Last week was teacher switch day! The crazy time where all the teachers meet in the main office and Vice Principal receives a call from the Principal and the teacher that gets called is definitely getting switched. It feels different from last year. I feel more “in the know” so to speak as opposed to last year when everything was new. So, instead of being confused and wondering why all the teachers came to my office, I went to the library to chat with a few of the female teachers then we all walked together to my former office. I certainly don’t miss the room lol. I knew all the teachers that got called down. I was talking with one of the science teachers and he was explaining that most of the time, one or two teachers from every subject gets switched so one of my JTEs will definitely be transferred.
It wasn’t my supervisor who was switched; it was the other female JTE. Damnit. I was hoping it’d be the older male teacher but he knows he won’t be at risk for transfer for a while. Everyone wants to stay here because it’s close to the city so it’s one of the best places to be. Well, I mean, I’m leaving anyway but I’m glad that the next ALT will get my supervisor. She’s a bit flaky and wishy-washy, but she’s better than most. I wasn’t too upset about the 9 teachers being transferred because I barely spoke to them, but I certainly was shocked about the JTE. I wasn’t upset though because I KNOW she wants to leave because of the academic school JTE who is a bastard to her. She thinks that he has it out for her, but unfortunately I don’t think he cares about her enough to even THINK that much about it. They did have a couple of awkward moments where he yelled at her in the middle of the hallway during cleaning time so teachers and students were milling about. He got angry at her because she didn’t “properly thank him” for a favor she asked of him. I have to be honest: he MIGHT have a small point, but the guy is a bit of a prick lol. He’s asked me and other teachers for favors but he never thanked us, so he’s a hypocrite. That’s not all he is though.
What happened was her son suddenly got ill so she had to take a paid holiday on one Friday afternoon. She usually writes up weekend homework for the students and hands it out but this time she had to leave early because of her son. While they teach different students, all of their students are in the same class, just separate whenever the teachers have them, so she asked if he would be kind enough to print out the homework he has for his students and give them to her students as well. He said fine and he did it. On the following Monday, she was back in school and she was so busy because she had a full day of classes. Nevertheless, she hadn’t seen him for the whole day until he went to her during cleaning time and yelled at her. Wow. After that day she would avoid him whenever possible and tell me how much she hates him lol. My supervisor would act all high and mighty about it and how she thinks she’s being a petulant child and complaining about nothing….until they had their own argument. Her tune changed real quick lol.
In any case, after I found out she got switched I went to her room to chat with her. I asked her where she’s going and all that. She told me that she’s going to the commercial high school. I asked her if that’s good and she said it is because it’s still in Miyazaki City. Another thing she said was, “I CAN say goodbye to him.” Well, when thinking about it like that, it’s a great thing lol.
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So….I got sick. I got sick in the first week of November, then two weeks went by before I got the flu. I’ve never gotten sick back to back before so it was a bit of a hassle when it happened not to mention I had Interview Tests to do for my kids so I needed to be there for preparation and the actual interview day. I had a Mid Year Seminar with the company that I got my job from and since this is my second year, I had to do a presentation. I didn’t really want to go, but it’s not optional -.-. So, I worked with a fellow ALT and put together a presentation for the new people here. I hope they learned something, but at the same time I’m not really sure what they needed. I made sure that they asked me questions, simply because after that day I won’t really see them so if I can give them any kind of information then I’ll try my best. I think it went alright…other than the fact that I got the flu from SOMEONE there -.-. I’m alright now though, so don’t worry XD.
Last week Monday was a “Labor Thanksgiving Day,” whatever that means since no one celebrates Thanksgiving, so I had a day off. Tuesday was a substitute holiday for my base school because of the Cultural Festival on Saturday, which I didn’t go to because I got sick. Sigh. I ended up taking one paid leave day on Wednesday because I still wasn’t feeling well enough to stand up for a total of 2 hours and talk without having a coughing fit. That night I got a phone call from the Vice Principal, which is a little weird….to be honest. Since he’s the one in charge of everyone’s paid vacation and such, it felt like I was in trouble or something lol. I mean I don't think the VP makes it a habit of calling teachers, but I guess I was a “special case.” He asked me how I was feeling, and then he just came out and said that I should take two more days off. In Japan if you have the flu, they believe that it takes 7 days for you to feel better and for you to no longer be contagious. It’s a little ridiculous since they count it right down to the first day that I started feeling symptoms, which was Friday night. However, I wasn’t going to argue with the VP, but I told him that I was feeling better and that I should be able to come in to work tomorrow. It was mainly because I didn’t want to have to take my paid vacation days because they think that I should stay home, but I really did think that I’d be alright!
I felt a little groggier than I thought I would, but I still felt well enough to go. So I go into work on Thursday with a mask on (-.-) because the VP told me to wear one. My supervisor comes in, sees me with a mask on, then freaks out lol. I told her that I was alright and not to worry because I told the VP that I was fine. It was like she didn’t even hear me because she told me that she was going to ask the VP if I can get sick leave for the rest of the week….really? Okay! You can ask him lol. Note that I didn’t ask her to go to the VP and request I take sick leave, it was her feeling quite paranoid about my flu because she sits right next to me. She comes back 5 minutes later, says that she got the “O.K.” from the VP and told me to go home. Well…..the last thing I would do is disagree with the VP and my supervisor………see ya! It was great! I still had a slight cough but everything else was fine, so it was a nice surprise even though I came in expecting to work. So I had two free days off because my supervisor didn’t want to get sick. Fine by me!
When I went back into work on Tuesday (remember I have a different school on Monday), I got a lot of the “Are you okay?” questions because I guess it got around that I got the flu. Thanks for asking and caring guys, but I feel fine. I had to meet with the VP and he told me that I have to write down that I took sick leave, everyone has to keep track of their own sick leave and paid leave. Sick leave is quite rare, but I managed to get it without asking for it. So the VP tells me to put me down on sick leave from the 21st to the 27th. I remembered that I took paid leave on the Wednesday of that week, but I guess it didn’t count. Great! It pays off to be a good ALT and rarely miss a day of work because everyone freaks out when something goes wrong. So, I had to play catch up, write two listening tests in one day, then plan for the remaining interview tests, while doing the recording for both listening tests. After the ALT seminar almost two weeks ago, and getting sick last week, it feels like I haven’t seen these people in a while. Ya know….it feels nice to be back.