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.