Lately my house arrest/work days have been seeming like actual work as I suddenly find myself putting in some actual effort. This is about to change.

I’ve finally reached the actual vacation part of my vacation which made today more pleasant than usual. Yes, I had to “work” and was surprised when I actually spent a lot more time than usual on the project. This might be partly out of boredom.

Now that actual vacation is starting, my bad habits can return for two glorious weeks before I have to do another week of house arrest/work before actually work starts at the school where I work.

As a result of all this, there’s not much to report except that there’s not a lot to report.

I went early to discover there were no problems. Then I got stuck, which was a problem.

Today the English Club at the school where I work was preparing for their open campus presentations. At least one teacher had to be present to, in theory, check their scripts and critique their presentations. In the end, all we did was open a room and then babysit. Sort of.

I went early to see if I had to make a make-up exam. I didn’t, so I sat in on the prep classes. I proofed the script of one student. Then I just sat and waited. Unfortunately they were in the computer assisted language lab which meant that at least one teacher had to be present at all times.

My colleague left at lunch. I stayed another four hours. (Note: He’d stayed for a couple hours after school last Friday, so we are, technically, even.)

Somewhere in there I got lunch by throwing students out of the CALL. Then I drank some coffee, unlocked the call,  and did my best to stay awake until 4:00.

All I did, and I wish I was joking, was entertain a student who was bored. Because I’ve studied the history of Christianity and the history of religion, he wanted to chat about religion and history.

That kept me awake, but in the end all I did was serve as key master and babysitter.

Of course, the session lasted long enough that a nasty thunderstorm arrived and I got to walk home in the rain. Yeah, it was that kind of day.

Tomorrow I have to go back to work. I hope my brain doesn’t suffer from the shock.

To make matters worse, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m only sure, sort of, that I know what I’m not doing. Although I may be doing it.

For reasons I’m not privy to, open campus at the school where I work is on the 22nd instead of today (Marine Day) when it has been in the past. This gives the high school English club extra time to practice their presentations. In the past they’ve played guitars and sung songs and even tap danced. They’ve also given speeches and done power point presentations which are usually a mix of English and Japanese.

My job will be to listen/stay awake and provide feedback. This is fairly painless.

On the other hand, if anyone is failing high school second year, I’ll have to throw together a make up assignment that I’ll have to pass out tomorrow. Granted, at this point no news is usually good news, but you never know.

I could be in for a big shock. Well, at least it seems big after a couple days of doing absolutely nothing.

Today was the last of classes for the term. It was mostly painless, although I did embarrass myself and annoy a student.

During a test pass back class, the student found an entire section of his test that I hadn’t bothered to mark. I did, however, give him a score for the exam. Usually I notice such mistakes when I’m doing the final accounting.

After apologizing profusely, I marked the missing section and made him sad. Out of a potential ten extra points he earned only two. He left looking kind of glum.

After class I completed all the required paper work, turned in every thing that needed to be turned in and then made arrangements for my final marks to be checked.

Normally, I’d be finished, but one week from tomorrow is open campus. I don’t have to go to open campus, but I do have to go to the school where I work next week to help the English club get ready for open campus. I’ll get a short preview of what I’m missing and try to make it better.

It’s something to do, but I wish it could have been scheduled on a day I have nothing to do so that I’d get credit for doing something and then could get a day where I don’t have to do anything.

Confused? Welcome to the end of the term.

Sometimes they surprise you. At least for a while. But not for a whole class.

I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

Pass-back classes are a strange thing. We have 50 minutes to do 15-25 minutes worth of work. The rest of the time is spent babysitting. We’ve discussed with the powers what are at the school where I work getting a shorter class, but that involves paperwork and that one teacher who likes to fill the time. (We hate them; we really hate them.)

Usually, I’m entertaining myself during the second half of the class, but today my junior high school students kept me busy.

Several students in each class worked on their summer homework and kept peppering me with questions. I was then torn between helping them or telling them to shut up and waste time like everyone else so that I could work on my own stuff.

However, since four of my five classes today were lower level classes I decided I should probably help them out as a way to encourage them.

When I wasn’t helping them do their summer homework, I was smacking down attempts to get extra points. This also helped make the day productive.

I kind of miss having time to myself, though. Next term I may just refuse to help.

After two marathon marking sessions in two days I’ve finished marking all my final exams. I’ve also completed all the final marks. This seems like a good thing.

However, by finishing marking final exams days ahead of my usual schedule, I’ve done my psyche an incredible disservice.

One of the advantages of having work to do at home is that you don’t have to think about the  other projects  you’re not doing. You can always tell yourself “Can’t do that now, I have too much to do.” Then, the paid work expands to fill any available time so that you never have to do the other projects.

However, for reasons I can’t fully explain, I’ve already finished marking all the exams of all my classes. I’ve done this with a full weekend to spare. This means I’m now revising my weekly plans.

Complicating things even further, I’ve already finished exams that aren’t due until next Friday, which leaves me a third day to fill.

I’m now sorting through several layers of denial and excuses to formulate a new plan.

Marking may kill me in the end the same way it kills people in the cheap seats on airplanes.*

Because I’m in an atypical “Git r Done” mood I’ve done a couple things I usually don’t do. 1) I’ve decided not to attend this year’s International Stationery and Office Products Fair Tokyo and 2) I’ve actually sat down to work until I’m finished.

It’s the latter that may kill me.

I spent the day in my office chair marking student exams. I did nothing else (well, unless you count watching Marvel’s Iron Fist as background noise but that didn’t involve actually standing up.**)

I’ve made a shocking amount of progress, but I also skipped my usual evening exercise time.

Besides blood clot risk, I also run the risk of having what’s left of my brain turn to jelly as I read student writing.

*(Note: I’m counting the effects of sitting for a long time, not the effects of being beaten unconscious and dragged off by United Airlines staff.)

(**Note the Second: Iron Fist is better than I was expecting and has a great supporting cast but, like Marvel’s Daredevil, it suffers from having a shockingly uncharismatic lead actor.)

If I were smart, I’d stop doing this bit of blather for a few days.

The trouble is 1) if I get in the habit of not writing then this bit of blather will slowly fade away and 2) I’m not smart.

However, the end of term and exam marking time is fairly boring. All I have to report is that there’s nothing to report. I could mock my students’ exams, especially their long writing sections, but thus far the exams haven’t been entertainingly bad. Also, the long writing sections, at least on the second year junior high school exam, are fairly easy.

Eventually, though, my mood will turn and things might get more interesting.

Until then, I’d better get back to marking. Or at least to convincing myself that’s what I should be doing.