Back to school

Entrance Ceremony;

Yard packed with suits & woolen skirts/cheap jewelry

Nervous looking parents, bewildered little ones. 

Boss in tatty jeans still

Chibbies at front marshaled by A/K/S/M senseis.

I hate to say goodbye - after so many 'hellos'

Jelly with chopsticks? Too easy!

ONI unchi seems to be the first song today with A-chan on pianola, plinking away merrily & co-teacher M leading the arm flailing! Excellent combo, these two.

Feb 15 sat is music day, apparently, and now all energies directed at making that a success. Organizing of new micro-groups, within classes, very exciting. This represents a re-drawing of a lot of territories & alliances, removing leaders & importing rivalries etc.

A medley from me for 1/2 hr. No need pre-teach - just leap in & see what they can do :). A-chan pats her bum oh so provocatively during wheels on the bus and then no chance to beep her horn. Tragedy!
Wheelbarrow practice means trusting your partner not to dump you on your face (or worse)

Class swap for lunch 50% to pink. Moaned at for not sitting in a stress position. Salmon steak & purple rice. Kid eating jelly with chopsticks was my highlight for the day. Disappeared to find goodreads :) as I did not want to roam the corridor as a punching bag; later watched A-sensei & Grumpy do some gymnastics. Elsewhere, M-sensei explains nicely about Setsubun-no-hi & tomorrow making Mochi

Informed I am to 'teach a song' to 60+ on Thursday. OK. Something to think about!

I can't get my trousers on, and I hate you all!

Minus Five again today! Treacherous cycling this morning, as I couldn't see the ice for the freshly fallen snow :(

I-sensei starts on positive notes as usual, inclusive smile & invites me to begin (and joins in) with genki "Hello" (Super Simple Songs) & on the spot "Walking Walking"! Love her "I'm not happy pout" cheeks that still smile! Kids absolutely do not want to compromise that beam of joy. Sucked straight back into line & behave well.

Nice little girl having a meltdown as she can't tuck herself in; ignored for quite a while, but even with K's uncheerful help she remains in a right old state. Kid's a wreck, I would've picked her up five minutes ago, bu not the style here which I have to respect. She ends up hating everyone until classy I-sensei takes her into a hug & tucks her in very sweetly, but the distraught girls does a "my bum looks a mess in this" number & cracks up all over again. Can't win!

• Library books, whispered names & taiko backing! 
• Class Dojo hard to do at high speed. 
• Phantom tooth brush mystery resolved after bento envy. 

A double bolly whack left me feeling physically sick; sought coffee refuge upstairs, to no avail - knacked again within minutes of emerging. Had an absolute gut-full of this crap, so took my phone to explore the library in more detail, with Goodread looking for titles I can download (? Find online) & read/record/request from the local library.

Music by numbers, and over-looked misdemeanors

Not especially looking forward to being with Sola group today

When S-sensei doesn't pay attention or care, this is a violent group. It worries me that they are violent towards each other and frequently get away with what is actually quite nasty behaviour, but also that the main culprits are frequently not identified. Rather, it is the second-last kid on the pecking order that gets dobbed in to the teacher when the weakest link bursts into tears (OR one of the bad lads actually gets served some fair dessert but doesn't like the flavour, and also tells to the teacher). 

As an amateur socio-anthropolgist, I can see a lot of aggressive body language, facial expressions & micro-expressions, dominant posturing, alpha-male assertiveness, as well as the more defenseless trying to be accepted by going with the flow. This doesn't happen in the other classes (as much). Just a bad mix, or let to run free for too long? A major contributing factor is the formalisation of the dominant ranking when the teacher's back is turned, playing the piano, assuming the singing is taking place in a vacuum, whereas it is actually shouted out while faces are pulled, fingers pointed and squirming at a maximum.

As it was -5 again cycling along this morning,  I needed to run around & kick a ball to prevent getting a chill. Ended up muddy from knees down :( as the playground's thin permafrost melted

Sample, using Phoster in class

I tried to control the circus in S's room with a couple of songs, but predictably raucous with only 50% participation. Of course, the miscreants not censured for being distracted. Orchestral Maneuvers in the Frost + A-sensei's semi nice lot - large colour-coded musical scores, one for the percussion, the other for the melodians. S-sensei hums through the tune. General mayhem & racket as instruments doled out slowly. Little Anna in floods as she didn't get a go.

