Tuesday Office Day

Today I had an ALT office day thing at another primary school. Set off early at 7:45am because the roads leading into the primary school are a bit confusing, and according to the BOE someone always gets lost every year going to that school. I didn't have to have worried about it at all though cause the roads were much easier to navigate with the map that the BOE gave us, and I arrived way way earlier than planned at 8:08am (the meeting time was 8:30am!). Their caretaker (groundskeeper?) was greeting us at the gate and showing us where to park – I think he thought I was a staff from the BOE because he pointed me to the car park along the school, but the other ALTs were directed to a temporary car park on the other side. It was really interesting to see a different elementary school. Their building was a lot smaller than my school, but they had their own English classroom, which I thought was really neat. It was decorated very splendidly with so many different displays, and they had everything ranging from a weekly English corner (this week they had to remember “What’s your name? My name is ___.”) to song lyrics and movie posters.

We started with just checking attendance, making sure all the ALTs had arrived. Then the principal gave a short welcoming speech (it was so cute – he was trying his best speaking in English and his hobby is horse riding). Then we had 2nd period in the gym with a 1st grade class where they “interviewed” us (basically asked us our names, where we’re from, and our favourite fruit) and taught us traditional Japanese games. Their 1st graders here are so tall and so much bigger than my 1st graders! I thought they were 2nd graders at first. I was also extremely beyond impressed with their English level. I was most impressed with how they could actually ask questions and say simple sentences. I feel like with my 1st graders we can only do vocab and nothing else (maaaybe super simple questions like “How are you?” but that’s as far as they can go). Felt a little bit bad because this schools’ kids’ English was so amazing (it was like “What am I doing wrong?”) so I will definitely work harder to bring my kids’ English up to scratch! Though some ALTs were speculating that they must have practiced insanely hard for this day, so that’s why their English was so perfect. Nonetheless, I was still super impressed with their overall English ability. I think some of it has to do with their homeroom teachers all being very active with their class’ English learning. They have a lot of reactions (?) implemented, like at the end of the lesson they’ll ask for comments, and when someone says their comment about the lesson, the whole class will turn to them and give them a thumbs up saying “Good comment!” which was pretty cute. They also start each lesson with a “Hello” song and end with a “Bye bye” song, even their 5th graders would sing the Hello and Bye Bye song pretty happily. I can’t really imagine my 5th graders singing such songs so happily (they barely get through the jingles) but I wish I could incorporate something like it, just to get some more English in. I definitely should start doing the “communication points” thing though – so far only 2nd grade has that because their homeroom teachers push for it, but I don't have anything for the other grades.

After the morning break we had 3rd period with the 3rd graders, and man was their English good. They all had their own little interview sheets, where they’d written their own information (name, favourite place, etc.) and a whole lot of questions to ask us (favourite colour, number, shape, place, season, everything you could think of!). All the ALTs were just so impressed with their English ability. They ended by performing a dance for us (which I’m pretty sure was their Sports Day dance) which was super cute. The 5th graders were great with their English as well, and had a lot of similar questions for us too. They wrapped up with teaching us some origami – I pretended not to know how to fold a crane and let them teach me. It was pretty hilarious as they didn’t know how to say a lot of instructions in English obviously, so they’d be like “triangle” “here” “like this” “again” mixed with a lot of Japanese. It was very cute to see them trying so hard and I felt a bit bad for pretending not to know how to fold a crane! As we were leaving the gym they were chasing us with newspaper pockets filled with origami, it was adorable. We got to eat lunch with them as well. I ate with their 3rd graders and it was just the same as having lunch at my own school. Made me miss my kids though! All the other ALTs were saying how they missed their kids too. We went outside to play with the kids at lunchtime, and there were various games of tag, soccer, and paper scissors rock going on all over the grounds. As lunchtime was ending they were all hurriedly getting their notebooks and pens to get our signatures! We spent the rest of the afternoon discussing communication between JTEs and ALTs, and also two senior ALTs did some presentations on what they do for lessons. One of them was super hardout and had handmade mosaic paper crafts for displays.

We finished up at 15:00 and I went to Nitori to get a futon (for my parents visiting in November) and a drawer (to put my rice cooker and hairdryer/other electronics on – right now everything is just on the floor!). Also picked up a nabe pot, and a clock since I needed those. Stopped by another patisserie to get some desserts since I was really craving something sweet and needed something to perk up to fight this darn cold. The patisserie was really cute and I enjoyed choosing different cakes. Ended up choosing the banana tart (it was really pretty! The cream was piped like a rose on top), strawberry mousse cake (also yummy) and a three layer chocolate cake (the most average of the 3). Drove home and had vegetable hot pot for dinner and the cakes. Took a break from badminton tonight because of my cold. Also discovered that I had a flat tire after I got home, so I contacted the car dealer to had him come help. He helped me change to the spare tire and instructed me on going to the gas stand to get my tire fixed and changed. Bit of an eventful night because of that, but at least I got to learn how to change a tire!