A little Loco Motion

Whoa, has it been over a month since my last post?! Gomen (sorry)!!! Once again, too much to tell and too little time to write, but I had a funny occurrence in one of my classes today that I have to share quickly. At Tamagawa Junior High School, all the English classes for all three grades sing English-language songs at the start of each class every time they meet (three times a week). The third year students are singing "Loco Motion" by Kylie Minogue this term. Tangent: Just in case you're wondering, grade 2 is singing "Country Roads" by John Denver and grade 1 is singing "Top of the World" by the Carpenters (who are very popular in Japan apparently). During the first couple classes at the start of this term, I joked around a bit with the students about dancing a conga line through the classroom while singing the song. Of course once the Japanese English teacher translated my intentions, they either giggled nervously or looked at me like I was insane....little do they know, ha ha. I've tamed down my act a bit since then, but it is still not unusual at various points during the song that some unsuspecting student will glance up to see me dancing next to them.

Today I was being much more tame than usual, casually walking around the room while the students stood singing at their desks. Suddenly I looked behind me and found three of the girls following me around, so I did what any self-respecting Assistant English Teacher would do and started doing the conga. I was very happy to find the girls following along! During one refrain, we ended up at the front of the room doing weird robot circular motions with our arms, and then fell back into a conga line until the end of the song. I was sure the girls would follow me for a little bit then shy-up on me and scamper back to their desks, but they stuck with the dancing through the end of the song. I think I'm with the same class tomorrow morning and I'm very curious to see if this will become commonplace and if any other students will join us. I certainly hope I'll find a yes on both accounts!

Another tidbit worth mentioning that some of you might find funny: I'm starting Halloween lessons at my Elementary School this Friday, and in true "do whatever is most complicated"-Mandy-fashion, I am going to have grades 3-6 make Mexican "Day of the Dead" altars. Yes, I think I'm insane as well, but two of the Elementary School teachers who are willing to put up with trying to understand my English have been really patient and on-board with trying to do something for Halloween that is more meaningful than pumpkins, ghosts and candy, so I'm excited to give it a go. I can't imagine that the students will come away with a firm grasp on the "Day of the Dead" concept, but in my mind, at least I'm planting the seed and that's the important part. Plus they get to do a funky craft project and if it doesn't go well, they can write it off as one of the strange Eigo sensei's (English teacher's) ideas.