Eduventure: The AR Edition - School Chat

Meanwhile, in exhibition land

Plaid that looks great. Does that exacto knife mean those parts that look cut and layered are actually cut and layered?

oh a side note:

*headasplode* ohmygoshhowhasitonlybeenthreedays every day is a terror-filled activity race where I struggle to maintain classrooms for 8 hours and then spend my remaining conscious moments preparing for the next day in this seemingly endless cycle. *facemeltoff*

They are! But that is a print out of the actual version. I stabbed it because i accidentally ripped a corner and fucked it up.

Now, proclaim that the knife is part of the print, in another dimension.

It got stabbed a lot of times then i ripped the shit out of it. I got a bit bored before exhibition.

Then I played Slender. :>

Hey teamfriends, I'm trying my hand at misappropriating ******DEMOCRACY for my personal ends by gunning for a "win if you win the most votes" scholarship.

You need to sign up for a Facebook app to vote, but I would be much obliged if you did toss a click or two my way :>

Hey teamfriends, I'm trying my hand at misappropriating ******DEMOCRACY for my personal ends by gunning for a "win if you win the most votes" scholarship.

You need to sign up for a Facebook app to vote, but I would be much obliged if you did toss a click or two my way :>

I'm on the osu! forums, it's a game like Elite Beat Agents, where you can make a song of your own in the game, but can't get it ranked unless tons of people check it out and see what needs some fixing. For every person that votes for you, I moderate one of their songs.

I have so far earned you about 30 clicks now.

We had open house last night. A dad walked in and started filling out the sign in sheet, and a mom came in and stood behind him. He started telling me about his daughter and how she has my 4th period class. I told him, "oh fourth period is the best class to be in!" (because it is my smallest and I have a co-teacher to help out). It was all going well until the lady behind him gave me this miffed look and said, "Well MY son isn't in fourth period."

I THOUGHT THEY WERE A COUPLE. SHE DIDN'T EVEN SIGN IN SHE JUST STOOD NEXT TO HIM.

The next five minutes were filled with me talking about how second period is also the best. Apparently.

Guys, parents are terrifying.

Though somehow I managed to trick all those people into thinking I was a teacher.

Deadliiiines

funtiiiimes

Just learnt my short-term caffeine intake limits (One V + One Redbull) because I am shaky as fuck right now

Good luck with that D:

One of my new tutors (the one who is assigned to my small group-thing for assessments) is kinda scary and I'm really not sure if she disapproves of me or not? She's really friendly half the time and the other half it's like she's internally raising an eyebrow at me.

On the upside my new classmates are so friendly its ridiculous. Also we are right next to an asian supermarket that stocks red bean and vanilla icecream treats fuck yes

No it's cool I've got this

susssssss

ed

At least more than my somewhat-nonsensical typing would imply. The thing is actually due "some time Friday", because lecturers become exponentially cooler about deadlines'n shit once you're a third year.

The fact that it is still Thursday night is quite an achievement for me. On the other hand, I have a super-supportive and much more academically motivated flatmate/classmate who is my only reasonable mode of transport back home tonight. Seeing as we're both getting paid sweet cashbucks to go yell at first years on an island for a field trip for most of tomorrow, we've agreed to get this puppy done early.

The assignment itself is actually pretty cool. Shouldn't have left it to the last minute red crabs yellow crazy ants yadda yadda yadda.

Field trip was amazing. Romped all over an island, saw loads of cool animals, dug up earthworms, impressed freshers with my apparent knowledge of things.

It's only in the small hours leading up to the aforementioned assignment deadline that I realise I am such a control freak about my writing. Flatmate and I are reading over each other's final versions for grammar farts and the like our sleep-deprived minds glossed over after re-reading the same passage twenty fucking times (well, I've read his. He's a slower reader so I'm just chilling over on the office computer liveposting my being fascinating until he finishes).

I rather snippily told him, after his first correction he'd made, not to touch anything that didn't look like a deliberate mistake or a sentence that died prematurely due to shitty grammar. I feel kinda guilty because I was totally picking at his writing in the earlier "let's actually finally get all this shit onto paper" stage.

I don't think I've ever dropped the gospel of what happened in my life officially.

Short version:
- Fucked up Chem bad because too cut-and-dry and too much math, balls-to-the-wall gave up midway without telling anyone (not even myself apparently)
- Failed ALL MY EXAMS (except like two side courses)
- Spent my summer happily between "are you gonna partake in your reprise exams" and "what's your plan for next year" and other amazing questions like that I myself didn't know the answer to.

(prize for biggest fucking nonsense goes to my dad "Do you think you can get a job as an interpretor looking so trashy? So you're gonna waste my money four years for ajob you're not gonna do" ty daddy for being super supportive )

- Turns out choosing your major is kind of harder when you're stressed as fuck with a dad breathing down your neck and everybody expecting you to swing and hit this time around because, allegedly, "I'm smart, college shouldn't be a problem"

How colleges work by my dad: If you're smart you win. If you lose it's cause you're not smart enough.

