Monday, September 20, 2010
Sports Festival Pics
I did take a handful of photos and videos from the sports festivals this weekend, but if you want to see them you'll have to ask me in email directly. Since the photos contain some pictures of my students, I can't post them publicly on the web.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Sports Festival #2 and #3
Here in Amakusa town and all around the Amakusa town, the majority of elementary schools are having their sports festivals. Having attended one sports festival already (and having had a great time at said sports festival), I couldn't wait to see what was in store for the ones this weekend.
Unfortunately for me, three of my elementary schools had sports festivals this weekend, meaning I had to choose which ones to go to and which ones not to go to. The decision made was to go to the one in my village of residence, Takahama, and the one in the neighboring village of Ooe (the third one, in Fukuregi, was a little too far away since my car is currently running low on gas, thanks to a disastrous detour on the 280 from Kawaura to Takahama, a path that leads straight through the mountains).
Takahama Elementary, as I might have mentioned before, is the one school that I still haven't quite figured out yet. The children there don't really seem to take an interest in me, are sort of rowdy, and end up coming off as sort of rude (by Japanese standards). This may be because they are just a little more afraid of me than some of the other elementary school kids and thus are less willing to ask me questions and such; I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt here. Anyway, I try my best to hang out with them and make small talk when I can.
Notable events from the Takahama sports festival include 1.) the firefighter race and 2.) the soccer bounce relay. In the firefighter race, kids had to race to a bucket filled with water guns, stand and squirt a little red paper flame until it fell off of its tissue paper support, read a description of a person written on a card attached to the paper flame, and then throw a hula hoop over the corresponding person in the audience and drag them to the finish. Descriptions of those to be rescued included someone wearing glasses, someone wearing (color) shirt, a (number) year student, etc. I was eventually roped in as a person wearing white and dragged to the finish line. Yeah!
The soccer bounce relay was fun because I got to participate! Yes, my selfish side is showing again, but watching all of these kids play these fun games makes you want to get out there and have fun too. In this race, adults (in this case, my team of teachers) had to strap a milk crate to their backs, bounce a soccer ball against the ground, and then catch the ball in the crate on your back before it hits the ground a second time. It's not a skill that is used in many American sports, but luckily I only had a little bit of trouble getting my soccer balls into my crate and then running the half lap around the track. The teachers' team came in last, but it was totally NOT my fault. Really.
Before I left for Ooe, I watched one more game in which the kids had to potato sack race to the center of the field, grab a soccer ball, and then throw it at a cardboard cut out of some anime character before racing on foot to the finish line. Why can't they have these games in America, with little card board cut outs of Mickey Mouse or something?
At Ooe, I arrived just in time to see the taiko performance and enjoy lunch with the principal and a whole bunch of other old guys. Though I'm trying my best to have my teachers stop treating me like a guest and more like a coworker, I'm still often thrust into the company of the more respected (read 'old') guests where I have to endure at least an hour of Japanese that I can't understand while smiling and trying to keep good posture/look like I'm paying attention.
Back to fun time. After lunch, the Ooe kids performed their cheering dances to a team of judges (including me o_0) as part of the day's red-vs-white-team competition. Though the red team had a funny skit involving a 6th grade boy dressing up as Sailor Moon and rescuing a poor 1st grader, the most points were awarded to the white team for a.) dancing to one of my favorite J-pop songs b.) actually having a more impressive dance routine and c.) actually being more energetic than the other team. Sorry Sailor Moon.
I was impressed with the difference in atmosphere between the two schools' sports festivals. At Ooe, many more parents and siblings showed up to watch, including some of my middle schoolers (even dressed in their school gym uniforms, so I could recognize them). Among the many parents and grandparents that I ran into, I met one mother who actually speaks perfect English (she's from the Philippines, not a native Japanese) and happens to be the mother of one of my favorite Ooe elementary school students. And, her name is Cecelia! Woo-hoo English names that I can remember/ existence of people who can speak English!
Unfortunately for me, three of my elementary schools had sports festivals this weekend, meaning I had to choose which ones to go to and which ones not to go to. The decision made was to go to the one in my village of residence, Takahama, and the one in the neighboring village of Ooe (the third one, in Fukuregi, was a little too far away since my car is currently running low on gas, thanks to a disastrous detour on the 280 from Kawaura to Takahama, a path that leads straight through the mountains).
Takahama Elementary, as I might have mentioned before, is the one school that I still haven't quite figured out yet. The children there don't really seem to take an interest in me, are sort of rowdy, and end up coming off as sort of rude (by Japanese standards). This may be because they are just a little more afraid of me than some of the other elementary school kids and thus are less willing to ask me questions and such; I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt here. Anyway, I try my best to hang out with them and make small talk when I can.
Notable events from the Takahama sports festival include 1.) the firefighter race and 2.) the soccer bounce relay. In the firefighter race, kids had to race to a bucket filled with water guns, stand and squirt a little red paper flame until it fell off of its tissue paper support, read a description of a person written on a card attached to the paper flame, and then throw a hula hoop over the corresponding person in the audience and drag them to the finish. Descriptions of those to be rescued included someone wearing glasses, someone wearing (color) shirt, a (number) year student, etc. I was eventually roped in as a person wearing white and dragged to the finish line. Yeah!
