Summertime

We’ve just gone through a historic heat wave and it’s only June, the summer has barely begun. It’s cooled down a little bit as of writing this which is great because the kids have just entered their test week. The downside is that I would bet very few of them have actually managed to get much learning done in the last couple of days due to the heat, but at least we’re back to manageable temperature now. Due to at least having portable AC the days are a lot more manageable for me once I get home, but the nights are awful. I can’t sleep in the heat and the AC is way too loud to leave on at night. When I do leave the AC on at night, I’ll at least be somewhat comfortable, but there will be no sleeping. So last night – I’m writing this on Monday – was the first good night’s rest I’ve had in a week. And now, let’s talk about what the end of the school year looks like for a teacher and what plans I have for this blog in the upcoming weeks. Spoiler alert, I’m keeping it simple this year, no big promises, but hopefully some pleasant consistency. But first.

It’s test week for the kids. Which means they have no classes, but (usually) 2 tests a day. Putting aside the efficacy of this system, it makes for a very boring week for us teachers. For starters, we have to be there to take the tests, often with a random class and a random subject as all classes will do the same test at the same time. Of course, towards the end of the test – which tends to run for either 50 or 100 minutes – the kids who have already finished their test get rather bored. How do they think I feel? After writing this post I have another class to go with 30 kids. That is not going to be fun for anyone involved, but it is what it is. At least there’s only three weeks of this a year. After that is done, we’ll have to mark all their tests of course and where we usually have three weeks after a test to get their grades ready, in this case we have much less time due to the fact that we need all their grades before we decide who goes where.

That’s what the final two weeks are for. Resits where necessary and then deciding where to send each kid. If their grades are perfectly adequate, they simply advance to the next year at the level they’re at. If their grades are exceptional, they might even go up a level, although this very rarely happens beyond the first year. If their grades are not high enough, then there’s often much to discuss. Either they repeat the year or they go down a level depending on the situation. Sometimes they even continue on to the next year anyway, if there are other factors in play. A lot of the more clearcut ones are discussed before I ever get involved as a language teacher so these meetings are often not that much work for me. And when that’s done, all that’s left is to give them the good or bad news and get ready for the summer.

As for the summer, I don’t really have big plans this year. I finished my assessment at uni and only have two essays left that I’m leaving for after the summer is over. Of course there will be no work from mid-July until the end of August, which is one of the big perks of being a teacher. As for this blog, I want to spend some time updating the pages and layout of the blog, as it’s become a bit of a mess lately. Despite keeping up with most of the posts I’ve planned, I’ve not done a great job of actually putting links to the different chapters and such in the right places. Besides that, I want to get some work done on The Hesitant Hero volume 1. It’s currently coming along relatively well, but the latter one-third of the story still needs to be revised and since that is where by far the most things happen, it requires me to stay properly focused and make sure I’m happy with everything. But with six or seven weeks (man I both love and hate that meme) of free time, I am hopefully going to be able to finish a final draft of the first volume. 

Alongside all of that I want to keep giving you your weekly chapters of volume 5 as well as get a start on what I want to do with volume 6 next year. I’m hoping to bring the end of volume 4 and the end of volume 5 together in volume 6 as we head towards the next big arc in this story, the beginnings of which we’re already seeing in Mirgia’s story as strange dungeons are starting to pop up on the continent of Palaria. There’s a manga called Magi that I absolutely love which has this concept as well, where dungeons suddenly appear and people conquer them to become kings. Obviously that’s quite a bit different from what is happening in the Hesitant Hero, but I’ve always wanted to write something like what I read about in Magi, and I’m happy to finally be doing it. It’s also giving me some experience in creating dungeons – which I’ve always found difficult because making puzzles sound interesting and fair isn’t something I’m good at. I want the characters in my other story to investigate some dungeons too, so this is good practice.

And that pretty much sums up what I am planning to do in the upcoming few weeks. Outside of these plans I want to spend a lot of time resting up and preparing for the next school year. I’ll be teaching more classes next year so I’ll be a bit more busy, but hopefully the final essays I need for uni will be done soon and that will free up the time needed for this extra class. Now then, I need to get ready for my next two hours of test surveillance. As a little sneak-peek, in July I’ll post a review of Witch Hat Atelier as well as the Fragrant Flower Manga. I’ll also finally post my top 10 manga list of all time, which has gone through many iterations. Look forward to it and thanks for reading!