So I know I said I'd update every week, but realizing that my sports days would be split over two and thinking they should all be put together in one post...I decided to wait.
So the start of my second week of school started me really getting more into the swing of teaching, although it was still being punctuated by sports day prep. We spent three periods on Monday doing prep at OMGItsHuge中, and I used that time to wander around my school, sometimes with and sometimes without OnajiiName先生(sensei). Actually I spent my whole second week there. Although Tuesday was normal classes, Wednesday was sports day rehearsal. But as we all feared, it got interrupted by the oncoming typhoon. Luckily it was a quick typhoon and sports day went unchanged, but for the day the students had to get back inside. Because OMGItsHuge中 has a unusual layout for a Japanese middle school, the students were able to practice their dancing and cheering inside. Once again I was allowed to loiter about and watch various groups rehearse etc. During a break in the rain I helped the teachers deassemble all the tents, because I felt I had nothing better to do. But I think they really appreciated it, and I feel like after that I became closer to the staff.
Finally Thursday came and the skies were clear so we were able to have a glorious sports day, the weather had even cooled off making it bearable to be outside. Japanese sports day isn't what it sounds like to most westerners. The only usual sport they do is relay races. Everything is different, and quite possibly lawsuit inducing if it were happening in the US. I could go on but there is one game that involves boys holding up giant bamboo poles with hats on top and them running and leaping at them, trying to be the first team to pull their opponents pole down.
All in all it was pretty fun and I had a good time just watching and taking pictures/videos and chatting with the other teachers. I think next year it'd be good to like...declare myself for on team though. Because the students seemed very concerned with that, and it would make cheering easier. My Enkai afterward was also super fun and I was glad that my Japanese did not evaporate with the consumption of alcohol. Cause once they figured out I'd drink the sake even if I didn't like beer, it got a little dangerous!
All in all I spent a lot of time over at OMGItsBig中 over the second two weeks, and I got to know my way around and the routine a lot better. That weekend being thrown right into the Sports day at TeenyTiny中 wasn't so easy because I'd only been there once. But it was still interested, the a principal talked to me a lot and even talked me into joining the folk dancing at the end. So it was a good day in all, and the rain clouds apparently parted right over us and allowed us to have the day uninterrupted.
RowdyHill中 had theirs later that week, and I have to say the art at that school was definitely the best. Again a bit awkward cause it was only my second time at the school at all, and they only had two teams. But they were pretty good sized teams. And they had a lot of cooperative teamwork activities instead of so many physical ones. Partway through the day kids from a local kindergarten came and they had dance time with the 2nd and 3rd years. And it was about the cutest thing I'd EVER seen! Later during the day I pulled a penny that had somehow got stuck in my sneaker out and one of the boys ended up asking for it. I gave it to him and he seemed really impressed by it! I'll have to remember that small change makes a good bribe.
After my big challenge of so many sports days it was time for the well earned long weekend! I spent Saturday doing NONE of the things I had intended to do, and on Sunday I got up bright and early to get to the station and pick up Nicole and then Kim at her place to drive down to Hiroshima. It was a good long drive and I'm still getting the hang of this navigating in Japan thing, but we eventually found the station and Lexi. After that another adventure in the form of finding the hostel and getting train passes and we were off to the peace park for some lunch. We had the delicious pasta that Anna and I had when we were there, and then we caught a train to Miyajima. This time when we got there the shrine was still open! So we had a good time seeing that and walking around in the shops touristing a bit. I got a safe driving charm!
When we got back we met back up with Kim and went out for dinner and purikura! Back at the hostel we acted like complete nerds and watched Yugioh Abridged all night! And Nicole and I could not stop quoting it. The morning saw us getting up relatively early for a bookoff trip! After that obligatory stop we just had fun shopping the rest of the day and had Hiroshimayaki for lunch, which was tasty but I still like Kansai style best! We made Nicole try on leather shorts, which actually looked pretty good and she ended up buying them, the skinny thing she is. We left before it got too late so I would have energy to drive back and finally we got home, but not before I stopped off and got some delicious curry.