The soccer bounce relay was fun because I got to participate! Yes, my selfish side is showing again, but watching all of these kids play these fun games makes you want to get out there and have fun too. In this race, adults (in this case, my team of teachers) had to strap a milk crate to their backs, bounce a soccer ball against the ground, and then catch the ball in the crate on your back before it hits the ground a second time. It's not a skill that is used in many American sports, but luckily I only had a little bit of trouble getting my soccer balls into my crate and then running the half lap around the track. The teachers' team came in last, but it was totally NOT my fault. Really.
Before I left for Ooe, I watched one more game in which the kids had to potato sack race to the center of the field, grab a soccer ball, and then throw it at a cardboard cut out of some anime character before racing on foot to the finish line. Why can't they have these games in America, with little card board cut outs of Mickey Mouse or something?
At Ooe, I arrived just in time to see the taiko performance and enjoy lunch with the principal and a whole bunch of other old guys. Though I'm trying my best to have my teachers stop treating me like a guest and more like a coworker, I'm still often thrust into the company of the more respected (read 'old') guests where I have to endure at least an hour of Japanese that I can't understand while smiling and trying to keep good posture/look like I'm paying attention.
Back to fun time. After lunch, the Ooe kids performed their cheering dances to a team of judges (including me o_0) as part of the day's red-vs-white-team competition. Though the red team had a funny skit involving a 6th grade boy dressing up as Sailor Moon and rescuing a poor 1st grader, the most points were awarded to the white team for a.) dancing to one of my favorite J-pop songs b.) actually having a more impressive dance routine and c.) actually being more energetic than the other team. Sorry Sailor Moon.
I was impressed with the difference in atmosphere between the two schools' sports festivals. At Ooe, many more parents and siblings showed up to watch, including some of my middle schoolers (even dressed in their school gym uniforms, so I could recognize them). Among the many parents and grandparents that I ran into, I met one mother who actually speaks perfect English (she's from the Philippines, not a native Japanese) and happens to be the mother of one of my favorite Ooe elementary school students. And, her name is Cecelia! Woo-hoo English names that I can remember/ existence of people who can speak English!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Sports Festival #1
Sorry for not actually getting around for posting about my first sports festival. The work week started and a lost time/energy.
So last Sunday, I attended North Shimoda Elementary School's Sports Festival. Now a 'sports' festival in Japan may not be like the sports days or field days you had in your elementary schools. Scratch that; they are most definitely different.
First of all, elementary school kids practice for weeks leading up to the sports festival. Everyone has to learn how to march, where to march, when to go where, how to do the stretching dance, how to do the cheering dance, when and how to do celebration cheers, how to run to the podium to give a speech.... Several students will be flag bearers, team leaders, and may even give short speeches or presentations in front of the whole school/community, so there are a lot of ceremonial technicalities that have to be hammered out, memorized, and practiced.
In almost every case, students are split into two teams, red and white. Students where little baseball caps (with string straps) of the corresponding color, which are invertible so they can be used for either team.
With much ceremony, students march into the field area, lead by flag bearers, listen to speeches from the first graders, the school president, and other important people. After that, the games begin! Since Shimoda North is a small school (24 kids?), people from the community also participate, wearing little colored scarves to indicate which section of the village they are from. My second host family, the Kikai family, were gracious enough to adopt me into their team, the blue team "Yu no Moto" 湯の本 (Origin of Hot Water (remember Shimoda North is a hot spring town)). This meant that I got to participate in more events too!
Now every sports festival will be different depending on the school, but at the one I attended last week, these are some of the events which the students and neighbors enjoyed: various races (relay, individual), giant ball race (push a giant, 5 foot tall rubber ball around the track), giant pants race (see video, don giant pair of pants with your partner, grab a cookie with your teeth, then pop a balloon between your bodies), tug of war, eating race (just small snack food, like a cream filled bun; I did this one too, but no one wants to see a video of me cramming cream filled bun into my mouth), among others.
I had a great time helping out with one race (running alongside two sixth graders and my principal), the eating race, and the giant pants race. Sadly, during lunch, there was a deluge of rain that forced us to get soaking wet as we close down all of the tents, move everything inside, and end the festival early.
What event could possibly be fitting to end the day's festivities? A rock-paper-scissors tournament! Japanese people LOVE LOVE LOVE rock-paper-scissors (called jan-ken in Japan). Many important decisions are made by janken, and the Japanese have even figured out a way to have more than two people play janken at once and still have a decisive winner by the end of it. Many games that are suggested in JET program teaching handbooks involve janken and chanting various English phrases, as everyone knows it will get your kids riled up REALLY fast.
I, of course, lost in the very first round, so I did not get a prize. Prizes for the top winners included small barbecues, chairs, food goods, and the grand prize (drum roll please): two giant bags of rice! Yum! To be fair, rice is an expensive commodity, so to a Japanese person two free bags of rice is quite the grand prize.
Sadly, most of the other sports day festivals I will visit in the future will not be ones I can participate in. Only North and South Shimoda and Fukuregi have sports festivals that include events for adults too. Not that watching the festivals isn't fun enough, it's just that it is even MORE fun when I get to participate as if I'm part of the community too. Yeah?
I've been lucky enough to get a sneak peak of most of my students' team cheer dances, since the whole school practices during school hours. The red team at Ooe includes a Sailor Moon skit at the end, and the red and white teams at South Shimoda have unicycles as part of their dances.
Note: For some reason, all of the elementary schools here have unicycles, and all of the kids know how to ride them. Weird. I wish I could.
Also note: Map of my town down at the bottom of the blog page. If you are reading this in google reader, try visiting the website.
