Starting School
Well, I'm not doing any better at blogging than Taj is, am I?!
Term 2 started last Friday, September 1, so the moment of truth has arrived...sort of. For those of you who don't know already, the school year in Japan starts in April, so I've arrived kind of in the middle of the school year. However, because it is so hot in Japan in the summer, the students have 4-5 weeks off from the end of July-beginning of September for summer holiday, which is why I have been in Japan for a month already but have only just started teaching.
Friday was like most first days back at school after an extended holiday- not really a normal school day. Students came to school and went to homeroom for the first 15-20 minutes for attendance and announcements. Then everyone congregated in the gymnasium for the assemby and welcome ceremony, which are what the photos below are of:
The photos of the students standing were taken while they were singing their school song. The first photos shows one of the students from the Brass Band club leading the singing. That's one thing that has been striking about school in Japan, that the students are expected to take a lot more responsibility for things than American students are. More about that in a different posting.
During the assembly and welcome ceremony, various announcements were made by the principal, vice-principal, head teacher, other teachers, students (I think some of the students that gave speeches might have been new students, but I could be totally off), and the principal brought me up on stage to be introduced AND introduce myself to the student body. The introduction was short, but I was asked to say part of it in Japanese, part in English. My coached dialogue was "Minasan (everyone), Ohaiyo goziamasu (good morning). Good morning everyone. My name is Mandy Prorok. I am from America (which is what everyone calls the U.S. here- I stopped saying I was from the United States a long time ago because I got blank looks from most people, but when I said 'America,' received instant recognition). I will be the Assistant English Teacher at Tamagawa Junior High School during Term 2 and I look forward to working with you. Hajememashte (nice to meet you)." I thought I would be more nervous, but I had gotten to know all the teachers and staff during the week and a half prior to the start of school, and they have all been brilliantly welcoming, and I had both joined the junior high school volleyball practice a couple of times before school started (including attending a weekend tournament with the team the weekend prior to the start of school) and had been introduced to the students in a summer math class, so there were a number of familiar faces in the audience.
After the assembly, there was an emergency/fire (and earthquake...) drill. The students did some cleaning (more on this later), then went back to homeroom and read reports that they did over the summer. Then they all headed home by noon. The teachers of course stuck around until the end of the normal work day.
Yesterday (Monday, September 4) was the first full day of classes. There were three English classes yesterday during which I had my first "teaching" experience. From the first day of acceptance into the JET Program, I'd been told to prepare a 'self-introduction' for the first meeting of each class I'd be helping teach, which essentially meant that I'd be given the full 50 minutes of classtime to introduce myself to the students- show photos, maps, etc. When the time came, however, my situation was a little different. All of the English classes had been given vocabulary that they were to study over the summer from Term 1, and first thing in the first meeting for all the classes, was a vocabulary quiz for anywhere between 15-30 minutes. So,...with the abbreviated time, I explained a few things a wanted the students to know, and had them make name cards to keep on their desks during the first few weeks of school while I get to know their names. Of course I made them write their names in "romaji," roman letters, but with the kanji above the romaji so I could hopefully try to learn their kanji symbols as well, since all their regular nametags are in kanji. And that was about it.
I think I might have mentioned that I had three classes yesterday (if not, I just did- ha ha). In Japan, they don't label grades 1-12, they label them 1-however many grades are in completed at that particular school. So, in elementary school, there are grades 1-5 (I think). In Junior High School, there are grades 1-3 and High School, grades 1-3 (I think- I don't remember right now because I won't deal at all with high schools). So, in Japan, instead of a student saying that they are in 7th grade, as we are used to in the States, they would say that they are in Grade 2 in Junior High School (Chugako). One of my classes yesterday was a grade 2 class, and two classes were grade 1 (each grade is divided into two as well, so there is class 1-1, class 1-2, class 2-1, class 2-2, 3-1, 3-2). I have to say that I think the grade 1 students were a bit more...animated and seemed more receptive, even though I'm sure they didn't understand a word I said (the Japanese English Teacher translated everything I said for the students anyway). But they really got into making the name cards, adding decoration and all! The grade 2 students all paid attention and were well-behaived, they just didn't really seem to know what to do with me. I can imagine it is because they are at that inbetween stage of language learning where they are not completely beginners now, but are still not far enough along in their lessons to fully understand "all English, all the time," but might feel that they should, so are feeling a bit awkward about their skills.