Now I'm home and enjoying another day off after a relatively uneventful two days at school. I'll have to gear up for another trip to Fukuoka soon though, since Lexi and I have concerts tickets for the first weekend of the month!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
The First Week
So it's going to be my goal to write here once a week. So its a lazy Sunday and I just finished cleaning my apartment and getting some things in order. I paid two of my bills at the Lawson, and finally got enough stickers to get the promotional Miffy bowl there! Hehe, its cute! I also got a wireless router this week since one of the electronics stores is closing for renovations and is therefore having a sale. I even managed to set up the password an everything even though it was in Japanese. I'm now kicking back and enjoying the clean apartment, if I hear anything from the others maybe I'll go into town to have dinner and hang out. If not, I'm going to try and go to that place that looks like it serves Indian curry nearby and get some take-out.
So this week was my first week at my schools. I spent the first three days at OMGItsBig中(chuu), and then a day each at RowdyHill中 and TeenyTiny中 respectively. In case anyone is wondering, to preserve a degree of anonymity for my schools I wont be referring to them by name here on on FB. Those are what I've decided to call them for now. I'll probably keep the first and last one, but the middle one may change later. I may also come up with nicknames for the JTEs at OMGItsBig中 since there are a couple. But that'll come later. They are all preparing for sports day so theres a limit to how much I do there to start out with. Also because I have to go through that obligatory awkward stage where I don't really know what to do with myself, or any of my JTEs much yet. But I'm feeling that it will pass.
I didn't do much at all my first day at OMGItsBig中 other than give my speech in front of the student body at the opening ceremony, and boy was that nervewracking. Its a very large number of students (at least to me) and they are were just staring at me. But I got through it, and sat in the teachers room most of the rest of the day reading the textbooks and trying not to fall asleep. At least its air conditioned. The second day saw me not doing much either except for coming up with my worksheet for the second years and teaching one first year class at the end of the day. There is one teacher there, not a JTE, who is the same age as me and I'm really hoping we'll get to friends! She seems nice and so far we seem to get on, she seems interested in getting to know me too. I've worked with three out of four of my JTEs there and they all seem nice enough, although I think I'll get on best with the one who seems to be directly in charge of me. She's fairly young, has good English, and likes the same music as me! Also she's fun to work with in class, even in my self-intro she engaged with me. On my third day it was a little more hectic, I taught 5 classes even though there were only 4 periods in the day. There was so confusion about where I would go for one period, so we split it half and half. I'm thinking of getting a whiteboard and writing who I'll be teaching with on it as soon as I know so the others can check. I haven't taught any third years there yet. But it seemed to go well and by the end of the third day I was settling into the routine there a bit more. The vice-principal(kyouto-sensei) seems pretty wonderful too.
The next day I drove to RowdyHill中 and had classes there. Because I'm there only once a week I taught all 4 of those classes in one day. I like the JTE there plenty, but the kids there were a little rowdy, compared to the ones I'd had previously. But still I got through my introduction fine, and hopefully I'll learn the best way to handle the slightly more rambunctious classes. I think its just intimidating to me since this is my first time. I made three different worksheets for that school, and to be honest I'm still not done grading them.
The last day of my week was spent at TeenyTiny中, my predecessors favorite. Its so small, and there are only 3 classes. But the building seems quiet nice, and the principal (koucho-sensei) is a woman! I was so surprised. It was a good day there. I had 3 lovely classes with those kids, and we did a little textbook work in each. The classes are small enough that each student could introduce themselves briefly to me personally, and it was really cool to have that interaction with them. They all seem pretty genki, and one first year in particular seemed really keen to interact with me. They were so cute, in one class when they had to come up and introduce themselves several of them were falling all over themselves to be first. One boy introduced himself like this 'I'm _______. I am cute!', and then the next boy followed that with 'I'm _______. You're cute!'. For the last two periods I went with my JTE and watched them do things to prepare for sports day. It was really fun, and I don't know what team they were but I am SO rooting for the team that is dancing to the AAA song!
