. 

Made an ABC pavement then kids sit on a letter. 

Say alphabet in order you are sitting, then get them to move 

eg all boys switch places etc. 

45 mins high octane & Kaisei/Nao being tw&ts. 

Pretty newbie also here. 

Flu, anyone?

Three entire classes closed this week ie 90 kids MIA (yellow/blue/green) & Jim Time lobbed out the window. At least I feel a ton better than last week (tad selfish?!)

Honk, puke, upchuck - Friday 13th

Sent home, slept nearly 60 hrs straight

Utterly average day

Yuri's granny brought him & 'Choux creme' so obviously mummy popped at last ("Mocha").

Minnie trying hard to add English whenever she can & kids like it (natural) - compare and contrast that to Allan who has no clue. Hand painting a tree, lunch with Syouri for 3rd time running - I have become eating coach for a four year old. Ambition achieved.

Too hot in teacher's room, got jumped on by Teruma (his friends pulled him out of his trousers which was hilarious). Music practice yet again; Chief again gave them the perfect pep talk (and bigged-up Eita for not shouting about his broken castanet - waited til the end & by then in tears as he'd miss his go. Nicely done)

Mini Jim Time Hokey Kokey & This is the Way (1st time) in yellow. Madge again looking frisky.

Oni-wa-soto

Chief giving good chat about the meaning but also about not saying nasty things to friends, which Allan also mentioned first up in class & about not throwing stuff at people/saying 'Shinu' ("die"). Not a bad thing to pick up on.

Oni himself scared the crap out of some little ones: soon a herd behind me quivering & crying, several hugs administered!

Food = make monster face, thence unto sola class & nothing to do. Observed band practice, someone puked in the corridor, Wataru told off & made sit seiza, still misbehaved. The lad has a snarky streak.

Herding Frogs & rabbits

I think it would actually be easier than the way Allan misdirects the kids in preparation for the music festival!

iLeader stepped in to play the piano in the hall, but she is basically telling Allan what/how/when to do! A chocolate fireguard, if ever.

Boss also lent her opinion I the hall - not contradicting Allan per se, but certainly trying to redirect the children's energies. Think Allan only has 60% a clue what she's doing, and is not very good at delivering that message. Net result is a lot of kids in Brownian Motion. In her class, virtually every boy is neither engaged nor delivering good behaviour. Her interaction with those misbehaving arrives too late & too personalised, whereas iLeader would lead the class & address any issues by praising the goodies against poor actors. As I have always said, being eclipsed from her smile would be painful :)

Paper-plate monsters

Rainy morning (drove again)

Parked in Minnie's, painting paper plate monsters. Embedded video with Aurasma x1, would like to do all...probably not much point though as chances of any parents being #EdTech enough to retrieve low, and that the school will tell them about it in the first place?

Thought about Can Do during the day & used Scriv to note them down & email back to base. Productive.

Racket in the afternoon, of pianicas, drums, cymbals & green wing nuts trying to hit me. I can feel a punch coming on. Ibuki high on my list.

Flu everywhere now...

Day off - on the job

As a Dad myself, missing Dad's day for my own son because I am taking part in Dad's day elsewhere as an object of amusement...let's just say I think my son would have got more out of me being there for him, than any individual kid/dad combo would have got out of me this morning. Not to say that best effort was not made - far from it. Took an awful lot of experience to keep chats going with completely non-English speaking dads/kids and then managing to change up when some could participate & not make myself look/sound like a brain donor.

Managed a long train of expectant, camera-toting dads in varying degrees of casual dress (long underwear beneath shorts with sandals? Are you for real?) and off-spring dangling in many varied degrees of comfort with lesser-spotted parent.

The song & dance routines went fabulously - I have done this before, and fallen flat on my face so often! Ham it up, must include parents, make mistakes for giggles and get the whole room romping. And then do it again faster when they think they've survived. Some kids actually crying in pain from laughter.

My work is done.

And Head/Shoulders is still a sackable offence at my school!

Mushroom cloud

 Mushroom show& an utterly wasted day. F^&*%d off.

My notes in entirety for today.

What are we supposed to be doing?

Meeting to sort out February's demands, (snowing gorgeously outside).

SANTA spelling game in groups of 5 or 6 from SSS. Snowball it
Theme is snow; find a song.

13th Bento (lunch box day - mums get your stress level going on the 12th!)

19th = graduation photos, changes possible. Pretty sure from the lack of "Can you wear clean socks?"
that they will not be needing Photoshop to remove me from the gathering.

