nothing to prove

sake sensei

On Friday I decided to have a small get together with my English teachers. I don't know what it is lately but tacos have just been the way to go. We had tacos in a bag, which I provided, and had the teacher bring the drinks. Oh they definitely brought them... One of my teachers busted out this massive bottle of sake, that we were told was around $100, and there was plenty of beer. It was great to see most of my teachers drunk and all of them getting to talk with each other. Many of them know one another but hardly get the opportunity to meet up. Besides the fact that a bunch of teachers were eating food out of a bag with forks, apparently this whole scene was kind of strange because they had never been invited by an ALT to a party at their apartment. That information really surprised me because, from what my JTE's have told me, it sounded like they got along great with my predecessors. So all in all a great time.


Before all of that could go down I ended up going to a demonstration class that one of my JTE's, who didn't come to the tacos party, was holding. It is fairly common for teachers to have these classes so that they can be critiqued by other English teachers on how they conduct class. Whether this is out of their own will or it is a requirement is beyond my knowledge but I usually get invited to them. In fact usually I teach with the JTE's doing the class. However not only did I not participate in the class but I wasn't formally asked to watch either. Of course I went anyway but this teacher is really high strung and it kind of a blow that he didn't want me involved in the proceedings. After he finished the class we had a meeting to discuss what went down. They tried to hold it in English, which was very nice of them, but it just meant that I did most of the talking because the other teachers were too shy to talk in English. Basically they ripped this guy apart so I felt bad for him but hopefully it will spur him to change his teaching style a little bit.

posted by Aaron @ 4:14 AM