Heartwarming Farewell Assembly

Woke up at 7:15am, had sushi and grapes for breakfast, then drove to school. I actually had 3 lessons to teach today (5th and 6th grade). The school was running on it’s special 5 periods schedule because there was going to be a farewell ceremony for the teachers who left. Had class with 6-1 in period 1, and again it was a very good lesson, when I compare it to the lessons we had when they were 5th graders. They listen a lot more (the “small talk” section is working great!), and actually do their best with the writing activities. It was a standard, good lesson with no major problems. 5-2 right up next in period 2, and it was another fun lesson, though I feel like the kids were a teeny bit unfocused today, probably just cause of the warmer weather. Even though the forecast said the high would be 18 degrees today, the classroom felt pretty stuffy. They did good during Small Talk again (one of the kids caught the word “spell”) and sang the alphabet song loudly. The listening activity was done good, but took a little longer because it was pretty fast so I had to replay it for them a few times. They loved the pair activity where they had to ask each other about their favourite things – the kid that said “I LIKE DARTH VADAR” on Tuesday chose that again as his favourite TV programme haha. Had to make some new nametags cause some kids had lost theirs.

5-1 in period 3 and it was another great lesson. Their homeroom teacher started the class today with the greetings (we’re alternating because I want the kids to hear their homeroom teachers speaking more English) and he’s seriously great, the perfect HRT. We continued on from Tuesday’s lesson because we didn’t quite finish the “guess what the teacher likes” game, so we did that 5-ish minutes, which stretched more into 10 minutes because the kids were having a lot of fun with it. Then we did the listening activity, and the conversation activity, although because of the time they were only able to ask one person. Did some printing and prep for next week’s lessons in the spare period 4. Lunch today was curry and rice, salad, and grapefruit. Cleaning time was good again today, I wonder how long they’ll keep their 1st grader innocence and obedience! The teachers that left arrived at school for the farewell ceremony in the afternoon, it was so nice to see them again – I wish they’d been able to stay! The farewell ceremony started in the gym just before 14:00, and it was so hard to keep the tears in! While the kids were singing the school’s song, two of the leaving teachers (they were all sitting up on the stage) were already tearing, and you could see they were trying their best to control their tears. The kids gave the teachers flowers and thank you letters, and also a little speech as well. The 5th grade one was funny because they told their teacher to properly eat his veggies – broccoli and asparagus in particular (cause everyone knows he hates those!). All the other teachers were so prepared with their handkerchiefs and everything – everyone was ready for those tears! The most tear-jerking part was the teacher’s speeches though, where they reminisced back on their time at this school and everything. But the ultimate tear-jerking part came when they were exiting the gym, and the kids split into rows for them to walk in between, and quite a lot of kids just started bawling their eyes out as the teachers walked through and said their farewells. They were crying like they were heartbroken. It was super cute, but also made me start to tear up. If I looked at the crying teachers and kids any longer, I wouldn't be able to stop! It was really heartwarming to see though, you could really see how the kids and teachers truly love each other over here. I don’t really remember anyone crying when they left primary school back in NZ, or just crying in general whenever a teacher had to leave (which to be fair, was much rarer than it is here in Japan). But still, it was a very meaningful ceremony with feels all around.

Had a meeting with the 2nd grade teachers for Monday’s lesson, and then got off work at 16:30. Went back home, got changed, and then headed out back again at 18:00 since my school was having a final farewell party for the teachers who left. This dinner party was definitely the biggest one we’ve had so far, practically all the teachers and other school staff were there, so it was one massive loooooong table with 40 people present! It started off with the teachers leaving doing one final speech, and then it was just eating and drinking from there. The food was really nice with a lot of sashimi on the menu. My school’s teachers are usually very calm and restrained even when it comes to drinking parties (unlike other schools from what I’ve heard from other ALTs!) but at this one they finally let loose a bit – mainly cause the school lunch staff were attending, and they were the ones who got drunk first!). Afterwards we split off into three groups – those who were going home, those who were going for the 2nd round of drinking, and those who were going for a 2nd round of talking and hanging out. I went with the group who was just talking and chilling, and it was really nice! I finally got to talk to the 3 teachers who are around my age more, and we talked about going to a café together soon! Got home at around 23:00, which wasn’t bad at all considering other ALTs stayed out till like 2:00 in the morning!

Dessert

Salad

Soba Noodles

Sashimi

Sashimi