Original 2003 Post
I was woken up by yet ANOTHER earthquake at 3:00am last night. However I quickly returned to sleep. Stupid earthquakes. Also stupid are Japanese bank machines as they usually don`t like to give money after banking hours. Not very convenient. Third in the stupid category are NOVA teachers who don`t look closely at the file, and do the lesson you had planned to do immediately before you can. This gave me two minutes to find a new lesson for 4 students. Stupid day!
2013 Update
NOVA has 8 different skill levels for students. In 2003, they were still using the old textbook with 40 lessons each in all but the lowest level. Choosing a lesson for one student is reasonably easy – pick something they haven’t done before, or failing that, pick something they haven’t done recently. Choosing a lesson for multiple students makes this process more difficult. When you choose a lesson, it is important to write down the lesson they have chosen in the student’s file. That way if a student has multiple lessons in a day, they will not get the same lesson more than once. It is considered bad teaching etiquette to choose the same lesson another teacher has already reserved for the student. Also, it will cause new teachers to have a minor panic attack as they need to find something else to teach in a short period of time.
I am still surprised that some bank machines are not open 24 hours a day, and even more surprised that they close on holidays. It is a bank MACHINE. It doesn’t need time off. This is especially difficult in a very cash friendly country.
Drinking in Japan 