My first two weeks at school

I have finished my first two weeks of teaching at my first junior high school. At this particular school there were 4 classes of about 30 7th graders (in Japan they are called ichi nensei, or 1st graders), 4 classes of 30 or so 8th graders (ni-nensei), and 5 classes of 30 or so 9th graders (san-nensei). I assisted the regular Japanese English teachers in about 22 English classes over two weeks, and I did one self-introduction for each class. My self introduction was really just 15 minutes of me showing the class pictures of my family, the American flag, and cartoons I drew that describe myself and where I am from, Oregon. I tried to speak clearly, and showed them all what a 'hacky-sack' is, and demonstrated by kicking it a few times. The students were all exceptionally well-behaved and listened attentively to my introduction. The dynamics of the classes differed between the three grades, each having a different Japanese English teacher, and each undergoing their various stages of puberty.

Three of my intro cards, in order:

I have to say that there has been some laughter, some bewildered looks, and plenty of both from the students after showing them these three cards. There was one class I can remember where I was standing in the front, rubbing my head, saying 'Japanese...' then rubbing my arm, saying 'American...' - only to see puzzled looks and hear silence.

One thing I found really interesting at this school is the lunch time routine. First of all, for the daily 'school routine', students stay in the same classroom for every class, and the teachers move around from classroom to classroom. At my junior high school the teachers stayed put and the students moved around. As for lunch, the students eat at their own desks, after arranging their desks into small groups that are their 'lunch groups.' During my first lunch at the school, I spent some time trying to speak English to the students, and before I knew it, the students were cleaning up their dishes and putting their desks back in order. Actual eating time was only about 15 minutes long! I barely got into my teriyaki patty sandwich that day, and I was pretty hungry after I went back to the teachers room. I've learned to eat a little faster since then.

My involvement in the classroom has been varied between the three Japanese English teachers. While each one is required to work out the textbook handed down to them from the Board of Education, they all varied quite a bit in their teaching styles and so my involvement has been different for each grade. For the ni-nensei teacher, for example, I did much assisting with the lessons that came straight from the teacher's version of the textbook, and for the ichi and san-nensei teachers I was able to create a few games and lessons to supplement their own lessons for the day. Last week I saw that the san-nensei classes were about to begin a section from their books that talked about Stevie Wonder, and so I asked the teacher (a younger girl, 25 years old) if I could play a Stevie Wonder song for the class and hand out lyric sheets that they could follow along with and fill in where I left blank spaces. She was totally game, and so we spent about 15 minutes at the end of class listening to Stevie sing 'A Place in the Sun' while the students wrote down whatever words or sounds they could make out. I was pretty thrilled to watch a group of 30 15-year old Japanese students reading along and listening to Stevie belt out a hopeful song...

Some junior high boys taking a break after lunch...


Some girls playing volleyball in the schoolyard at recess...