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| Don't look at my messy house! Here... look at this butterfly. I found it yesterday. Kiageha... Papilio machaon The Old World Swallowtail (the type species... yes, I know. I'm looking up butterfly taxonomies when I'm supposed to be cleaning my house...) This won't be a terribly long post--I've got house cleaning to do, as I mentioned-- because today is the day that *all* the moms are rushing around frantically cleaning their houses. Today is Katei-Chimon, the parent-teacher conference where the teacher comes to you, instead of the other way around. All the other parent-teacher meetings take place at school, except the first one of the year (usually right after Golden Week). For this first meeting, the teachers trek to all their students' homes (over the course of several days, and they go to all the students in a particular district/area one day...second area the next...and so on). So, actually, not *all* the moms... just the ones in this area. We're all frantically scrubbing. It's a traditional thing. The purpose is, ostensibly, to familiarize the teachers with the exact route their students take to school. But the real purpose is, as I understand it, to give the teacher an idea of what the child's home environment is like. Kids can be present or not during the meeting--often not, since they get out of school a little early on these days. Most kids take advantage of it to get extra outside play-time. At least, mine do. I won't be at all surprised if Koshi comes in carrying a bucket of tadpoles... or crawdads... dripping muddy water all over my clean genkan. *deep sigh* So I have to pick everything up and hide it all in the closet. Put all the laundry away. Put all the shoes away in the genkan. Get an old rag and get down on hands and knees and wipe up all the dirt (yesterday was baseball! *Moan* The sand... the sand...). Hang up laundry, fold laundry, put laundry away. Put futons out, bang futons, put futons away-- sometimes I think housekeeping in Japan is nefariously designed to keep women chained to the home... And take a shower. Gambarimasu! |
Monday, May 9, 2011
A Ra! Teacher's Coming!...
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I'm guessing not to look for you on Skype. If I keep reading your blog, I will soon know more Japanese than French! The butterfly is beautiful. Thanks for your wonderful nature photos.
ReplyDeleteThe home conferences sound like a good idea. At my first school, we were required to make at least two home visits per semester.
I think they're basically a good idea--Koshi's teacher asked about his desk because he'd said something about it. So I was able to show her what kind of study space he has at home.
ReplyDeleteBy all means, pick up Japanese by reading here:-)) There's a whole list of expressions I use farther down in the sidebar! Beth has picked up a *lot* of Japanese just talking to me, traveling here... (glad you enjoy the nature photos--I love taking them:-))
I love that idea! I wish it was plausible within our system. Having Sage's teacher(s) over would be great.
ReplyDeleteI think it's easier here because all the public schools are close. No school buses--all the kids live close enough to walk to school since all the schools are neighborhood schools. Makes it easy for the teachers to get around to all their students' homes:-))
ReplyDeleteAACK! Problems posting--as in... I *can't*. Something weird seems to be happening with Blogger-- I can comment, look at posts... but can't write new posts or edit. The wait wheel just keeps going interminably round and round and it doesn't let me type. Only the title. Grrrr... I have no idea how long it will take Google engineers to fix the problem (doesn't seem to have anything to do with the browser, either-- I use Firefox, didn't work. Went briefly back into IE to see if the same problem would surface--yup. No dice.). Other people seem to be having the same problem, mainly in Australia and Asia. *No* clue.
ReplyDeleteSo, I'll post as soon as I can--but this time, it's not my fault! Really! Bad Blogger, Bad!
Posting Update: Blogger problem appears to be fixed!
ReplyDelete