2001-09-04 - 4:48 p.m.
Always one to catch my off guard, my supervisor rang my doorbell yesterday at 7:25 AM, 5@minutes before he was supposed to pick me up to take me to my first day of school. I scurried to gather my things, and he drove me the short distance to my first junior high of the year. We changed shoes at the door, and I put my outdoor shoes in the locker that was already marked with my name. My supervisor lead me up the stairs to the teachers room, where we entered and greated everyone with a hearty "ohayo gozaimasu!" (good morning). An English teacher showed me to my desk, which was at the back of the room near the xerox machine and tea center. In Japan, all of the teachers work in one room, with their desks all pushed together to form long tables. Only the principal has his own office. The seating is hierarchical, with veteran teachers sitting closer to the principal's office, and newer teachers (like me) sitting further back. I was glad to find that the teacher's room was not as smokey as I had feared -- though a couple of teachers smoke, there is not the thick layer of smoke I have heard other JETs talk about.
At 8:00, a bell rang and all of the teachers sat at their desks and faced forward for the teachers' meeting. The principal made a few remarks and then introduced me and my supervisor. I made a speech in Japanese (Nice to meet you, I'm from DC, I can't speak Japanese - please help me learn, I'm proud to work with you, etc.). I returned to my desk and sat through the remaining 15 minutes of the meeting.
The other English teachers introduced themselves to me, and I was told that there would be no classes all day because students were preparing for the sports festival. The sports festival, which will be on Saturday, is a display of class unity more than athleticism. All week students will be practicing what essentially are cheerleading routines -- shouting and motions to the beat of a drum and the bark of a student leader. I settled into my desk and began to study Japanese. After a few hours, the history teacher sitting across from me remarked, "you study hard!" He doesn't speak much English but is taking out his dictionary every other minute to tell me something. One of his favorite activities is to teach me words in "Japanese country language" (i.e. Osaka dialect), to the great amusement of his peers. Imagine teaching an exagerated Southern accent to someone who is just learning English -- pretty funny. Later, another teacher came up to me and said, "Sarah, I hear you are a very hard worker," this being based on the history teacher's observation about me studying Japanese. Word does get around.
After a couple of hours, one of the English teachers took me downstairs to work one-on-one with a student who is confined to a wheelchair because she cannot walk. We read through a text book story, worked on talking about "favorites" and I made her tell me all about her cell phone in English. She was alone in a room that was empty except for her desk and one chair -- I'm not sure if she stays in this room everyday or just when others are practicing for the sports festival. Actually, I'm afraid to ask. This girl could definately be "mainstreamed" with the other students.
At lunch time, I returned to the teacher's room and about 10 students came in dressed in white coats and wearing white bandanas on their heads. They wheeled in big vats of food for the teachers and served lunch to those teachers not eating with their homerooms. Afterwards, they cleaned up the entire meal and wheeled it out. After lunch was a short cleaning period. Public schools in Japan do not have custodial staff, so the students clean the entire school every day. Each homeroom is given several tasks. Some students stay and clean the classrooms, other clean hallways and bathrooms, and others sweep and empty the trash in the teacher's room.
Over the course of the day, many students came in to say hello to me, and many others waved from outside the door and then ran away. I talked to three third-year students for several minutes, and they returned later in the day to tell me, "you look like Meg Ryan!" (first Madonna... who's next?) Students are constantly in and out of the staff room, asking questions of teachers or helping out with something.
On my second day, I finally got to teach. During first period I gave my self-introductory lesson to a class of 3rd year students and it went remarkably well. First, I introduced myself to each of the 40 students in the class, making each one shake my hand, and say "my name is... nice to meet you." Then I got volunteers to hold up posters and props I'd made of home, my favorite things, friends, etc. I gave every student who volunteered a blown up 5-dollar bill, and that actually worked for getting students out of their seats. The visuals I brought -- picture of George W., American flags, postcards of pizza and bagels, went over well. After the lesson part, we played a game of true/false, with me saying statements like "I am from England," or "Koizumi is the President of the United States," and the students racing in teams to circle the right answer on the blackboard. All in all, it went over very well. However, these were 3-rd year students, and I will probably get a much different response from the 3 classes of 1st year students I have to teach tomorrow.
At lunch time, one of the teachers invited me to eat with her homeroom, so I joined her class of 40 1st year students. The routine in the classroom was much like that in the teacher's room, with students dressing in chef outfits and everyone eating together. I managed some very light conversation with the kids, but their English is pretty much limited to introductions.
More later... Now I have to run to prepare for my first adult conversation class -- I teach for 2 hours and (big surprise) I have absolutely no idea what to expect!
