Geezers

I had the most "day care" day care day today of all my days of day care days.

I went through my self-introduction (this was the last school I'll be working at that I still hadn't been to), questions, played Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, then did some other question thing I don't remember, and the class was starting to lulllllllll I was about an hour in and still had half an hour left okay now is the time to pull out my secret weapon I had been thinking of the whole time...RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT.

That's right. These four, magical words, which are really only three but so enchanted they seem like four, named the game that was a smashing success at Midori Day Care. Those kids got into it so much I had to move all the way to the back of the room just so they didn't get to me on the first green light. But the real kick-off was when I asked if any of them wanted to be "it." They were shy at first, but after one intrepid child volunteered, and they all saw how fun it was, every hand in the room was raising up after every round! And they started to get really good at it too, utilizing the red lights quite skillfully, although they usually just said, "Stop!" first. At one point, one of the boys was faced with a mob of day care kids all staring right at him right in the face from no more than half a foot away. He weighed his options, thought, and then, with the look of a pirate driving his ship right into the ocean's cruel waves, or man leaving life to fate as he jumps into a pit of snarling dogs, said that one word that would seal his fate, "Green," and they were upon him. Smiling! Laughing! Giggling! Drooling! Falling on the floor! Looking around with bright, shiny eyes! And I was beside him, engulfed in the flood of happiness, too.

Today marks the day I finally got drooled on by a day care kid (more than once), had to take a kid off of my back as I gave my lesson (same one that drooled on me), had to deal with multiple kids who started crying when it was their turn to say their name and favorite food, and drank warm milk from a kiddy cup during snack time. Actually the milk made me feel pretty weird, as in grossed out, which was only exacerbated by the kids coming up to me and opening their dried-snot-and-milk crusted mouths in my face, but hey it was allllllright.

I think it might actually be a special needs day care, but I'm not sure. I got the impression there was a higher number of special needs kids there than in the other schools I've been to. The two teachers were definitely doing more direct intervening to keep some kids still, or in her clothes in one case, and a couple of other kids were allowed to leave and go outside as they pleased. But some of the other kids seemed fine, so if it isn't a special needs day care, maybe they just have more special needs kids. The teachers didn't tell me anything, though, in comparison to the teachers at one of the elementary schools I work at who introduced some of their kids directly to me as having Downs Syndrome or ADHD.

In any case, I had a lot of fun with the kids, and they all seemed to enjoy their time with me, so I'm glad. And they learned the words "green," "red," and "yellow" really well!

Also, in every class I have with this one group of first years at middle school, I have to go through this whole routine about the date and weather that ends with, "Is anybody absent today?" and the answer is ALWAYS "Mr. Shimizu is absent." I'm starting to wonder what the heck that is all about. Well, not start wondering, I've been wondering like since I noticed he'd been absent for about a month and a half. The English teacher mentioned during class last week that he saw "Mr. Shimizu" at school after hours practicing guitar with the music teacher, but that's about all I know. Before then, I thought he might be a special needs student, because, from what I've heard, most teachers, at least in middle school and above, pretty much pretend like there is nothing going on with the student and don't give her or him any sort of special attention until something drastic happens, like they need to be restrained in class. So maybe everyone just got used to the fact that this kid is absent from class everyday? But if he was playing guitar with the music teacher after school? I'm not sure, but it's probably not my business to try to find out. I'll just see what happens.

I am a little concerned about this one student being bullied in class and the teacher not doing anything about it at all, even after I tell him what is going on. I've heard of pretty serious things coming out of bullying in Japanese schools (well in any country's schools, now that I think about it), so I'm going to keep my eye on the situation. I don't want to be overbearing toward the teacher, but to me bullying should be stopped asap, especially when it affects students so that they can't do their best in class, which was the case last week with this boy. He seemed okay today though, smiling and laughing with friends, so I felt better. I'm hoping things will get better.

Man, that post went into a downer real fast. Really though, today was great. I got along better with the English teacher I work with and even got to eat some super delicious honeydew melon the cafeteria lady brought in because I came back to the middle school after working at day care just because I felt it would be a good thing to do. Mmm, it was so juicy and good. Then I went home. So...I'm pretty tired and off to whatever weird dreams I may have tonight! I hope everybody's having an awesome day and night.