First Day of School!

First day of school today!!! Woke up at 7:00am, had udon for breakfast, and then cycled to school to arrive early at 8:00am. They close the gates super early so it’s better to arrive earlier so that you don't have to worry about stopping, opening and closing the gate. I still cycled so it was still easy to open and close the gate, but when I drive I will definitely make sure I come way before they close the gate! In the morning they have a staff meeting, and I was officially introduced to all the staff. I think I have met most of them in the summer holiday though, so it was just a formality. I had to give a self-introduction in Japanese, and even though I prepared one the night before, I forgot to say a part of it, but it was all good. After that, at 8:40am we had the opening ceremony in the school gym. A nice thing about my school is that they don’t require you to have a separate pair of gym shoes, so you’re allowed to wear your normal pair of indoor shoes there. The kids are all so cute! Some of them are so tall, almost as tall as me, and taller than a lot of the Japanese teachers here. The ceremony started with greetings, the school song (Japanese kids are so good at singing, seriously), the principal’s message, message about the prevention of bullying, and earthquake safety procedures. They also introduced the new teachers (my JTE and I) and we gave short self introductions. I wasn’t sure at first whether to do mine all in English (at the office day, everyone is saying DON’T LET THEM KNOW YOU SPEAK JAPANESE) but I opted to do half half in the end. They were super cute though – I said good morning first in Japanese, and then asked them if they knew what “good morning” was in English, they all said back softly “Hello”. What cuties. I also asked them if they knew where New Zealand was and got back a chorus of わからないs, except for one kid who put up his hand and shouted out Australia. I love these kids already. Regarding the SPEAK NO JAPANESE thing that the BOE and other ALTs are so particular about, I don’t think it’s such a big deal to speak Japanese at school, unless your teachers specifically tell you not to speak it. If you can speak Japanese, I think it’s ok to let the students know you can, because it makes you much more approachable, they feel more free to ask you questions, and they can actually understand you. You can then use that chance to build a better relationship, and from that, teach them/encourage them in their English learning. That’s my personal opinion on speaking Japanese at school.

After the opening ceremony ended classes began straight away. I didn't have class till 5th period, so I just sat in the office doing work. I decided to make English nametags for all the kids so I’d be able to call on them to answer questions. This took up most of my day since there’s a lot of students! Lunch was at 12:20, but since today is Friday we (my JTE and I) went to the broadcast room first to do the English broadcast that happens every Friday at my school. The English section of the broadcast starts from 12:40, so they asked us to come at 12:30. I was quite surprised to find out that the broadcast is run by students and not teachers. I knew that in junior high schools they have broadcast/radio clubs, but I didn't know that elementary schools did it too! There were 3 kids rostered today but the 3rd one came in late shouting out YES YES YES which was hilarious. But then when they asked him to do the broadcast he switched to NO NO NO. Nice to hear him speaking some English though! One of the kids was actually half Chinese and had just come back from spending the summer in China, so he had to get used to speaking in Japanese again, which I found adorable (plus his Japanese was fine). The broadcast went smoothly and we returned to the teachers’ room to eat lunch. I LOVE SCHOOL LUNCH. Ours is made in school as well meaning it’s extra delicious! The other teachers said that school lunches made in food centres (which are then distributed to x amount of schools) don’t taste as good as the school lunches made in the school. Today’s lunch was beef with rice (牛丼) with seaweed soup, a mandarin, and the normal carton of milk. The milk tasted so good!!! I’m so happy that we will get the milk everyday. School lunch is also insanely cheap amounting up to roughly ¥250 per school lunch. Only ¥250 for a full meal! The best deal ever.

After lunch, the kids get about 25 minutes of free time, before cleaning time at 13:30, which lasts 20 minutes till 13:50. The kids are responsible for cleaning the whole school, and it was very cute to see the 6th graders waltzing in to the staff room with their brooms and wiping cloths and rubbish bags. It’s a great cleaning culture they’ve built up in Japan, and I wish more countries would be able to do the same thing. During this time I walked around a bit around the staff room and the corridor outside so see if I could help anywhere, and was waylaid by some very adorable 2nd graders. They shyly said hello and smiled a lot! One little girl ran up and introduced herself in almost perfect English. I was very impressed, and even more happy when she said she likes English (that’s why her English is so good!). The group of 2nd graders dragged me along with them showing me which of the animal cards (that I’d hidden previously) they’d already found. They’re honestly such good kids – when I told them that they can get prizes (stickers) for finding all the animal cards and handing the worksheets in, they said that just finding the cards is enough for them, and that talking to me makes them happy enough!

I had my very first class in 5th period at 13:55. It was with the 5th graders. My JTE did her self-introduction, and then I did mine with my powerpoint. I have to go back to the NO SPEAKING JAPANESE rule here, because…I had to speak Japanese in my lesson. It probably really depends on your school’s English level, but there was absolutely zero response when you speak all in English (blank stares all around). You either have that, or you explain your spoken English into Japanese and it’s instantly responses all around. Students put their hands up to answer questions, the blank stares are replaced with understanding, and there’s just more excitement all around. So even though the BOE and other ALTs tell you DO NOT SPEAK JAPANESE, I really think it’s ok to speak Japanese with your English. Obviously you’ll still be speaking English the whole lesson, but it’s just inserting a few Japanese explanations/translations here and there to make sure students are on the same page. The BOE believes that you can just speak a ton of English and have the students listen and absorb the English, which is true, but while that may help their pronunciation (if it does at all) it doesn’t help their understanding and learning. I found the lesson ran much more smoothly when I added in Japanese explanations at the end of my English explanations. The lesson comes to a screeching halt when it’s all in English, because the kids have no idea what you’re saying, and cannot follow no matter how simple you go with your English, or how many gestures/pictures you use.

The lesson went alright I think, but in the future I will definitely have to make it more fun for the kids. They were still very well behaved and not rowdy at all. I couldn't really tell what they thought of me/English/the lesson though. Since they participated, hopefully they didn’t find it boring, but at the same time they didn't give super enthusiastic responses either, so that’s why I feel I have to make it more fun in the future (to get more responses). The English level also seemed to be really low in this class. I’d say out of the 35 students, probably only 5 students could do a proper self-introduction (name, age, favourite colour). The rest needed heavy, heavy prompting. I’m not yet sure if this is the norm across the school, but if it is, I’ll need to work extra hard to bring everyone’s English level up to scratch! I hope it was just because they were shy, or that it was the very first lesson so they weren’t in “English” mode. I also found it very true that teachers will inevitably have their favourites. In just one lesson there were already a few students that just captures your attention/heart. I have to say in this class the girls were very quiet and shy, and the boys were more loud and participative, although that might just be a reflection of the male-dominant society in Japan as a whole?

School finishes for the kids at 15:30, but teachers stay behind to patrol the area. After that they also had another staff meeting at 16:00. Not sure if this is a daily thing or if it’s just because it’s the first day of term today. I’m allowed to finish work at 16:15, but I stayed a bit later and just left when the vice principal told me to leave (around 16:45). All the teachers stay behind till so late! It felt weird leaving earlier before everyone else. They did mention in the staff meeting that they would have “no OT Fridays” though, so hopefully that encourages the teachers to not overwork themselves. I’ve read on some blogs that teachers stay at school till as late as 21:00! Just before I left school I had quick catch up with the 3rd grade teachers – I’ll be teaching all three 3rd grade classes on Monday, so they wanted to see what I was doing. I also found out that even at my school the teachers work till late (20:00) and even when they go home they bring their work home with them to do. So it’s literally non-stop working! But that’s the Japanese working life for you.