The Cunning Coder Blog

I’ve recently become involved in a friend’s open source software project revolving around dictionaries and orthography.  The project has been dubbed glot (http://launchpad.net/glot).  It’s a hobby project, so it may or may not be updated super frequently (it really depends on how much free time the developer’s all have).

It’s going to be my first time actually using Python on a real project, so we’ll have to see how that goes.  So far we’ve been just getting used to Launchpad, evaluating technologies for incorporation, and reading up on standards to support.  There is some code in the repositories, but it’s really just a base that the real project is going to spring forth from.  I’m just happy to be doing something computer sciency again.

Spring break is finally over and I just wrapped up my first week of classes.  It’s interesting being there at the beginning of a new school year, as when I first arrived they were already halfway through their textbooks.  It’s also interesting to be the with the new first year students as they just start embarking on their English education.  Though I had some of these students in elementary school, this is their first truly structured English learning experience.

All my students seemed re-energized, like they were ready to learn again.  Toward the end of last term they seemed to be losing steam and will to participate, but now they seem to be ready to go.  I only had a few teachers change on me (that I know of so far), so largely my routine hasn’t been interrupted too terribly much.  The only significant change is that my number of office days is going to plummet starting in May.  The elementary schools have stated they don’t care which ALT visits the school, so I’m going to be visiting some of my coworker’s schools, and she some of mine.  These make it so there really isn’t a day in the schedule where there isn’t a visit of some kind.

Community courses are also going to be starting at the beginning of June and run until mid July.  It’ll be once a week, on Tuesdays, running from 6:30-7:30.  The community courses are both enjoyable and annoying.  They are fun because I have free reign on my lessons and can choose to teach them however I please.  They are frustrating in that, because it’s all mine, I have to do it all, beginning to end.  This time around I’m going to do an advanced beginner’s course on business English.  Here’s to hoping it goes well!

So the school term is finally over for me and we’re heading in to spring break!  I only have 2 more visits to schools left and they aren’t for usual class, they are for the Hokkaido English Challenge.  Four of my students have opted to enter, and they will be taking the exam on this Thursday, with a practice section on Wednesday.  I’m really looking forward to them seeing how far they’ve come.  When we initially started, even some of the questions in the Q&A section would give them great pause, but now they can best me at 20 questions more often than not.

With spring break coming, of course, there’s also the changing of the guard in the Board of Education.  I’ll be interested to see who’s staying and who’s leaving.  We have a party this Wednesday to bid farewell to those who will be departing so I imagine I’ll find out in short order.  I’ve grown to like many of my coworkers, but I’m sure even if they move on to other areas of city hall that I’ll come to appreciate their replacements just as much.

The only thing that could make this whole situation better is if we had some time off during spring break, but unfortunately the ALTs are required to be in the office doing whatever we can.  Kinda annoying, but if they want to pay me 150,000 yen to sit on my butt and do next to nothing, I won’t complain.

The next school year is looking like it could be quite busy, I have maybe 4 days the entire term without school visits, whereas I used to have at least 1 day a week which was set aside for prep.  The change has come as a result of the elementary schools requesting more and more visits from the ALTs, to the point where those schools are no longer really assigned to a specific ALT, but we both will manage them whenever we can.  This translates to me adding about 4-5 more schools to my load (I was already at 10).  I’m sure it’ll be rough in the beginning, but I’ll adapt.  In the end, I’m sure it’ll work out for the best, especially since I had so many office days where I didn’t know what to do with myself before.  I just have a small lingering fear that this is going to produce the exact opposite problem.

Well it was only a matter of time, but I finally caught a cold.  I’d avoided the flu and countless plagues from my students, elementary and middle schoolers alike, yet somehow Saturday night and today, Sunday, I’ve had a bit of a cold.  It isn’t too severe, and I hope I’ll be over it by tomorrow.  Fortunately, even if it’s not gone completely, Monday is an office day so I won’t be doing anything to stressful or taxing.  I just found it kinda strange that I got rocked by a cold in the privacy of my own home when I’d been exposed to crap for months first hand and had been just fine.  Stupid microbes…

Well my rough week is finally over and it doesn’t look like there will be anything even close to that coming up this month.  I’m very thankful for that and am looking forward to working at a slower pace again.

It’s hard to believe that this school year is almost over.  I’ve been having a lot of my “final lessons” with my third year students, and it’s always a sad thought to me.  I don’t get to visit any of my schools more than once or twice a month, but the students still are important to me in their own way.  I’m worried about how some of them will fair in high school, and others I’m confident are bound for success.  Whichever category they in, I just hope they continue to do their best.

The saddest thing I had to come to terms with this month, in regards to teaching, was that, for some of my students, this would be their last English lesson ever.  I thought that was kind of sad, because these students always seemed to be the least inhibited about putting themselves out there in English class and always seemed to be enjoying the class activities.  I’m sad to hear that they’re not going to be able to continue with those classes they loved so much, and I hope that I made their last exposure to English a positive one that they’ll remember well.