Archive for category Teaching English
May 11, 2005 – Return to Fuji city
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on May 11, 2015
Today I had another shift at Fuji school. Like every other day of the week, I have a group kids class here as well. Fortunately this class only has 2 students, and they were pretty good.
It’s much easier to keep the interest of 2 kids that don’t really want to study English than 8 kids who don’t really want to study English.
May 4, 2005 – Wednesdays in Fuji
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on May 4, 2015
This month I am working Wednesdays at Fuji school. Fuji is short a few people at the moment, so teachers are being temporarily moved between branches to pick up the slack.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of teachers, I will be getting a group kids class on Wednesday. Now I will have one group class for every day of the week. Group kids classes are still my least favourite part of the job.
Other than my kids class, today was pretty quiet. I only had a total of 4 students on the rest of the schedule. It was nice to visit a different branch to see some different students and get some variety on my dinner options.
April 25, 2005 – Office Space
Posted by Barniferous in Movies, Shizuoka, Teaching English on April 25, 2015
Today I went to Shizuoka City to sign my new contract. I am officially NOVA property for another year.
Shizuoka City is the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture. It located roughly in the middle of the prefecture, and is the second largest city. The population is around 700,000 plus, which puts it at a similar size to Winnipeg. However when compared to Winnipeg, Shizuoka is much more dense and much warmer.
Shizuoka Station is served by Tokaido line and the Shinkansen. From Numazu it took me just under an hour to get to the station. From the station, I followed a detailed map to navigate my way through a maze of underground malls before returning to the surface to find my way though a busy commercial area. Fortunately I was able to find the main NOVA branch without getting lost.
While signing my contract, I had a good conversation with the area manager, who is actually really easy to talk to and get along with. Unlike many of the teachers who pass through the conversation schools, the area manager was a lifer who had settled in with wife, kids, and a house. We discussed the area, the job, and living in Japan.
I returned to Numazu after signing my contract, and in the evening I watched “Office Space” with Azeroth and Palmer. Office Space was written and directed by Mike Judge, the creator of Beavis and Butthead. Being a huge fan of B&B, I saw it in theatres when it first came out. It was funny, but I didn’t really appreciate it at the time. To really understand the movie, you need to work for a large company at some point in your life.
After experiences working for some large companies in Canada and the largest English conversation school in Japan, I can now fully enjoy Office Space. Azeroth, Palmer and I laughed our asses off.
April 18, 2005 – No deportation for me (yet)
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on April 18, 2015
Yesterday the staff informed me that my teacher contract expired at the end of the day. Today, an emergency call to the area manager confirmed that we were wrong; my contract and more importantly my work visa expire in May, not April. I have another month to sort out my contract before I will be kicked out of the country.
Important dates to know: contract expiry, visa expiry, passport expiry.
April 17, 2005 – The streak is over
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on April 17, 2015
My streak of good kids classes is over. They were AWFUL today. It was nice while it lasted.
During my shift, I was surprised to learn that today was the last official day on my NOVA teacher contract. This also surprised the staff and supervisor. I have not had a chance to re-sign my contract yet, so I am not sure what’s going to happen tomorrow. I guess I will show up and see if I am on the schedule…
April 16, 2005 – 4 days in a row!
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on April 16, 2015
My cold is getting worse. I had a lot of sinus pressure making me feel like my eyeballs were going to explode. Thanks to the wonders of daytime cold medicine (from Canada), I managed to survive the day.
Also, the streak of good kids classes has now extended to 4 good classes in 4 days!! This is a pleasant surprise.
April 15, 2005 – Three days in a row
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Teaching English on April 15, 2015
Today I successfully worked through a cold. It helped that I once again had a good kids class. I have now had 3 good kids classes in 3 days! Is this really possible? Is this some kind of wonderful dream?
Even though I was fighting a cold, I felt better than my roommate Palmer. He badly sprained his ankle during basketball practice, and came home on crutches in a lot of pain. Getting to and from work on crutches is going to be hard enough, but he works at Numazu NOVA where the teacher’s room is on the first floor, and the classrooms are on the second floor. That’s not going to be fun.
Remember kids – sports are bad for you.
April 14, 2005 – Expanded responsibilities
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on April 14, 2015
I have received a promotion of sorts at work. I am now the Voice co-ordinator at Mishima NOVA.
Voice is an open conversation classroom at NOVA that allows students of all levels to go and speak English. Most of the time the room is open to any type of conversation, but occasionally the branch will offer a special topic. I have done special topics on hockey, creating a resume, calling in sick, and some of the finer points of English grammar. Guess which of those I enjoyed the least…
As the Voice co-ordinator, it is my responsibility to make a plan for the next 6 months of special topics, and assign teachers to each of them. I had the same responsibilities when I worked at Kawasaki NOVA, but this time should be easier because I am now only scheduling 8 teachers instead of 23.
In other news: I somehow had another good kids class!?!?
April 13, 2005 – A good kids class!?!?
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on April 13, 2015
A good kids class!?!?
The English teaching gods are smiling on me today.
April 10, 2005 – Pick it up
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on April 10, 2015
Today in my NOVA kids class, my 6-9 year old boys decided to empty the garbage can on the floor and run around in circles instead of doing anything that resembled learning English. When the bell rang to end the lesson they all rushed to the door. I stood in front of the door holding the garbage can, made my most serious face, and then told them sternly “pick it up”. The kids looked at me like I was from another planet. I pointed at some of the garbage on the floor and again said “PICK IT UP”. Finally they started getting the idea, and reluctantly picked up the garbage. Nobody got to leave the class until every last scrap of paper was in the can.
If you are ever unsure about having children, I encourage you to teach English to a group of other people’s kids overseas. It is a great form of birth control.
Drinking in Japan 
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