Anyway, part of my explanations yesterday included introducing a "mailbox" that I will leave on my desk throughout the term. Students are invited to write letters to me about themselves, with questions about me, America, English, etc. They are rewarded for writing letters by receiving extra points. I received 4-5 letters today already! I am supposed to respond to the letters, so if this frequency keeps up (there are 172 students at my junior high school and all of them take English class), I'm going to be a busy letter writer!
Today (Tuesday, September 5) was a slightly odd day. I was supposed to have three classes today, two grade 3 classes and one grade 1 class. After the morning teachers' meeting, one of the English teachers told me that afternoon classes had been cancelled pretty much all week so students could prepare for the Culture Festival coming up this Saturday. So, I only had 1 class today, the morning grade 3 class, but they had a 30 minute test, so all I had to do was get them to do the name cards, and the rest of the day I worked on projects in the teachers' room. Tomorrow I have one new class I have not met yet and 1 or 2 repeat classes. Thursday I go to the Tamagawa Elementary School (I will go to one of the three elementary schools in town almost every Thursday).
So far, so good regarding school! As I said, the teachers have all been fantastic, even though I can't speak Japanese and some of them speak little to no English. One of them even ordered knee pads for me for volleyball and had them delivered to the school three days later (more on volleyball in another post)! And the students have been great so far as well. Of course some of them were a bit shy about speaking to me the first few times they saw me around school, but it seems to me that all of them are willing to at least use greetings with me if I greet them first. Some students are getting a bit more brave, but there are still a lot of nervous giggles after saying "hello" or "good morning" to me in English. But they've been great so far, so I'm really excited about the rest of the term.
Term 2 started last Friday, September 1, so the moment of truth has arrived...sort of. For those of you who don't know already, the school year in Japan starts in April, so I've arrived kind of in the middle of the school year. However, because it is so hot in Japan in the summer, the students have 4-5 weeks off from the end of July-beginning of September for summer holiday, which is why I have been in Japan for a month already but have only just started teaching.
Friday was like most first days back at school after an extended holiday- not really a normal school day. Students came to school and went to homeroom for the first 15-20 minutes for attendance and announcements. Then everyone congregated in the gymnasium for the assemby and welcome ceremony, which are what the photos below are of:
The photos of the students standing were taken while they were singing their school song. The first photos shows one of the students from the Brass Band club leading the singing. That's one thing that has been striking about school in Japan, that the students are expected to take a lot more responsibility for things than American students are. More about that in a different posting.
During the assembly and welcome ceremony, various announcements were made by the principal, vice-principal, head teacher, other teachers, students (I think some of the students that gave speeches might have been new students, but I could be totally off), and the principal brought me up on stage to be introduced AND introduce myself to the student body. The introduction was short, but I was asked to say part of it in Japanese, part in English. My coached dialogue was "Minasan (everyone), Ohaiyo goziamasu (good morning). Good morning everyone. My name is Mandy Prorok. I am from America (which is what everyone calls the U.S. here- I stopped saying I was from the United States a long time ago because I got blank looks from most people, but when I said 'America,' received instant recognition). I will be the Assistant English Teacher at Tamagawa Junior High School during Term 2 and I look forward to working with you. Hajememashte (nice to meet you)." I thought I would be more nervous, but I had gotten to know all the teachers and staff during the week and a half prior to the start of school, and they have all been brilliantly welcoming, and I had both joined the junior high school volleyball practice a couple of times before school started (including attending a weekend tournament with the team the weekend prior to the start of school) and had been introduced to the students in a summer math class, so there were a number of familiar faces in the audience.
After the assembly, there was an emergency/fire (and earthquake...) drill. The students did some cleaning (more on this later), then went back to homeroom and read reports that they did over the summer. Then they all headed home by noon. The teachers of course stuck around until the end of the normal work day.
