When you train to be a teacher, they don't warn you about the two weeks before Christmas and how NUTS kids get. It's worse than a shark feeding frenzy.
Between the stories about Santa Claus and the days spent making crafts (crap fairs, we used to call them) and the eating of the candy and the parties? I told dh it's like all 480 had crack for breakfast.
Which is why I'm begging off at the moment. I have received so many wonderful comments that I want to answer, and just don't have the time. Not to mention no primary mail account access at school. Not that I would answer e-mails at work, no, not me. That's when accidents happen. *cough* *cough*
I will leave you with this funny little tidbit, though. I am teaching kids whose primary language is not the English, starting soon. As a native speaker, I just lose focus of all the funny little twists in the English Language. The other teacher, whom I will be replacing, was working on her new schedule. It's quite a doozy. Blah blah blah teacher speak juggling kids blah blah blah, and she said, "By George! I think I've got it, thanks to you!"
As soon as this was out of her mouth one of the kids turned to me and said, with a disturbed look on his face, "Your name's George?"
English. It's what's for breakfast.
Tell me when it's Friday.
P.S. What do you tell the Buddhist kid to write on his Non-Christmas/Holiday card?
Hmm... what should a Buddhist kid right on a Holiday card? In a really bad fat bastard accent, "Get in my belly!" You know... so he can look more like Buddha?
Or maybe, "Want to rub my belly and see what happens?"
Ah, I just took a whole course on teaching students where English isn't the first language. Wait, all we learned about was policy regarding bilingual instruction in the US. That class sucked. But I might have some tips, if you're interested. Depends on what you're looking at.
Actually, you could focus more on New Years instead, since that holiday is a lot more imporant to Japanese than Christmas. Most Japanese consider Christmas to be a "lovers" holiday. The love hotels get packed during this time of year.
Awh crap, I messed up the trackback and forgot to put in my URL.... here it is
http://kaonashigasuki.blogspot.com/2004/12/christmas-in-japan_17.html