So last Sunday, I attended North Shimoda Elementary School's Sports Festival. Now a 'sports' festival in Japan may not be like the sports days or field days you had in your elementary schools. Scratch that; they are most definitely different.
First of all, elementary school kids practice for weeks leading up to the sports festival. Everyone has to learn how to march, where to march, when to go where, how to do the stretching dance, how to do the cheering dance, when and how to do celebration cheers, how to run to the podium to give a speech.... Several students will be flag bearers, team leaders, and may even give short speeches or presentations in front of the whole school/community, so there are a lot of ceremonial technicalities that have to be hammered out, memorized, and practiced.
In almost every case, students are split into two teams, red and white. Students where little baseball caps (with string straps) of the corresponding color, which are invertible so they can be used for either team.
With much ceremony, students march into the field area, lead by flag bearers, listen to speeches from the first graders, the school president, and other important people. After that, the games begin! Since Shimoda North is a small school (24 kids?), people from the community also participate, wearing little colored scarves to indicate which section of the village they are from. My second host family, the Kikai family, were gracious enough to adopt me into their team, the blue team "Yu no Moto" 湯の本 (Origin of Hot Water (remember Shimoda North is a hot spring town)). This meant that I got to participate in more events too!
Now every sports festival will be different depending on the school, but at the one I attended last week, these are some of the events which the students and neighbors enjoyed: various races (relay, individual), giant ball race (push a giant, 5 foot tall rubber ball around the track), giant pants race (see video, don giant pair of pants with your partner, grab a cookie with your teeth, then pop a balloon between your bodies), tug of war, eating race (just small snack food, like a cream filled bun; I did this one too, but no one wants to see a video of me cramming cream filled bun into my mouth), among others.
I had a great time helping out with one race (running alongside two sixth graders and my principal), the eating race, and the giant pants race. Sadly, during lunch, there was a deluge of rain that forced us to get soaking wet as we close down all of the tents, move everything inside, and end the festival early.
What event could possibly be fitting to end the day's festivities? A rock-paper-scissors tournament! Japanese people LOVE LOVE LOVE rock-paper-scissors (called jan-ken in Japan). Many important decisions are made by janken, and the Japanese have even figured out a way to have more than two people play janken at once and still have a decisive winner by the end of it. Many games that are suggested in JET program teaching handbooks involve janken and chanting various English phrases, as everyone knows it will get your kids riled up REALLY fast.
I, of course, lost in the very first round, so I did not get a prize. Prizes for the top winners included small barbecues, chairs, food goods, and the grand prize (drum roll please): two giant bags of rice! Yum! To be fair, rice is an expensive commodity, so to a Japanese person two free bags of rice is quite the grand prize.
Sadly, most of the other sports day festivals I will visit in the future will not be ones I can participate in. Only North and South Shimoda and Fukuregi have sports festivals that include events for adults too. Not that watching the festivals isn't fun enough, it's just that it is even MORE fun when I get to participate as if I'm part of the community too. Yeah?
I've been lucky enough to get a sneak peak of most of my students' team cheer dances, since the whole school practices during school hours. The red team at Ooe includes a Sailor Moon skit at the end, and the red and white teams at South Shimoda have unicycles as part of their dances.
Note: For some reason, all of the elementary schools here have unicycles, and all of the kids know how to ride them. Weird. I wish I could.
Also note: Map of my town down at the bottom of the blog page. If you are reading this in google reader, try visiting the website.
Monday, September 13, 2010
My Debut on a Japanese Gameshow...
...or what felt like one. Check out my first two videos of fun events from the 'sports' day I attended yesterday at one of my elementary schools. They can be found on Facebook for now, but I'll try to upload them to this blog too. More videos, and a detailed description of all of the day's antics, when I get home from school.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
A lot more Shougakkou
To try and avoid needlessly detailed accounts of each of my days of teaching this last week, I thought I'd compile as many as possible into one blog entry. Since this was my first time visiting most of these elementary schools, there were still a.) more ceremonies for me to attend to b.) self-introduction speeches for me to give and c.) little kids bombarding me with questions and petting the sun-bleached blonde hair on my arms.
My second day at the middle school was the first in which I got to help teach all three grade levels. By now, however, I was starting to get a taste for what middle school English was really like. I was definitely doing my best to add humor to the class by inserting as much hyperbolic emotion into my readings of the various texts and pronunciations of the various words. I hope that I'll soon start developing a relationship with my JTE that will allow me to put more of my own ideas in class. For now, though, the kids will have to deal with boring worksheets and rote memorization readings...
Tuesday I went to Shimoda-kita (North Shimoda) Elementary School, which though not as small as its southern version still rivals most of the schools in how small its student population is. It turned out that because of special scheduling of Sports Day practice/rehearsal, I was only going to teach one class that day. Fine with me. In the mean time, I got to help the kids clean up the track area (i.e. I do the cleaning jobs which the kids are supposed to be doing while they bombard me with endless questions) and help one of the other teachers demonstrate one of the sports day events. To my understanding, in this particular event you and your partner must 1.) run from opposite ends of the field to the center where 2.) you don a GIANT pair of pants (each person in one leg) and then proceed to 3.) hop together towards a suspended rope where balloons hang so that you can 4.) jump up and grab said balloons with your teeth before finally 5.) blowing up your balloon and popping it by placing it between your body and your partners body and hugging each other. I'm going to this sports festival tomorrow. Can't wait!
Note: The Shimoda-kita kids definitely get the gold star for being the most inquisitive.