24 & 26 middle Jim Time = ~20 mins

Late March (24th?) meet all teachers including three newbies?

Need goals identifying for each group - by semester & break down to terms.
i.e. also need road map for the classes overall. Oops. My job.

I have been organised for my day off

Saturday schedule update

On the job from: 09:45
Kids arriving from 09:50

Me ~ 10:20 with pink,.. dads' circle. Start with "Wheels on the Bus", transition to Head / shoulders (has Allan learned the words?!), petanko lasts 25 mins

Me ~ 10:45 with red, same again

11:15 finish, 11:30 all done. Apparently.

Ninja aerobics and icy nuts.

Ninja gym with Choriso, then her whistle aerobics (I ducked out, getting a headache).

A couple of kids think throwing ice at my nuts is funny. Ha Ha.

Nice pictures on wall from sledging, which the children have drawn; funny how clumps of them are similar - by classroom but I also guess by table, and influenced by the instructions or tips they were given. iLeader gingerly minding her stitches. Looks very sore.

Stepped in when the room got rowdy. Googled song lyrics for Madge before she ended playing the CD. Is Battle Hymn of the Republic an old song? Do you know it? Erm!

On my own agenda = a meeting this afternoon at a technical college later to discuss providing classes, and the need to find a pinch hitter for an evening company class. Two new kids joining my school on Saturdays, but two leaving Tuesdays as they hit the entrance exam crash barriers.

Slip sliding away

Heavy snow last night, and still snowing most of today.

Was chief sled pusher in the morning at Asahi Kids Park; a slow and careful drive out there in the convoy of green mini-buses. Actually not a very glamorous 'snow park' at all, but a few dumps of snow from a front-loader to make a steady little incline on a concrete auditorium. Enough to get some speed up on little plastic sleds. We bowed to the staff as good little girls and boys, then mostly obeyed the instructions of keeping out of the way of downhill traffic which cannot stop. Some dopey ones found out the hard and painful way. My job? Simple, stand at the top & get a sweat on, pushing countless pairs of children off down the slope. Good to mess a few of the miscreants about, dumping them out etc, and to ensure everyone got a good go. As you'd expect, everyone fully outfitted and prepped (except me!). Ended up soaked through, & kept rucking my left shoulder.

iLeader fell done the stairs & busted up her chin with a nasty gash in our absence. Ironically, on a day when very slippery outside & an excursion to sliding heaven. Laughed at first, but she has actually done herself a nasty one, along the bottom of her jaw/chin.

Made myself useful digging out the yard & then paths across the park in the afternoon. Refreshing exercise.

Allan panicking to learn head & shoulders - only person who doesn't know it?! Minnie a wry laugh in disbelief too. Madge looking frisky; papier-mâché apples at stage one with her, but after a fast bento lunch (competitive mums spend ages prepping these masterpieces) I was a punching bag again. One hit in the nuts this morning with a lump of ice and thought it was the funniest thing; two or three punches connected during lunch, as well as a head butt & a kancho through to the sac. Well annoyed.

Old teacher picks up sporting injury!

A minus 4 degrees cycle ride this morning, on treacherous icy roads; the playground is frozen like a slab of uneven concrete, so several scratched hands for those falling over. Trying to remember which ones I saw over the weekend at the festival in town!

Minnie making plans for the 24th assumes I am coming (it's a Saturday)...but she is the least presumptive & most careful.

Not much doing, and I nearly nodded off. Salmon for lunch & the kids racing slow.
No iPod...singing solo.

Utterly unemployed in Fski's room, maybe writing down resolutions? Hurt my left shoulder rotator cup again playing dodgeball, which is very annoying and will make riding to work afterwards even more perilous. Not as bad as the time I tore my hamstring to shreds at the Korean School - back of my leg was black and blue for three weeks!

Cameo from Chief.

I can clearly feel your nuts - welcome back

Back on the job & not genki. Feet lead & brain disengaged.

Welcome to red class along lines of "oh you're here, no plan today, use you some time". Inspiring.

30 yelling along to iLeader plonking away at the piano. Stone me.

Please do 10 "familiar" minutes = 3 a capella songs. Painful shoulder, trying to lift tables carefully before becoming love pile in Blue. Bollock-wallopper Yuri got a straight kick to his cods before I could stop my reflex reaction to a fist in my groin -which put me out of action for over an hour. Really, in, pain.

Ambition 2015 is to not be here. Sad, but true.