My New Schedule

As a visiting teacher from Juneau, part of my role here is to teach and interact with the community at large. For four weeks now, I have been having an advanced English conversation class on Tuesday evenings. Mostly we just sit and chat. There are only about three or four women and one man who attend, so it’s pretty casual. I was originally scheduled to have a beginner class on Monday evenings. The start date kept changing. I lost count after the third change. Then, at the pre-school mother party that I attended a few weeks ago, some of the moms voiced a desire to go to my beginner class. Unfortunately, though, there was no way for them to attend an evening class. So, we talked and they had a meeting with the “powers that be”. This conversation resulted in a final and lasting change: my class moved to Thursday morning. As Thursday is my planning day only, I was perfectly happy with this.

Here’s the twist. The elementary teachers decided they really wanted to come to my beginner class! Now that it had moved to a morning, though, they couldn’t come. So, we talked some more, and I finally instigated a meeting with Mr. Kamaya. I proposed that I teach my regular Advanced English class at the same time (7 to 8:30, Tuesdays), and add a beginner class to be held from 6 until 7 on the same evening. No big deal for me. I will use the same lesson I use for my Thursday class. Well, after reassuring Mr. Kamaya and others that it was not too much work, I would be fine, and Aaron was supportive of this, they agreed to it. Hooray! I am excited to work with so many teachers who are interested in coming to a class. Tonight was our first night and there were nine people! (That’s big, for us). To top things off, Mr. Kamaya responded to my request very logically, I thought. He gave me Tuesday afternoons off. So now, my Tuesday schedule is to work from 8:30 until 12:30 (I have planning time, two classes at Kamiokoppe, and then eat lunch with the kids), go home until 6:00, and then teach from 6:00 until 8:30. What a deal! I was so surprised that he told me to just go home after Kamiokoppe on Tuesdays. I love this place!