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Today there's the big final project presentation for the Super Science track for my 1st year students. Some of my kids invited me, so I'm just killing time until it starts.
The end of the school year is coming up at the end of March and so next week is exams. It's interesting to me that they have a good 3 weeks after exams before the semester ends, in which they'll have to go to class and do homework and study all the same, but I guess they just trust their students in different ways than we do. In the States you could never get away with that, kids would check out for sure. When I ask my students, however, they say they would never dream of slacking off because they still need to study hard for the impending new school year.
The break between school years is only about two weeks, one week officially, which is also surprising to me. Though it's not such a big deal going between grades, that feels like a big rush for going between school levels. Especially university! Sure, the third year students don't have classes for their last semester, but they take the last of their entrance exams this weekend, and then they'll finally know what university they're allowed to go to, and come April they need to be packed up and moved to a new college city. I can't imagine what it's like to just up and move to Tokyo or Kyoto in less than a month's notice and have all of your personal life and academic life organized. I guess you know if you have a shot at your school of choice or not so you can start prepping physically and emotionally, but still, it seems there's a lot of uncertainty there. I'm guessing the enrollment process is a lot more streamlined than ours.
I've been really good at getting things done and studying Japanese lately, and yesterday I even began studying for the GRE. I very much enjoy not having classes! There are a few things I don't want to do on my to-do list, but in the grand scheme of things it's nothing terrible, just me dragging my feet.
This weekend is another meeting, which means a little ALT party/putz times and I'll start my first stint as Secretary for our ALT government. Wheeee!
The end of the school year is coming up at the end of March and so next week is exams. It's interesting to me that they have a good 3 weeks after exams before the semester ends, in which they'll have to go to class and do homework and study all the same, but I guess they just trust their students in different ways than we do. In the States you could never get away with that, kids would check out for sure. When I ask my students, however, they say they would never dream of slacking off because they still need to study hard for the impending new school year.
The break between school years is only about two weeks, one week officially, which is also surprising to me. Though it's not such a big deal going between grades, that feels like a big rush for going between school levels. Especially university! Sure, the third year students don't have classes for their last semester, but they take the last of their entrance exams this weekend, and then they'll finally know what university they're allowed to go to, and come April they need to be packed up and moved to a new college city. I can't imagine what it's like to just up and move to Tokyo or Kyoto in less than a month's notice and have all of your personal life and academic life organized. I guess you know if you have a shot at your school of choice or not so you can start prepping physically and emotionally, but still, it seems there's a lot of uncertainty there. I'm guessing the enrollment process is a lot more streamlined than ours.
I've been really good at getting things done and studying Japanese lately, and yesterday I even began studying for the GRE. I very much enjoy not having classes! There are a few things I don't want to do on my to-do list, but in the grand scheme of things it's nothing terrible, just me dragging my feet.
This weekend is another meeting, which means a little ALT party/putz times and I'll start my first stint as Secretary for our ALT government. Wheeee!