All in all its been a pretty solid week, although I am worn out! I need to get the hang of this working thing. Once I get more established and used to the hours I think I'll do some hanging around after school visiting clubs. Also after sports day is over. I hope the teachers will take it easy with me in the real lessons for a while until I can get used to teaching and come up with some good games.
So this week was my first week at my schools. I spent the first three days at OMGItsBig中(chuu), and then a day each at RowdyHill中 and TeenyTiny中 respectively. In case anyone is wondering, to preserve a degree of anonymity for my schools I wont be referring to them by name here on on FB. Those are what I've decided to call them for now. I'll probably keep the first and last one, but the middle one may change later. I may also come up with nicknames for the JTEs at OMGItsBig中 since there are a couple. But that'll come later. They are all preparing for sports day so theres a limit to how much I do there to start out with. Also because I have to go through that obligatory awkward stage where I don't really know what to do with myself, or any of my JTEs much yet. But I'm feeling that it will pass.
I didn't do much at all my first day at OMGItsBig中 other than give my speech in front of the student body at the opening ceremony, and boy was that nervewracking. Its a very large number of students (at least to me) and they are were just staring at me. But I got through it, and sat in the teachers room most of the rest of the day reading the textbooks and trying not to fall asleep. At least its air conditioned. The second day saw me not doing much either except for coming up with my worksheet for the second years and teaching one first year class at the end of the day. There is one teacher there, not a JTE, who is the same age as me and I'm really hoping we'll get to friends! She seems nice and so far we seem to get on, she seems interested in getting to know me too. I've worked with three out of four of my JTEs there and they all seem nice enough, although I think I'll get on best with the one who seems to be directly in charge of me. She's fairly young, has good English, and likes the same music as me! Also she's fun to work with in class, even in my self-intro she engaged with me. On my third day it was a little more hectic, I taught 5 classes even though there were only 4 periods in the day. There was so confusion about where I would go for one period, so we split it half and half. I'm thinking of getting a whiteboard and writing who I'll be teaching with on it as soon as I know so the others can check. I haven't taught any third years there yet. But it seemed to go well and by the end of the third day I was settling into the routine there a bit more. The vice-principal(kyouto-sensei) seems pretty wonderful too.
The next day I drove to RowdyHill中 and had classes there. Because I'm there only once a week I taught all 4 of those classes in one day. I like the JTE there plenty, but the kids there were a little rowdy, compared to the ones I'd had previously. But still I got through my introduction fine, and hopefully I'll learn the best way to handle the slightly more rambunctious classes. I think its just intimidating to me since this is my first time. I made three different worksheets for that school, and to be honest I'm still not done grading them.
The last day of my week was spent at TeenyTiny中, my predecessors favorite. Its so small, and there are only 3 classes. But the building seems quiet nice, and the principal (koucho-sensei) is a woman! I was so surprised. It was a good day there. I had 3 lovely classes with those kids, and we did a little textbook work in each. The classes are small enough that each student could introduce themselves briefly to me personally, and it was really cool to have that interaction with them. They all seem pretty genki, and one first year in particular seemed really keen to interact with me. They were so cute, in one class when they had to come up and introduce themselves several of them were falling all over themselves to be first. One boy introduced himself like this 'I'm _______. I am cute!', and then the next boy followed that with 'I'm _______. You're cute!'. For the last two periods I went with my JTE and watched them do things to prepare for sports day. It was really fun, and I don't know what team they were but I am SO rooting for the team that is dancing to the AAA song!
All in all its been a pretty solid week, although I am worn out! I need to get the hang of this working thing. Once I get more established and used to the hours I think I'll do some hanging around after school visiting clubs. Also after sports day is over. I hope the teachers will take it easy with me in the real lessons for a while until I can get used to teaching and come up with some good games.
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