Tomo totally rocks

I love this guy. He is my angel at The Zoo.

1. On our way to class today he says to me that he talked to the VP and I don’t have to go back to 2-3 again, or at least if I do, Yutaro will not be in the class. He managed to get the concession which I tried for last round. And saved me as I was gearing up for further battle. Instant mood improvement today 🙂

2. He is equally baffled and incredulous at the attitudes of other teachers, especially Iwahashi. He talked to her yesterday then told me about it and said he thought she was covering for Yutaro and trying to excuse his behaviour. Tomo and I discussed how it seems the other teachers have mostly gotten used to how bad things are and so don’t jump up and down and shout about things which just. aren’t. right. He also said yesterday that he would refuse to go back to 2-3 if he were I. Wow. Just having that support; the support of one native teacher there, made me feel much stronger about putting my foot down. It is so nice, so good to be able to speak my true mind to a JTE and to have them understand where I’m coming from and agree with me. Suddenly I feel like hey, I’m not so off-track after all. (which by the way, I was getting from all who responded to my post on Friday, but it does get muffled when I’m surrounded by completely different mindsets and I’m the only odd one out)
He also told me later that the VP hadn’t actually been told all the details of what happened -I assumed Ohashi sensei had told him the details but she hadn’t, and I’d been too upset to, not to mention it would be difficult for me to explain properly in Japanese. So Tomo told him exactly what happened and said the VP was upset about it all, especially about me being spat at. Tomo is also trying to get other teachers to start telling the VP about other things which go on during classes. Now that he’s figured that the VP doesn’t know everything that goes on, he’s encouraging everyone to keep the VP informed and not just assume that he knows.

3. He invited me to some sort of teachers’ bowling competition tomorrow and said they could slot me in somewhere. This is the second time he’s included me in something school related of which I’ve had no idea about. Guess how many times The Zoo has ever included me in stuff? That’s right, twice!

4. He can control a class and students listen to him. Today two boys were mucking around, just usual stuff – taking rulers and pencils off each other sort of thing. They upgraded to chasing each other outside the classroom at which point I followed them and told them to go back inside. I was totally not stressed by them, but before I could settle them down and talk to them, Tomo saw what had happened and immediately came over to deal with them. He seperated them and talked seriously to the boy who instigated it. When the boy kept disrupting his friends, Tomo made him stand up until we started the activity.
He apologised to me and later said he just couldn’t believe it when some of his students played up while I was there. He was so sweet. He told me I can just leave the classroom, or tell the students to leave anytime. I told him they didn’t worry me and I probably would’ve done as he had done, but that I appreciated having a JTE who would do that because they can say things more effectively than I can. If only Japanese flowed out as smoothly as English for me.

I can’t believe what a Godsend he is for me at The Zoo.
Thank-you universe.