Wednesday I went to the elementary school right down the street from my apartment, Takahama Elementary school. This school is fairly new and comparatively large. By sheer chance the school population is lopsided with more boys than girls, resulting in girls that are much meeker compared to their counterparts at other schools and guys who are much rowdier/ ruder (rude?! I didn't think I'd have to use that word to describe my students... it could just be how they act in a group). While my 4th grade class went well, I accidentally slipped into my 4th grade lesson when teaching the 2/3rd graders (same lesson, different level of difficulty), which sorta ended up badly. My 5th and 6th grade joint class, being comparatively large and dominated by males, was much harder to teach since I didn't even have a working blackboard in the room I was teaching (the library, since the classrooms were too small for both the 5th and 6th grade classes together). Oh well. I'm giving myself a break this week because it's my first time. I'll just have to take this into consideration next time.
Note on Sports Day Festivals (we also had Sports Day Practice at Takahama that day): The kids are divided up into two teams, red and white, and where little hats with their teams color. If you invert they hats, they become the other color. Also features a fashionable strap that goes behind your ears and under your chin. That was sarcasm on the 'fashionable' part of that last sentence... though the kids are adorable when they where their little sports day hats.
Note on Takahama Shougakkou: Struggling to find its one, positive characteristic.
My second day at the middle school was the first in which I got to help teach all three grade levels. By now, however, I was starting to get a taste for what middle school English was really like. I was definitely doing my best to add humor to the class by inserting as much hyperbolic emotion into my readings of the various texts and pronunciations of the various words. I hope that I'll soon start developing a relationship with my JTE that will allow me to put more of my own ideas in class. For now, though, the kids will have to deal with boring worksheets and rote memorization readings...
Tuesday I went to Shimoda-kita (North Shimoda) Elementary School, which though not as small as its southern version still rivals most of the schools in how small its student population is. It turned out that because of special scheduling of Sports Day practice/rehearsal, I was only going to teach one class that day. Fine with me. In the mean time, I got to help the kids clean up the track area (i.e. I do the cleaning jobs which the kids are supposed to be doing while they bombard me with endless questions) and help one of the other teachers demonstrate one of the sports day events. To my understanding, in this particular event you and your partner must 1.) run from opposite ends of the field to the center where 2.) you don a GIANT pair of pants (each person in one leg) and then proceed to 3.) hop together towards a suspended rope where balloons hang so that you can 4.) jump up and grab said balloons with your teeth before finally 5.) blowing up your balloon and popping it by placing it between your body and your partners body and hugging each other. I'm going to this sports festival tomorrow. Can't wait!
Note: The Shimoda-kita kids definitely get the gold star for being the most inquisitive.
Wednesday I went to the elementary school right down the street from my apartment, Takahama Elementary school. This school is fairly new and comparatively large. By sheer chance the school population is lopsided with more boys than girls, resulting in girls that are much meeker compared to their counterparts at other schools and guys who are much rowdier/ ruder (rude?! I didn't think I'd have to use that word to describe my students... it could just be how they act in a group). While my 4th grade class went well, I accidentally slipped into my 4th grade lesson when teaching the 2/3rd graders (same lesson, different level of difficulty), which sorta ended up badly. My 5th and 6th grade joint class, being comparatively large and dominated by males, was much harder to teach since I didn't even have a working blackboard in the room I was teaching (the library, since the classrooms were too small for both the 5th and 6th grade classes together). Oh well. I'm giving myself a break this week because it's my first time. I'll just have to take this into consideration next time.
Note on Sports Day Festivals (we also had Sports Day Practice at Takahama that day): The kids are divided up into two teams, red and white, and where little hats with their teams color. If you invert they hats, they become the other color. Also features a fashionable strap that goes behind your ears and under your chin. That was sarcasm on the 'fashionable' part of that last sentence... though the kids are adorable when they where their little sports day hats.
Note on Takahama Shougakkou: Struggling to find its one, positive characteristic.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
ABCs of Alcohol
A month ago, while I was still just working in the town office, I came across a pamphlet titled "The ABCs of Alcohol." Intrigued at the idea that a.) one could think up of something to say about alcohol using every letter of the alphabet and b.) that there might be some funny Engrish inside, I took it home with me and typed out each of the key sentences. Surprisingly, most of them are pretty clever and use correct English. This isn't a real blog post about the going-ons in my life, but I thought you might enjoy seeing it anyway. Not all of them are funny, but some of them, like the entry for H, W, Y, and Z, warrant a chuckle at least...
ABCs of Alcohol (お酒と健康:ABC辞典）
Alcohol is a lifelong friend of man.
As alcohol concentration in blood increases, your response to stimuli decreases markedly.
Healthy people eliminate alcohol at a constant rate.
Physical reactions to alcohol are different from person to person.
Enjoy good beer, and feel like a king.
Gulping liquor in a fluster is dangerous.
Good drinkers do not drink more than the stomach can handle.
Hangover spoil your morning.
Eat while you are drinking. The ingestion of food can slow down the absorption of alcohol.
The "J curve" shows the right amount of alcoholic intake.
A key to good health is to enjoy the right amount of alcohol.
Drinking moderately gives you a happy life
Misunderstandings hamper alcoholics form controlling their drinking.
If you are a nonstop drinker, you are one hundred percent alcoholic.
Alcoholism can be cured by correcting obsolete, incorrect information.
Pregnant women should realize their pre-born children are also underaged.
Qualm and worry trigger alcoholism in women.
