Your Japanese word of the week is...

"au" 会う which means "to meet".  And tonight I met (some) parents at the school's "Meet The Teacher" night.

It wasn't anything particularly lengthy since the parents would visit each of their student's 4 teachers for 10 minutes at a time, and not many showed up (3 parents in one of my classes, and 5 in the other) but it was nice to see that some parents have an interest in their child's education.  Even more interesting is that sometimes the similarities are apparent and you can almost guess who their child is as soon as they walk in the door.

Otherwise, it's business as usual at the school.  I'll be finishing up one of my Science 10 classes and switching to Science 9.  Covering Biology...  including the human reproductive system.  That'll be good for a few laughs =P

In other news, Canada's Olympic medal haul continues to climb.  And congrats to the Canadian Women's Hockey Team on their gold medal win over the US!

Next up?  The Canadian Men's Hockey team as they take on Slovakia in the semi-finals...

Here's the entire Team Canada roster.

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"kibishii"　厳しい which means "strict".  Obviously, when tied in with teaching, the context sort of explains itself.

But really, I don't think I'm that strict.  Conversely, I don't think I'm strict enough in certain aspects...  but there's the problem.  Just because the class isn't running the way I like it to be doesn't necessarily mean it's "abnormally bad". 

Teenagers are teenagers.  They're physically growing, mentally adapting, hormonally influenced, complicated creatures that deal with a multitude of expectations not only when they go between school and home, but between classes.  I suppose I should be sensitive to those things but the other part of me thinks my expectations are rather reasonable.  Like not talking when I'm talking...  that kinda stuff...

So do I keep it up based on my belief that these expectations are reasonable?  Or do I let off because they need the space?

Personally, I don't want to nor will I let off.  Why?  Because if the rope goes out too far, it'll be impossible to pull it back.  And I'd rather deal with keeping the strictness and wait til they fall into step, at which point we can all enjoy the extra freedom.

But, if you have a different philosophy on teaching, do let me know......  I'm all ears =P

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"yokoso" ようこそ which means "Welcome!".  I figured I'll talk about something other than my pracitcum, since I have another 10 weeks to do that in.

So, in other news, there's this little sporting event called the "Olympics" happening in Vancouver.  Regardless of the controversy, it's close enough that beyond how one personally feels about it, we should at least make an effort to host our guests properly.  It's like having an unwanted houseguest over; you should be mature and polite enough to make do for the duration.

I haven't really decided how I feel about it all.  A part of me agrees that the money could've been better spent elsewhere and a lot of the inconveniences really are....  well.....  inconvenient.  But the other side of me thinks it's exciting that Vancouver can take centre stage as well as being around during the buzz of the Olympic events.

The torch is currently circulating the city and apparently it's quite a sight to behold.  And I've seen some members of the Dutch Olympic team at a shopping mall...  exciting....  =P

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, here's the Vancouver you're missing...

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"mada" まだ which essentially means "still" or "not yet/yet", such as "He's not here yet".  Sometimes it's doubled up and, if you've ever watched any anime that includes fighting or persevering somehow, you'll hear them shout "mada mada" as in "I'm not finished yet".

For me, however, it's more like "I've still got a long way to go".

This week saw the actual start of my teaching during long practicum and while it wasn't disastrous (I didn't fall down, for example, nor did the classroom go up in flames), there's still a lot for me to consider, do, and improve on.

The biggest hurdle is not so much "what" is being done in the classroom, but "how" it's being done.  All the minor details and tricks to being efficient, those are the hardest to do because they work differently for everyone.  And they need to work in such a way that I'm comfortable with sticking to them (lateness, homework not done, etc.).

One thing I do like, however, is that I'll be seeing the same classes everyday for at least a month straight, so I can set up routines and build repore- both things I couldn't do on the short practicum.

Some still say I shouldn't be so be critical but really, I don't mind so much as long as every class I'm doing something slightly better.

Luckily, I've got 11 weeks and that's still a ways to go......

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"kenshuu" 研修 which means "training".  Adding "suru" after it turns it into a verb....

Though this doesn't refer exactly to training in the exercise sense, more like the practicing of a skill.  For example, the training I did as an intern in Japan (although that does have an exercise element to it).

Another example is the practicum I'll be doing, which is another form of "training".  I'll be there, "training", from January 25th til April 16th.  And during that time, I'll be taking on Science 9, Science 10, and Biology 11.

