Distraction

Today we had a track and field day at our school.  It was actually a competition between all of the schools in the area and so when I arrived this morning there was a bit of chaos as buses, coaches, and parents all tried to find parking.  In Japan there isn't much space so we don't really have a lot of parking.  Normally when there is "an event" everyone parks on the "playing field,"  but since the track was on the playing field, that didn't work.  Yeah, due to no space Japanese schools just have a large dirt area that is used for everything such as soccer, baseball, track & field, sports day, cultural day, etc  The school is directly behind this area so it is easy to see from inside the building.  Also, since our school just consists of a row of homerooms all in a row, the field can be seen from every classroom which had one whole wall made up of windows.  This made my job today a little tricky.

See, in America if there was going to be a big event like this it would be held after school or on a weekend.  But not in Japan.  They decided to have the event starting in the morning.  OK- good idea as the kids and staff will be done by the regular "school finished time."  But, bad idea because not all of the kids get to go to the track day.  Only those who have qualified (after racing in P.E.- about 4-10 from each class).  So, I got to go to class and try and teach students English while just outside of the windows could be heard the sounds of cheering, the announcer, and the starting pistols.  Ughhh....

We tried, we really did.  We skipped ahead in the textbook to the part where we get to study and sing "Hello, Good-bye" by the Beatles.  We taught "Do you know?" "Do you have?" "Do you like?" and let the kids ask Jane sensei ANYTHING they wanted.  we gave out stickers.  But alas, I ended up spending four class periods asking people to sit down, to stop looking out the windows, to please listen, to go back to their seats...

It was especially disappointing as usually this is one of the best days of the year.  The past two years the competition has been held at a different school and thus, with kids being gone from classes, things have been a bit quieter.  Also, because we can't go ahead without "everyone," we usually got to play fun games and have "English races."  But alas, this year I was stuck with the real races going on outside and with a teacher who, while doing what she thought of as fun, turned down my ideas of bingo (we were even studying numbers!!), using decks of cards, and ABC races.  Oh well... shoganai.