Solitude after retirement triggers alcoholism.
Good drinkers know hot to eliminate stress.
Drinking alcohol is a taboo in some countries.
Underage drinking is prohibited because it dose harm to youngsters' growth.
Drunken driving leaves a lot of victims in its wake.
Man and alcohol have created a wonderful beverage culture.
Wine and cheese are indispensable for Xmas dinner.
"Yum Yum" describes dishes prepared with love.
Euphoria reaches a zenith as alcohol reduces tension and enhances relaxation.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Beach Party
After a successful first week (or rather three days) of teaching, it was time to celebrate! Lucky again for me, when JETs decide to go do something fun together, they usually end up coming to a place near where I am, e.g. the awesome beach in my town. In this case, most of the JETs from Amakusa and Kami-Amaksua (about eight people total?) came to the beach and then came over to my apartment. Note: Kami-amakusa is the city just north of us that bridges the gap between the mainland of Kyushu and the Amakusa islands.
With summer vacation time past, the beach was pretty deserted: no jet skis, no wake boarders, no 'surfers,' no ice cream stand, no yakisoba stand...no free yakisoba and beer from strange old men. OK. Just fine. We still managed to make a BBQ and chill on the beach, throw a frisbee around, watch the sunset, and float in the warm waters a bit and talk about our first weeks. A funny threesome of college-age students showed us how to light the fire for our BBQ (coals for BBQs are very different in Japan, and you have to buy these little pellet/wafer things to help you get the fire going), and afterwards they attempted to talk to us in English. I love how much easier it is to talk to strangers in Japan: you always have a reason to start a conversation, like "I'm a foreigner. I am different. Let's talk about that," or "I can speak English. You want to try practicing English. Let's do that."
After the sunset, we headed back to my apartment for some games and food, including bilingual Apples-to-Apples, Nertz, Taboo, and a weird pictionary like game where you alternate between drawing pictures and guessing what the previous person drew. This pictionary game ended up being the most hilarious; I did fall on the floor laughing at the point when I presented the sequence of pictures that started with the word "Beachball," followed by a drawing of a beach ball, beach, and person playing with a beach ball, then proceeded by a guess of "I'm on fire" (the person who guessed this argued that the beach ball looked too much like the fiery eye of Sauron), followed by a picture of someone on fire with a strange thought bubble, ending with the guess "I'm a super-saian you don't know." Another funny sequence started with "snowboard" followed by a picture of a snowboard, which someone guessed was actually a picture of "superman falling out of a black hole" (that's a scarf, not a cape...).
Shougakkou #2: Shimoda South
Last Friday (sorry about being behind on the posts), I visited the smallest of my schools, Shimoda South Elementary. Between six grade levels, there are only 12 kids. No first graders. One second grader. Three third graders.... On the one hand, it is really cool how much attention these kids get, how smart they all are, how close they all are, and how laid back the atmosphere is at school. On the other hand, it is really said that such a beautiful (relatively new) school will probably be closed soon because it has so few students. The classrooms are not really rooms but little nooks coming off of a larger atrium where the whole school can gather for lunch and group activities. I should probably just take pictures and show you later...
Anyway, since this was my first day teaching at this school, there was naturally a little ceremony to welcome me in which I had to give my self-introduction speech. By then, I was pretty good at knowing where to stand and what not, so things went smoothly. To my surprise, not only did every student give their self introduction in English, they also sang a song to me (with live piano accompaniment)! Yeah more celebrity treatment!
So far, this was also my busiest day of teaching: three whole classes! Yeah, it doesn't sound like much, especially considering how few students I had to teach (each class was only 4), but I enjoyed being on my feet and active all day rather than sitting in the teachers' room more than half of the day. Though I used mostly the same material for my 2/3 grade and 4 grade classes (giving directions using "Go {up/right/left/down};" I totally had everyone do a dance like Space Channel 5; they loved it, of course) it was still a good exercise for my teaching brain as I had to adapt the plans I had to accommodate the small class sizes and the varying level of ability.
Note: Apparently, 5 & 6 grade English classes start with everyone saying "OK. Let's learn English. YEAH!"
I made yet another 'little friend' at this grade school. The only 2nd grader, who is in fact the loudest human being in the school, is obsessed with airplanes and would ask me constantly if I knew what such and such plane was or if I had ever seen such and such plane in America. He would also demand that I watch basically everything that he did, and he also requested that I pick him up and, not only give him a ride on my shoulders, but throw (i.e. place) him in the trashcan head first, as my predecessor apparently once did.
Anyway, since this was my first day teaching at this school, there was naturally a little ceremony to welcome me in which I had to give my self-introduction speech. By then, I was pretty good at knowing where to stand and what not, so things went smoothly. To my surprise, not only did every student give their self introduction in English, they also sang a song to me (with live piano accompaniment)! Yeah more celebrity treatment!
So far, this was also my busiest day of teaching: three whole classes! Yeah, it doesn't sound like much, especially considering how few students I had to teach (each class was only 4), but I enjoyed being on my feet and active all day rather than sitting in the teachers' room more than half of the day. Though I used mostly the same material for my 2/3 grade and 4 grade classes (giving directions using "Go {up/right/left/down};" I totally had everyone do a dance like Space Channel 5; they loved it, of course) it was still a good exercise for my teaching brain as I had to adapt the plans I had to accommodate the small class sizes and the varying level of ability.
Note: Apparently, 5 & 6 grade English classes start with everyone saying "OK. Let's learn English. YEAH!"
