Monday

Woke up at 7:15am, had yesterday’s bento leftovers for breakfast, then set off for school. It’s graduation ceremony practices all week this week, so I only had one lesson to teach today – the combined 3rd grade lesson in the gym. I asked about whether I needed to attend the practices today, and the VP and my JTE told me I could attend today’s one to get an idea of what the ceremony will actually be like. In Japan it’s a very formal event and they practice a lot because of all the standing and bowing, sitting, handing out and receiving the awards, and so on. I didn't want to just sit around in the staffroom and be clueless about the whole thing, so I asked my JTE about everything to make sure. The practice started at 9:30am, and wow what a practice! I knew that graduation ceremonies in Japan are super formal and a lot more quiet and proper than graduations overseas, but still even I wasn’t prepared for all this bowing and standing and sitting. The kids moved as one to stand, bow, and sit. The 6th graders even had a special way of receiving the certificates, sticking out one arm at a time, and then folding the certificate and tucking it under before bowing and walking off the stage. They seriously bow so many times! Just in the part where they receive the certificate, they have to bow at least 5 times. It's also interesting to note the way in which the 6th graders enter and exit the ceremony, it’s all very orderly and almost robotic – the way it’s executed makes the student body look like a well oiled machine. They finished running through the whole ceremony, and in the last 20 minutes went over parts where the students were still a bit iffy – mainly just remembering to stand up together at the cues. The teachers were also being very strict on their posture and everything, and more than a few teachers yelled at some kids. The teachers are definitely scary when they yell; it’s pretty painful to watch even. Another thing that was interesting was how good the kids are at singing. They were doing harmonies and duets (between the different grades), and even though they went through multiple practices of the same song within the hour, each practice was sung loudly and clearly, and didn’t drop in volume even after the 2nd or 3rd practice. It makes me remember the similar singing practices we did in intermediate back in NZ, but this is elementary school kids we’re talking about here!

We had the special combined 3rd grade lesson in period 4, and it was good I guess, but not as good as I thought it would be? Although everyone was actively participating, it seemed like only 3-1 was enjoying it, along with a few kids from 3-2 (surprisingly). A majority of 3-2 and 3-3 kids just seemed very spaced out. It was definitely nice to have 3-1’s homeroom teacher there cause he can keep the whole grade under control, and when the noise level got out of hand he would always bring it back, plus he was using a lot of English himself too! We ended with a massive group photo and finished. Lunch today was curry and rice, salad, and oranges. The servings today were very large and I even got 3 orange slices! I’m eating in the staffroom this week since we only have a 3 day week (because of graduation and public holiday). The other teachers were telling me about different onsens in Takasaki, about where’s cheap and where’s good. Cleaning time had a rough start, but they listened well enough and stopped arguing over partners and got on with the cleaning phew. 5th and 6th period free so I got onto cleaning up the English materials area, starting with sorting out all the small picture cards we use for playing karuta and stuff, cause they’re in a mess! This actually kept me occupied all the way till I got off work at 16:00.