Back to school... (I never thought I'd hear myself say that again!)

Teacher's room

So instead of sitting here at my desk trying to look busy doing absolutely nothing, I have decided to use this time to my advantage and write a bit more of my blog. Though what I’m going to write about I have no idea, the point is that I am typing on my laptop, other teachers don’t know what I’m writing but I at least look busy – plus it stops me practically falling asleep!

So I will tell you a little bit of my experience of my schools so far. For a start I have had a lot of me just sitting, trying to think of things to do, whilst teachers around me are constantly getting up and down, chatting, or doing something teachery! I feel like I’m in one of those films where they do a speed up of time around the main character (people rushing past around them) whilst they are sat alone in the middle of it all barely moving. I don’t know if that’s a good description or not or whether you understand what I mean, but hopefully one day you will be watching a film and this kind of sequence happens and you will finally understand what the hell I am talking about and think ‘Aaaaah I see, that was what she was going on about. Yeah, she looks like a right pleb’. Hmmm right.

Donari Junior High School (teachers room: 3 windows on ground floor)

Anyway, so I will just give a brief overview of my main school, Donari Junior High. So far there hasn’t seemed to be much consistency between day to day. I think this has something to do with the culture festival that is happening at the school on Sunday – this seems to be taking precedence over normal lessons. Add on top of that the typhoon on Friday, completely wiping my whole day of lessons, and I find that I have still yet to meet half of the students in lessons and therefore will be introducing myself constantly for at least the next week. Ah well. Today was by far my smallest class consisting of 4 students. This is my special education class but to be honest it seems weird that they have been so separated from the rest of the school (from the teachers room I literally have to treck to the other side of the school before I find the class). From what I can tell there seems to be one boy who struggles to pay attention, 2 girls who are more than intelligent but just a bit awkward and one other boy who is slightly autistic. Give them a separate class in England and you would have a prejudice court issue on your hands, in Japan however, this is quite normal and definitely seen as correct. Hmmm. Anyway, it was a nice change from the 38 students I taught yesterday – 3^rd graders, where half the class seemed interested and shy, but the other half were outgoing but definitely couldn’t care less about me or English and instead talked – yes talked, not even whisper, throughout the entire lesson. Crazy stuff! I have still yet to teach 1^st and 2^nd grade but hopefully next week that time will come. I like this school so far though. I have my own locker for my shoes (I really need to get some comfy indoor shoes – apparently slippers aren’t appropriate despite what I was countlessly told) I have my own desk with loads of material left by my predecessor. In fact, I spent my entire first day at the school simply going through my desk working out what was there and tidying up, as it is I still have no idea what half of the games are, nor how to use them!

My desk!

Lunch is served everyday (still haven’t worked out when I’m supposed to pay for them) and so far they have been edible, though my stomach clearly freaks out as my appetite has definitely gone, leaving an embarrassed Liz throwing away at least a bit of food at the end (not good) but they do come with a carton of milk which goes down very well, and today I actually managed to finish the whole lunch! A feat that I had yet to accomplish in Japan! The teachers here are also very nice, and although with some teachers we only share the daily ‘ohaiyo gozaimas’ other teachers keep trying and trying to engage me in a conversation that neither of us can understand, which strangely makes me feel more welcome and that I belong.

Although the junior high school seems like a nice school, I think my favourite days by far are going to be the ones that I spend at my elementary schools! I have only been to one of them at the moment but felt very welcome (despite the lack of my own desk, which is fair as I’m only there twice a month!) and the kids are super kawaii! Plus, it is definitely more fun spending a lesson playing games and doing quizzes than it is teaching about grammar. My three elementary schools are Gosho, Donari and Omata. I go to Gosho and Omata twice a month on Mondays and Donari every Thursday morning – my first being tomorrow. Again, so far I have only given my self introduction presentation, but the audience at the elementary school far surpass that of the junior high. So hopefully these days will be more enjoyable. Plus, I only have to get to school at 8:30 and can leave at 3:15 – short day hey?! =)

Ah yes I forgot to mention, I have also started to help two junior high students with their speeches for the English speech contest. They are both very shy and although I want to help them sound much better, I also don’t want to scare them away. However, obvious mistakes like enzams instead of exams I feel can’t go unsaid. The worst bit of this helping is definitely the fact that yestday I had to record myself reading both of their speeches. God that was nervewracking – I never did enjoy sight reading. No real mistakes were made though and hopefully it will help them understand what the hell I’m banging on about when I correct them. God I hate my voice though.

Anyway I feel this has used up a good amount of time and I look suitably busy (fingers crossed anyway) Now I wil probably go back to what I was doing this morning trying to find material to use in my eikaiwa (adult english speaking classes) which I’m not entirely sure when they will start, but I want to be well prepared for them when they do. After all, adults will be far more aware when I have no idea what I’m doing rather than students who you can just blag to and get them to do something boring but schoolish. I don’t think I will be able to get away with that with my eikaiwa, especially seeing as I ‘m teaching them on my own, and won’t have my JTE to hide behind if anything goes wrong!

My new school shoes! Ha! Black ones for JHS, white for Elementary!