I made yet another 'little friend' at this grade school. The only 2nd grader, who is in fact the loudest human being in the school, is obsessed with airplanes and would ask me constantly if I knew what such and such plane was or if I had ever seen such and such plane in America. He would also demand that I watch basically everything that he did, and he also requested that I pick him up and, not only give him a ride on my shoulders, but throw (i.e. place) him in the trashcan head first, as my predecessor apparently once did.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
大江小学校, My first Shougakkou visit
First day of teaching job: middle school with (pre-)pubescent, slightly apathetic preteens who have to learn English according to strict textbook guidelines. Little room for creativity on my part; no adorable children.
Second day of teaching, first day at a grade school: ERIK-SENSEI, ERIK-SENSEI COME PLAY WITH US HURRYYYYYYYY!!!!
...basically sums it up.
I was lucky enough to be able to visit Ooe Elementary school a few days before to talk with the 5/6 grade English teacher and talk about how the lessons would be planned out, so I wasn't too scared about teaching , even though it would be my first time leading a class (mostly) by myself. Where as I have little to no freedom at the middle school, I've found out that I'm quite free in teaching 5/6 grade English (as long as I go over the material in their "textbooks" somewhat; which activities/games I use to cover that material is up to me) and completely free in teaching every other grade. This was quite a shock for me, and I sorta was unprepared since I didn't know what they had already studied or what expectations there were of me, but after one made-up-on-the-spot 3/4 grade English lesson, I think I got the hang out it. Now I have much better not-made-up-on-the-spot lessons for 2-4 grade English that seems to be working out well so far.
Anyway, before I even stepped foot inside a classroom, my first interaction with the students (besides them coming down the hall and going 'EHHHH??!!!' as they look into the teachers' room, running back to their classrooms, bringing back 5 more students who then proceed to react in a similar fashion before running away) was at the school's end-of-summer swim meet. Seeing this as a perfect interaction to introduce useful English ("GO _(person's name)" ) , I made poster cards with 'G,' 'O,' 'S,' 'W,' 'I,' 'M' etc. on them and handed them out to some of the students. Before I knew it, even the adults were saying GOGOGOGOGOGO. Point!
Terrifying part of swim meet: rather than having swimming races, the first and second graders had competitions to see who could hold their breath the longest. This involved do the dead-man's float until only one person remained and the rest had given up and come up for air. I wonder if this ever has gone badly at a Japanese elementary school swim meet...
Awesome part: making another (little) friend. It's happened at every elementary school I've gone to so far (which is only two, but it happened at the pre-school too): there will always be the one little boy who is super 元気 energetic, falls in love with you instantly, and begins to pull you around by the arm everywhere, wanting to show you everything, asking you about everything, etc. The one at the pre-school was memorable because, after we played 'bowling' together with some play bricks and a ball, he lead me by the hand to the sink (right before lunch) and said (in Amakusa-dialect) "Erik you should wash your hands." This was more endearing to me since it was the first time I understood someone use that specific grammar in Amakusa-dialect. After standing next to me during lunch (which meant he was eye level with me when I was sitting), he lead me by the hand again and said "Erik you should say 'It was delicious' to the cook," and then he slid open the door to the kitchen. This 元気 kid at Ooe just kept following me around, talking to me, and trying to do pull ups on my arm.
After the swim meet, I once again had a 'welcoming ceremony' in front of the entire school, where I once again gave my self-introduction 自己紹介 while wearing a business suite. This one went a little better since I knew what to expect, knew where to stand, knew when to stand, etc. Afterwards, while I was trying to change back into normal clothes, it seemed like half the school was banging on the door of the room where I was changing saying 'ERIK-SENSEI hurry up! Play time is almost over! You have to come play with us!' Coming out of the teachers' locker room I was dragged by about twelve pairs of tiny hands to the school yard where I ran around with them for a little while before the next period started.
Note about school lunch time: the kids who are assigned to bring the school lunches to the classrooms dress up in little white aprons, white hair-nets, and white face masks (is that what you call those things that doctors/dentists wear? my I should just say white scrubs...). Very adorable and creepy at the same time.
Note about how I go to class: I never have to go to the classroom by myself at the appointed time. Whenever I have to teach a class, one or two kids will come to the teachers' room and then escort me to the classroom, usually carrying whatever items/luggage/teaching materials I have with me at the time. Being treated like royalty? I could get used to this :)
Second day of teaching, first day at a grade school: ERIK-SENSEI, ERIK-SENSEI COME PLAY WITH US HURRYYYYYYYY!!!!
...basically sums it up.
I was lucky enough to be able to visit Ooe Elementary school a few days before to talk with the 5/6 grade English teacher and talk about how the lessons would be planned out, so I wasn't too scared about teaching , even though it would be my first time leading a class (mostly) by myself. Where as I have little to no freedom at the middle school, I've found out that I'm quite free in teaching 5/6 grade English (as long as I go over the material in their "textbooks" somewhat; which activities/games I use to cover that material is up to me) and completely free in teaching every other grade. This was quite a shock for me, and I sorta was unprepared since I didn't know what they had already studied or what expectations there were of me, but after one made-up-on-the-spot 3/4 grade English lesson, I think I got the hang out it. Now I have much better not-made-up-on-the-spot lessons for 2-4 grade English that seems to be working out well so far.
