I don't plan on posting much while I am at school but man, it has been one of those days. Our second year students are currently away on their school trip. The third year students are taking their final exams (whatever those are for), leaving me with four first year classes today. At some schools that might be good, however at my school that is not.

See the first years suffer from this problem where they won't shut-up. Not everybody but there are about two or three girls in each class that have been a problem since the year started last April. These girls have slowly been able to control the class room environment to the point that well... there isn't really an environment left at all. Its like "Lord of the Flies" man!

Kids are constantly running after each other, wrestling, telling teachers to shut-up, or how little they need their subject. It's kinda funny to think about a Zoo where the animals run everything, until you find out your an employee there.

So we start with second period. A-class. They aren't too bad, plus it's still early so they aren't totally revved up yet. Most of this class isn't too bad with the teacher only have to quiet down the students every few minutes. I figure that isn't too bad as we are studying the names of the months and of course they have already learned them in elementary school. A-class finishes and we move onto D-class.

D-class is at least the most active of all the first year classes, and the bad kids in there seem to like me a bit more than the bad kids in the other classes. Actually most of the students like me, they just don't like the English teacher I work with. Anyway it's third period so I gotta start being on the lookout. Kids have fully woken up and are now starting to pop out cell phones, manga, magazines, anything but an English text book. Ugh! Yes I know the puri-kura you took with your friends in your think think think makeup, and high boots are just the most "kawaii" thing in your fish tank of a world, but could ya just do the worksheet? No? Okay. That's all I can do. When the kids know there is no consequence for their action then there is no debate. RING! RING! The bell! Oh sweet bell. One more than lunch.

C-class. The English teacher I teach with is the homeroom teacher for these kids. I personally like him, but the kids do not. More so than the other classes anyway. C-class was hard. Nothing but silent or out of control students. I have to continue to keep the manga and cell phones in check, but traverse the mine field that is unstable kid vs "will listen to me" kid.

Boooya! Lunch. What? Lunch over? Dang...

B-Class. Okay these kids have gone from the top of my list to the bottom, plus it's 5th period. Any teacher walking into 5th period thinks of the beach scene from Saving Private Ryan. Just by walking in the door your under heavy fire. And man they don't let up either! I don't think the JTE could go even 30 seconds without having to keep tell somebody to stop talking. We also got a brazilian kid in this class who is also loud but he does it in a whole different way than the other Japanese boys. His voice is high, and he likes to shriek. Oh, the horror of the banshee howl of this kid can be heard from across the school grounds. At this point my feet hurt, legs ache, and patience gone. But, I can't do anything. I try the normal "shhh" with a smile and do what I can to keep some semblance of an "English class." It's my turn to be "teacher" now. Okay, first review the names of the months. I show them a flash card with "１月" written on it. "January!" The main two annoying girls yell out. They get into it when I am in front. I switch to the next card. "February!" "Sweet," I think. "March!" I have not yet switched to the new card. I flip to "３月." I make them wait till I ask "What's ３月?" They yell it out again "March," but louder. "April!" I still have not changed. I continue flipping and make them repeat even if they have jumped ahead. The teacher tries to stop them every so often. Then onto new words. "Date." I pronounce clearly and loudly. "Date." says the JTE and the other helper teacher. Crickets from the kids. Ugh... At some point the bell rings signaling the end of another epic stand off between the "League of Teachers" and the "Japanese Rebelious Youth" (from now on JRY).

I always think about that if I could speak perfect Japanese I would ask the kids "Why do you come to school?" I am sure that that sounds just as lame a question in English as it probably is in Japanese, but i would be interested to hear even their made up fake answer. Perhaps it would give me some insight into how I could market English more towards them. Or perhaps it's because I want to say the line "Whose education do you think is being wasted here?"