I was not (nor never will be) in mood again for kicks or watching the usual suspects play fight until they hurt each other (see above) Some prepping to make their own yearbook pages evident (just like we've done at Luna!). I took the chance to test drive Phoster app. Even under pressure (time & several heads between me & the screen) I love it!

 Meanwhile, Kevin Cleary has died : - (

Very cold, with unidentified body secretions

Minus 10 on the bike to work this morning - not the day to forget gloves...or hat, scarf, woolly jumper and all! Wow. Bitterly cold, and the playground frozen hard as a ginger nut biscuit!

I became the "Human Hokkairo" as I am famously warm - radiate heat like a geothermal hotspot -

and there were numerous tears at play, with frozen fingers & hard landings aplenty. Be careful?

Before we got into class-mode proper this morning, I was doing my usual walk about, looking for mischief when I discovered a deposit on Chi-sensei's floor. Squishy, brown and somewhat toxic, and suddenly quite alarmed I might have walked in it/very nearly picked it up. Haven't remembered the Thailand classroom turd debacle since forever!

"My teacher, there's a stool in your classroom." 

"Thank you. I hope there are plenty."

"No, my teacher. There's an extra stool."

"Great. Then everybody will be happy."

"Erm. It's in the corner."

"That's lovely. I'll be along soon."

Of course the teacher was being a bit dim, and the students were trying to be as polite as possible. There was, of course, a cable of shite the size of a child's arm, stinking out my bamboo classroom!

Cheery Chi-sensei explains an art project after an earlier flu warning to cover mouths etc when coughing. I was not sure about the project, which appeared to be large scale monster faces, teams of 5/6 doing a face part each & sticking onto card. Takes ages but end result funny & well rounded off by the teacher.

For lunch the kid with drippingly snotty hands moves my cup, fingers all over the rim. The nose-picker lad who could represent Japan in the snot Olympics, delivers my rice, thumbs in the bowl. Hello another infection!

That is, if I survive the day with my crown jewels intact...Hit in the bollocks x3 and fed up with the abuse. Said so, sotto but menacing voce to the main culprit. A message that will no doubt be totally forgotten by this time tomorrow. Also fed up being a battering ram target. Can I get a bit of protection from the teachers please? I mean, when I was actually bullied at school I never got hit this often...

Looks like taiko practice after lunch.

We're back!

Cycling to work this morning, gorgeous freezing blue skies, frosted slopes & freezing fog to the west. Cycling all wrapped up listening to football weekly.

Once arrived, apart from one rock, snowballs safely dodged! Not to say the rock wasn't painful nor annoying. Didn't see any of the other teachers receiving lumps of granite thinly disguised as snow...The snowman was quickly decapitated & slowly excavated; lots of ice collecting & footprint checking!

Three months left now for the "Tori" bunch - time to "man up" the message from A-sensei to her class, a sentiment delivered to all now in the assembly hall - with same message writ large by The Chief. So, no arguing with that, then!

Teachers all look refreshed, even frisky! Making new groups by numbers but silently, then trying to bully new group leaders (some tears from unwilling). A need to replace the existing leaders as a new order soon upon us. Nice warm up to drawing exercise by K-sensei, asking about holiday activities, places visited etc. Gives them behavior guidelines, explains task, monitors effectively & encourages/asks questions in the round.

Lunch = uncooperative boy would not "toban" nicely nor sit down. Pumpkin mush to eat. Beautiful day outside - utsugushi tremendous. Under assault as usual; sat at the end of corridor as wild boys tried to kick me. Nice ones sat on my knee/defended but not much fun. Small odd girl still eating 2 hrs later. Felt like a spare part after lunch again; tried apps but too many heads fighting for screen space:(

Peek-a-boo Anna

Don't want to pick people up this year either; couple of nice girls make exception hard.

A-sensei no plan & making up games expecting me to as well; doing it all in Japanese, & also inappropriately (?) sharing her opinion about various kids.

Daikon pulling game (girls hogged me), piggy in middle quiz, find the clues I spy. Slush fest at home time, muddy shoes and mums dodging puddles.

Long slow day, stressing as I can't fix an urgent teacher issue we have back at school.