Anyway, before I even stepped foot inside a classroom, my first interaction with the students (besides them coming down the hall and going 'EHHHH??!!!' as they look into the teachers' room, running back to their classrooms, bringing back 5 more students who then proceed to react in a similar fashion before running away) was at the school's end-of-summer swim meet. Seeing this as a perfect interaction to introduce useful English ("GO _(person's name)" ) , I made poster cards with 'G,' 'O,' 'S,' 'W,' 'I,' 'M' etc. on them and handed them out to some of the students. Before I knew it, even the adults were saying GOGOGOGOGOGO. Point!
Terrifying part of swim meet: rather than having swimming races, the first and second graders had competitions to see who could hold their breath the longest. This involved do the dead-man's float until only one person remained and the rest had given up and come up for air. I wonder if this ever has gone badly at a Japanese elementary school swim meet...
Awesome part: making another (little) friend. It's happened at every elementary school I've gone to so far (which is only two, but it happened at the pre-school too): there will always be the one little boy who is super 元気 energetic, falls in love with you instantly, and begins to pull you around by the arm everywhere, wanting to show you everything, asking you about everything, etc. The one at the pre-school was memorable because, after we played 'bowling' together with some play bricks and a ball, he lead me by the hand to the sink (right before lunch) and said (in Amakusa-dialect) "Erik you should wash your hands." This was more endearing to me since it was the first time I understood someone use that specific grammar in Amakusa-dialect. After standing next to me during lunch (which meant he was eye level with me when I was sitting), he lead me by the hand again and said "Erik you should say 'It was delicious' to the cook," and then he slid open the door to the kitchen. This 元気 kid at Ooe just kept following me around, talking to me, and trying to do pull ups on my arm.
After the swim meet, I once again had a 'welcoming ceremony' in front of the entire school, where I once again gave my self-introduction 自己紹介 while wearing a business suite. This one went a little better since I knew what to expect, knew where to stand, knew when to stand, etc. Afterwards, while I was trying to change back into normal clothes, it seemed like half the school was banging on the door of the room where I was changing saying 'ERIK-SENSEI hurry up! Play time is almost over! You have to come play with us!' Coming out of the teachers' locker room I was dragged by about twelve pairs of tiny hands to the school yard where I ran around with them for a little while before the next period started.
Note about school lunch time: the kids who are assigned to bring the school lunches to the classrooms dress up in little white aprons, white hair-nets, and white face masks (is that what you call those things that doctors/dentists wear? my I should just say white scrubs...). Very adorable and creepy at the same time.
Note about how I go to class: I never have to go to the classroom by myself at the appointed time. Whenever I have to teach a class, one or two kids will come to the teachers' room and then escort me to the classroom, usually carrying whatever items/luggage/teaching materials I have with me at the time. Being treated like royalty? I could get used to this :)
Thursday, September 2, 2010
First day of school
Finally. I get to start my real job! This past month I haven't been doing much except sitting at my desk, looking over lesson plans, filling out forms, and following my supervisor around doing various errands. As nice as it was to have a laid back first month in Japan, I'm glad I finally get to leave my desk, stand up, and interact with students.
My first day of school was at the middle school in my town, a quick 5 minute bike ride from my apartment.
Arriving super early so that I wouldn't be late, I settled in to my new desk (which I will unfortunately spend more time sitting in when I am not in class) and met some of the teachers (for a second time).
There was a short meeting at the beginning where the teachers reviewed the day's schedule, I gave my self-introduciton (again), and the principal and head teacher gave a few encouraging words. In Japanese schools, the principal (校長 head of school) doesn't actually do very much outside of ceremonial speeches and things like that. The head teacher (教頭) does most of the work in leading the faculty and student body, but I don't think he has a specific class he teaches.
Anyway, the day started with 'cleaning time,' when everyone in the school, including teachers, stops what they are doing, busts out some vacuums, brooms, mops, clothes, etc. and cleans every inch of the school. Really. They did this at the town office where I worked this past month too. They even sweep up leaves and debris outside, even if that means picking out leaves and twigs from the grass and bushes. I swept the entire teacher's room, and two students + the head teacher got on their hands and knees and wiped the floor with little clothes. I would love to see an American school try to do this. I'm not sure which would be harder: getting the students to cooperate in cleaning the entire school, or getting the teachers to do it too.
Soon after cleaning was over, they had the 2nd semester opening ceremony (remember: Japanese school years start in April), which included my 'welcoming' ceremony. This was it. The big one. Of all the self-introductions, this one was supposed to be the most important. Here I was in my suit and tie, facing all of the students and teachers I would be working with for the entire year (excluding all of the grade schools, where technically I'll be spending more time), holding two little pieces of paper with my most formal introduction written on it.
Luckily, my speech went very well. No problems there. The parts surrounding it? Mmmm, not so much. There were a few botches like when I went up to the podium to early (cutting off the principal from introducing me first), almost left the stage too early (didn't know there was going to be anything afterwards!), and sort of sat awkwardly rather than standing during the student greeting, in which a single student came up to the stage and stood in front of me and welcomed me to the school. WOOPS. Oh well. Fortunately the school is very small, so I didn't feel too embarrassed about making a fool of myself when I didn't know what was coming next.
Lunch time: Japanese schools have a very calculated, nutritionally balanced meal system that everyone, including the teachers, partake in (yet another thing that would never happen in American schools). An odd little tradition that I didn't know about until today is that the principal, head teacher, and some other important guy will eat the school lunch first, before any other students and teachers, to test and see if it is suitable. Probably a tradition left over from the days when there was often problems with food being fresh and edible and whatnot. Very interesting. Also, these planned lunches 給食 have like half of your daily calorie intake; in the past it was even higher, because it wasn't assumed that the kids coming to school had any other meals in a day except the school lunch.