The normal long practicum ends May 7th but for me, after April 16th sees me shift my practicum to Science World where 9 students have been accepted to take part in the "Extended Practicum Beyond the Classroom Option" (EPBCO) which allows me the chance to not only broaden my teaching skills to environments different from a traditional classroom, but also to students of all ages.  Essentially we'll be teaching Science World's special "school field trip" classes for the three weeks while we're there.  There'll be things from teaching kindergarteners about roller coaster to teaching high school students about "Grossology" (like what boogers are made of and such).

There's also two other similar programs at the Aquarium and the HR Macmilan Space Centre.

Fun fun but I'll have to put on my best while I'm on practicum so.......  here goes =P

Oh, and if you haven't heard of Science World, here's a picture of it.

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"nichiyoudaiku" 日曜大工 which means "Do It Yourself", like DIY.  And so goes the theme for this weekend.

The first real "DIY"-y thing I did was swap out my winter tires for my summer ones.  Despite all the ominous warnings people have given me, this past winter has been pretty mild.  One day of snow (when the snow tires did actually help... a lot) and just lots of low temps.  Winter tires, aside from working well in the snow, also are made of rubber better suited to cold temps but this past week it's high 10+ degrees so...  really...  there's no point anymore heh......

But the big news this past weekend was that I put a hole in my wall!  But perhaps some context first...

Ever since Japan, I've been using my laptop as my computer and it's spent its entire two year time with me sitting on a desk with its battery removed.  It worked great in Japan because it was essentially a temporary stay so it was fine for all my needs.  But having moved back, I've been considering on and off about switching to a real PC.  As usual, cost being the thing that turns me off about the idea.

(Sorry about the picture quality, I just snapped a pic from my point-and-shoot)

But this past week, a friend offered up his two year old, yet built-with-premium-parts PC for a great deal.  And thus began my search to piece together a desktop on the cheap.  I'm pretty happy to say I managed to piece together the whole thing with used items.  And it's all pretty good stuff too.

Best of all, when I sell my laptop, it would work out that I've spent about $100 total on switching to a more powerful desktop PC.

The only problem came when I had to hook it up to the internet.  With the router being in the room next to mine and my desire to not run on wireless anymore, I decided the best (line-speed and cost wise) solution would be to drill a hole between the rooms and run a cable through it.  Simple enough...

So, I borrowed a stud finder and drill, measured twice, and drilled once.  For reasons unknown to me, I was off by about 1/8 inch but by taping the cable to a wire coat hanger, I passed it through.

That sounds easy but it doesn't take into account having to pull my bed out, clear out the other room's closet, drilling, test fitting the wire, hunting for the mis-matched holes, discovering I had bought a cable that was too short (seriously, I did haha), buying another cable, and then putting the two rooms back together.

DIY indeed =P...  and it was pretty fun actually....  except for the part when the wire pulled taut and I was still about 5ft from the router...  that kinda sucked haha....

But, it paid off.  As you can see below.

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"kigatsuku" 気が付く which, according to the dictionary means "notice" or "become aware of".  Although I seem to have been using a slightly different word which now makes me wonder if there's another way of saying it or people have just been nodding in agreement to avoid having to converse with the weird foreigner...

Anyway, two things I've noticed this past week:

1- Lead By Example

On Friday at karate, I had a cramp in my calf muscle a bit and was relegated to standing and commenting for the better part of the second class.  Normally when I teach, I try to be as active as possible, both for myself (as exercise) and for the students (as a model for the movements).  And normally I never have issues with students being distracted and unfocussed (aside from the really young students).

But on Friday, the teenagers in the second class were noticeably more distractable, something which I attributed to the fact that I wasn't as able to circulate to be more "among them" nor could I really demonstrate the things I was trying to explain.  Then, towards the end of the class and my muscle relaxed enough that I could start doing things again, their behaviour improved.

A robot I am not, but this really does prove to me (yet again) that I really need to keep it up within myself if I want my students to keep it up within themselves.

2- Smell & Taste

Our sense of smell and sense of taste are linked, that much we know is true.

But today I realised that, in Cantonese, the commonly used word for smell is exactly the same as the word for taste.  Of course, there are other ways of saying smell and taste but the common word can be found in both still.

Interesting.......