Yesterday (Monday, September 4) was the first full day of classes. There were three English classes yesterday during which I had my first "teaching" experience. From the first day of acceptance into the JET Program, I'd been told to prepare a 'self-introduction' for the first meeting of each class I'd be helping teach, which essentially meant that I'd be given the full 50 minutes of classtime to introduce myself to the students- show photos, maps, etc. When the time came, however, my situation was a little different. All of the English classes had been given vocabulary that they were to study over the summer from Term 1, and first thing in the first meeting for all the classes, was a vocabulary quiz for anywhere between 15-30 minutes. So,...with the abbreviated time, I explained a few things a wanted the students to know, and had them make name cards to keep on their desks during the first few weeks of school while I get to know their names. Of course I made them write their names in "romaji," roman letters, but with the kanji above the romaji so I could hopefully try to learn their kanji symbols as well, since all their regular nametags are in kanji. And that was about it.
I think I might have mentioned that I had three classes yesterday (if not, I just did- ha ha). In Japan, they don't label grades 1-12, they label them 1-however many grades are in completed at that particular school. So, in elementary school, there are grades 1-5 (I think). In Junior High School, there are grades 1-3 and High School, grades 1-3 (I think- I don't remember right now because I won't deal at all with high schools). So, in Japan, instead of a student saying that they are in 7th grade, as we are used to in the States, they would say that they are in Grade 2 in Junior High School (Chugako). One of my classes yesterday was a grade 2 class, and two classes were grade 1 (each grade is divided into two as well, so there is class 1-1, class 1-2, class 2-1, class 2-2, 3-1, 3-2). I have to say that I think the grade 1 students were a bit more...animated and seemed more receptive, even though I'm sure they didn't understand a word I said (the Japanese English Teacher translated everything I said for the students anyway). But they really got into making the name cards, adding decoration and all! The grade 2 students all paid attention and were well-behaived, they just didn't really seem to know what to do with me. I can imagine it is because they are at that inbetween stage of language learning where they are not completely beginners now, but are still not far enough along in their lessons to fully understand "all English, all the time," but might feel that they should, so are feeling a bit awkward about their skills.
Anyway, part of my explanations yesterday included introducing a "mailbox" that I will leave on my desk throughout the term. Students are invited to write letters to me about themselves, with questions about me, America, English, etc. They are rewarded for writing letters by receiving extra points. I received 4-5 letters today already! I am supposed to respond to the letters, so if this frequency keeps up (there are 172 students at my junior high school and all of them take English class), I'm going to be a busy letter writer!
Today (Tuesday, September 5) was a slightly odd day. I was supposed to have three classes today, two grade 3 classes and one grade 1 class. After the morning teachers' meeting, one of the English teachers told me that afternoon classes had been cancelled pretty much all week so students could prepare for the Culture Festival coming up this Saturday. So, I only had 1 class today, the morning grade 3 class, but they had a 30 minute test, so all I had to do was get them to do the name cards, and the rest of the day I worked on projects in the teachers' room. Tomorrow I have one new class I have not met yet and 1 or 2 repeat classes. Thursday I go to the Tamagawa Elementary School (I will go to one of the three elementary schools in town almost every Thursday).
So far, so good regarding school! As I said, the teachers have all been fantastic, even though I can't speak Japanese and some of them speak little to no English. One of them even ordered knee pads for me for volleyball and had them delivered to the school three days later (more on volleyball in another post)! And the students have been great so far as well. Of course some of them were a bit shy about speaking to me the first few times they saw me around school, but it seems to me that all of them are willing to at least use greetings with me if I greet them first. Some students are getting a bit more brave, but there are still a lot of nervous giggles after saying "hello" or "good morning" to me in English. But they've been great so far, so I'm really excited about the rest of the term.
posted by Mandy | 7:27 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Mandy!
Can you please post/email your mailing address again? I accidentally deleted the email you sent me before - I still have Willow's picture to send you!
Thanks! Amy
Post a Comment
<< Home