The last 'first' of the day: my first class. Was everybody going to be super excited to listen to me and bask in the educational splendor of my instruction? Well....not quite. As was told to us before, our middle school teaching experiences will be quite limited because the Japanese Teacher of English, or JTE, plans almost everything, including what you do. Of course, you can work with them to build lesson plans, and I did suggest something that we did do in class, but for the most part JETs can sometimes end up being walking tape recorders and not much else in middle school classes. Given that my JTE accepted my one idea about how to do my question and answer session, I was satisfied that I found out my JTE will listen to me and consider my ideas (and sometimes accept them). After my Q&A session (of course I was asked if I have a girlfriend or not), my JTE went over a test they took before summer and handed out review sheets. All I did was walk up and down the aisles and help kids with their worksheets. OK, OK. Not exhilarating, but I did help some students, and it was good to figure out who was good at English so I can use them later...hehehehehe.
How I wish I had time to share about my first day teaching at ELEMENTARY school. Let me just say it was 10 x as much fun as teaching at middle school because a.) I got to do what every I wanted and b.) the kids were 10x more adorable than the middle schoolers (actually, most of the pre-pubscent middle schoolers do not qualify as 'adorable;' sadness). They also had a swim meet in school, which was amazing. Guess you'll just have to check my blog tomorrow....
My first day of school was at the middle school in my town, a quick 5 minute bike ride from my apartment.
Arriving super early so that I wouldn't be late, I settled in to my new desk (which I will unfortunately spend more time sitting in when I am not in class) and met some of the teachers (for a second time).
There was a short meeting at the beginning where the teachers reviewed the day's schedule, I gave my self-introduciton (again), and the principal and head teacher gave a few encouraging words. In Japanese schools, the principal (校長 head of school) doesn't actually do very much outside of ceremonial speeches and things like that. The head teacher (教頭) does most of the work in leading the faculty and student body, but I don't think he has a specific class he teaches.
Anyway, the day started with 'cleaning time,' when everyone in the school, including teachers, stops what they are doing, busts out some vacuums, brooms, mops, clothes, etc. and cleans every inch of the school. Really. They did this at the town office where I worked this past month too. They even sweep up leaves and debris outside, even if that means picking out leaves and twigs from the grass and bushes. I swept the entire teacher's room, and two students + the head teacher got on their hands and knees and wiped the floor with little clothes. I would love to see an American school try to do this. I'm not sure which would be harder: getting the students to cooperate in cleaning the entire school, or getting the teachers to do it too.
Soon after cleaning was over, they had the 2nd semester opening ceremony (remember: Japanese school years start in April), which included my 'welcoming' ceremony. This was it. The big one. Of all the self-introductions, this one was supposed to be the most important. Here I was in my suit and tie, facing all of the students and teachers I would be working with for the entire year (excluding all of the grade schools, where technically I'll be spending more time), holding two little pieces of paper with my most formal introduction written on it.
Luckily, my speech went very well. No problems there. The parts surrounding it? Mmmm, not so much. There were a few botches like when I went up to the podium to early (cutting off the principal from introducing me first), almost left the stage too early (didn't know there was going to be anything afterwards!), and sort of sat awkwardly rather than standing during the student greeting, in which a single student came up to the stage and stood in front of me and welcomed me to the school. WOOPS. Oh well. Fortunately the school is very small, so I didn't feel too embarrassed about making a fool of myself when I didn't know what was coming next.
Lunch time: Japanese schools have a very calculated, nutritionally balanced meal system that everyone, including the teachers, partake in (yet another thing that would never happen in American schools). An odd little tradition that I didn't know about until today is that the principal, head teacher, and some other important guy will eat the school lunch first, before any other students and teachers, to test and see if it is suitable. Probably a tradition left over from the days when there was often problems with food being fresh and edible and whatnot. Very interesting. Also, these planned lunches 給食 have like half of your daily calorie intake; in the past it was even higher, because it wasn't assumed that the kids coming to school had any other meals in a day except the school lunch.
The last 'first' of the day: my first class. Was everybody going to be super excited to listen to me and bask in the educational splendor of my instruction? Well....not quite. As was told to us before, our middle school teaching experiences will be quite limited because the Japanese Teacher of English, or JTE, plans almost everything, including what you do. Of course, you can work with them to build lesson plans, and I did suggest something that we did do in class, but for the most part JETs can sometimes end up being walking tape recorders and not much else in middle school classes. Given that my JTE accepted my one idea about how to do my question and answer session, I was satisfied that I found out my JTE will listen to me and consider my ideas (and sometimes accept them). After my Q&A session (of course I was asked if I have a girlfriend or not), my JTE went over a test they took before summer and handed out review sheets. All I did was walk up and down the aisles and help kids with their worksheets. OK, OK. Not exhilarating, but I did help some students, and it was good to figure out who was good at English so I can use them later...hehehehehe.
How I wish I had time to share about my first day teaching at ELEMENTARY school. Let me just say it was 10 x as much fun as teaching at middle school because a.) I got to do what every I wanted and b.) the kids were 10x more adorable than the middle schoolers (actually, most of the pre-pubscent middle schoolers do not qualify as 'adorable;' sadness). They also had a swim meet in school, which was amazing. Guess you'll just have to check my blog tomorrow....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)