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| photo credit: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/416512665509510615/ |
"Nobody informs me about schedule changes," complained a number of ALT's I know.
I used to complain about this too during my first months as an ALT. There were mornings when I'd go to school and enter an empty staff room. Turns out, everyone should be in the gym for a program.
There were also some days when I'd go to a class and there's another teacher readying to teach my class. I didn't know that class periods were changed.
Then, some days I thought that I don't have a class when I actually do have. Again, thanks to schedule changes.
Now, I'm a person of habits and I like following a regular schedule. If a regular schedule is not possible, I like to be prepared for changes. I get stressed out when changes happen suddenly so I decided to find a way to know what exactly is going on in the school. I want to know why everybody knows the daily schedule except for me.
It wasn't really hard to figure out. All the while, the answer was staring at my face. Literally.
There's a big board by my desk with Japanese writings on them. I didn't bother reading what's on the board because they're in Japanese. I didn't think I'd understand them. But, I did!
I understood a portion of what's written on the board. It's the daily schedule of the school. They change it every so often, I didn't recognize at first. No wonder everybody knows. The schedule board is staring down at all of us, teachers and staff. How did I miss that?!
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| This is the school's schedule board. The top portion indicates the date. The next line states the day and the class period. The kanji written in white and red are memos on what's happening on that day. |
Not only is there a schedule board but I realized that the piles of paper in my pigeonhole are memos with monthly schedules on them. I just didn't bother checking them. (Honestly, I didn't even know I have my own pigeonhole in the school the first months.)
All along, the school is informing me about school changes in their standard way. It was me who's not informing myself. I was expecting to be treated specially instead of finding my way to the school system.
All along, the school is informing me about school changes in their standard way. It was me who's not informing myself. I was expecting to be treated specially instead of finding my way to the school system.
Next time, somebody complains to me with nobody-informs-me-about-schedule-changes, I'll probably send this post to them. People just gotta learn by themselves, sometimes!