- Went for Dutch-English-Russian cause why the fuck not, really. Basically every aspect of studies that I wanted to do (Criminology, Sociology, Journalism, etc.) all popped up in some fashion or another in the introduction to Translator-Interpreter, but apparently the fact that I am making such a huge switch from Chemistry makes it a LESS desirable option? I am making a major change from a course where I did essentially nothing right just because of how the course was, why is that a bad thing?!

I honestly have a lot of things in my life going on and I have to wait for them to go away. I know this is my own fault but I can't do anything about any of them right now so I still feel shitty having to feel bad without being able to do anything.

- Turns out choosing your major is kind of harder when you're stressed as fuck with a dad breathing down your neck and everybody expecting you to swing and hit this time around because, allegedly, "I'm smart, college shouldn't be a problem"

Ugh, just fuck this. Guilt and pressure are the worst motivators, please don't choose something without thinking it through just to please everyone.

I hope things get better for you soon :<

Ok here we go

last exam hopefully ever time

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got my SAT back a little while ago. I was hoping for at least 30 points higher, but I'll take what I got without too many complaints. Meanwhile I get to take my subject tests this Saturday, assuming public transportation isn't still flooded at that point and I can actually physically reach my test center.

Bringin' this back because apparently my rubbish time management skills will stick around and bite me in the ass in all school-related environments? It's not FTFO-worthy but I still want to write it down somewhere.

The bad news: I had an emergency meeting with my supervisor (my designated handler amongst the five English teachers) after I told her period one that I hadn't gotten anything organised for my lesson with her period 2. This is maybe the second, third time this has happened so she's taken the time to tell me that my predecessor wanted to recontract (like me), but was turned down because he couldn't manage deadlines for getting lesson plans to teachers on time (ditto).

The good news: She complimented me on my lesson plans, which are apparently full of good and creative ideas when I do eventually get them in. So if I do manage to get my shit together within the next month and a half, I've got a job for another year!

Ok, so storytime.

One of my first year classes (let's call them 1S) is a bit of a mission for me to handle - not because they're rowdy or obnoxious, but because they're so damn shy and quiet that getting them to contribute takes up more time than just giving them a few examples and getting them to choose.

I don't like running classes like that, so I try structure lessons so students get a chance to express their view. My Christmas lesson had a "write a letter to Santa" section, where students could write down something good they did and what they'd like for Christmas. (The level of English at this school is comparatively low, so they can call out suggestions and I write 'em up on the blackboard). This worked great with the more forthcoming classes, but I was anticipating an uphill struggle with 1S. When my co-pilot teacher for that class asked me to do a solo lesson, I was positively dreading it.

Luckily! We talked things through, she had a chat to the class, and I ran a really good lesson. I think it helped that the students relaxed a fuckton when I started speaking Japanese (which I'm allowed to do if I'm running a class by myself). I got lots of suggestions and the class was very animated, although I did field some weirder shit.


This one sprung up quite a few times.




There were three (comparatively) animated kids at the front of the class. One of them apparently had earlobes which were really nice to touch. I declined to verify this, but I feel my classes are about the kids learning to express themselves in English, so I wasn't going to shoot them down if they wanted to learn how to say things.

They were also talking about ゴキブリ all lesson, so I figured I'd teach them a new word. I drew a picture as well, but had to erase it off the blackboard because some people got upset at how realistic it was. I was very flattered.


This was the last activity for the lesson. Again, if the kids come up with an idea to the point they actually want to express it, I make sure to tell them how to say it in English. It's the same reason most of my Japanese vocabulary is biological!

On a less gross note, there were also some kids who　ゴロゴロしたい. So they learned to "relax".

If I'm not mistaken, Christmas cake and chicken for Christmas are uniquely Japanese things, right? Something about seeing them in an English lesson makes me feel weird. Like they've been codified. I don't know, I'm just thinking about the things that have become just universal truths in my mind just because they happened to happen.

Yeah! Japan has never been a Christian country, so it's an exclusively commercial thing with a uniquely Japanese twist on it. The day itself is a regular work day, and it's more often a day to go on a date or go out somewhere nice for dinner. "Eat chicken" and "eat/make christmas cake" is a lot more familiar to my students than anything along the lines of "Christmas dinner" or "unwrapping presents in the morning".

The chicken thing is unapologetic wholesale adoption of the holiday by KFC.

Christmas cake in Japan is strawberry shortcake; in England and New Zealand it's a fruitcake. This was something that surprised my kids when I explained it to them, too.

Culturally, the closest equivalent to our Christmas is their New Year. Most services close on New Years and there are religious trappings still observed by people who are into that kind of thing.

japanese cockroach nymphs have been observed to survive being frozen solid for 12 hours, being buried under ice, and crawling across said ice with zero impediment

I hate applying for university because it makes me talk about myself and that just reminds me of too many stupid things that happened to me in the past.

The fact that everyone else seems to think it is so easy does not help one bit.

I hate applying for university because it makes me talk about myself and that just reminds me of too many stupid things that happened to me in the past.

The fact that everyone else seems to think it is so easy does not help one bit.

Iso, I feel very much the same about it. I'm really glad I got into college early so I didn't have to send out as many applications.

I dread writing applications. I'm not good at making myself sound attractive to strangers. That's why I have trouble with interviews. And dating!

In other news I have 4 summer program applications to finish by February