Personnel transfer results are out! the ones for schools were published after school, to allow teachers to concentrate on their classes, i imagine. like last year, i'm satisfied with the result. i might go as far as to say i'm by far and large happy with them. let's break it down by school:

secondary school A (smaller)

the maths teacher is moving back to secondary school C

the principal is retiring

the english teacher is staying!

secondary school C (larger)

one english teacher is transferring out of town, the other is going to the primary school

one of the maths teachers, one of the social studies teachers, the japanese language teacher, and the music teacher are transferring out

the principal is retiring

primary school C

the principal is retiring

one teacher is retiring, while another is resigning

the english teacher is staying!

i don't have the full picture, because there are some contract staff whose info isn't posted in the prefectural transfer notice. and since tomorrow is a holiday, i'll only get all the info later in the week. based on the info that i have now, i'll say that i'm extremely happy that the bigger school is getting a complete swap of english teachers (excluding yours truly, of course). they're great people, but the way they teach is brute-force memorization, which is a huge turn-off! hopefully the new teachers are better at teaching.

a couple things are making me uneasy, though. all three principals are changing. as i've learnt, my happiness and flexibility levels in the school are influenced in a large part by the leadership. it could go either way, of course; i don't know the new principals yet. just hoping for the best. in the extreme worst-case scenario, i can pull out a couple of trump cards - one being "stupid foreigner" (it's less effective now) and the other being "board of education intervention". the latter is a real bridge-burning move though, so unless the principal or new english teacher is completely insufferable, i have no plans to use it.

separately, i noticed that a few young teachers quit. the cute maths teacher from when i just got here, and a teacher in the primary school, to name two examples this year. i always thought that teaching was a lifelong career in japan, but apparently that's not so. i'm happy for them, though. it's my bias, but i think that at least in this rural area, teaching isn't very rewarding. and i mean that both in a financial sense and in a fulfilment/achievement sense. my colleagues in the office told me that teachers may quit from the prefectural education system to move to another prefecture or to a private school, so it's still premature to congratulate them on leaving teaching. but wherever they end up, i hope it's an improvement over their current situation, and that they're happy/happier.

my left shoulder has been feeling out of sorts recently. think i hyperextended it while playing with the kids a couple of weeks ago. it's nothing major, but occasionally there'll be a movement that brings about a jolt of discomfort. i'm really getting old! should look into visiting the chiropractor. still haven't found out whether the national health insurance will cover it. that's something for me to do this spring break. speaking of which, i've submitted my leave plans. i think i'm working mostly half days, with a couple full days off. should still have plenty of leeway to take leave next term.

-random thought of the day: Talk about feeling happy for people.-