First day at school

Asia » Japan » Nagano
August 19th 2011

Published: August 21st 2011

Friday was my first day at junior high school. I awoke to hammering rain, and it was pretty much like that the whole day, but it did mean it was much cooler and I didn't suffer from the dreaded sweats in class.

I got to school for 7.30 for a teachers meeting and to find out what my day would involve. At 8.50 we all headed to the school gym for the schoo'sl opening ceremony, where I had to get up on stage in front of 200 kids and 20 teachers and introduce myself. I did a short piece in Japanese (hope it made sense) and then a speech in English saying where I was from and how I was looking forward to getting to know everyone. Then some students read a speech for me in English and everyone sang a welcome song. There were various presentations in Japanese. Everything seems very ritualistic and I wasn't really sure what was going on. For example, the vice principal (who is, I found out, the one who does most of the work running the school - the principal is more of a figurehead), walked onto the stage three times...each time he said one word then got off, then returned a few minutes later....and there was a lot of bowing - people bow when they first get on the stage (to the stage), then they bow to the audience, then they bow to the stage again before they exit.

I had a short break before my first intro lesson. This was with the first graders (there are three grades at the school, so this class was about age 12-13, and there are two classes per grade, with roughly 30-34 kids in each class). I work with two Japanese teachers (JTEs), the head of English, Mrs Shimoda and Mr Nakajima. They both seem very friendly, although Mrs Shimoda seemed a bit stern at first. Mr Nakajima is my supervisor at school. Both teachers are in their late 40s (Mr Nakajima possibly older). My first class was with Mr Nakajima, and he pretty much let me run with the game of true or false I'd put together for the kids. I had to correct my work sheet though to make it American English (so color not colour etc) as I forgot they prefer the American spelling (and the kids get tested on it)....could of been worse, Jane, another teacher near me was asked by her JTE if she could put on an American accent (she's from New Zealand)...she politely declined!

My worksheet was ten pretty easy questions about me, and I'd bought lots of stuff for them to look at - photos, food (Marmite and chocolate), flags, money etc. The class went ok - the kids at least seemed interested in the things I showed them, although I hadn't really planned quite enough to fill 50 minutes. The kids are a mixture of quite lively and cheeky, but also shy if you ask them anything directly. It's hard to guess how cheeky not knowing what they are saying! Then after that lesson, straight to the next first grader class, this time with Mrs Shimoda. She's got quite a different teaching style to Mr Nakajima - more dominant. He's quite a gentle seeming man - and I think the kids take advantage of this. She started her lesson off by playing a guitar and getting the kids to sing songs like Twinkle, twinkle little star, Row, row, row your boat and A dog called bingo. It seemed odd kids that age singing nursery school songs, but they all seemed to enjoy it well enough. Her class was much livelier and the kids asked me more questions. I think she runs a tighter ship, but I felt more relaxed with Mr Nakajima. I get the feeling they won't use me much at first although I may be wrong on that. I know some ALTs just get used to read out text from the text books to begin with - but we will see.

I had my lunch with a second grade class. They don't have a canteen, all kids have school meals in the classrooms and they seem to have a rota of kids who dish out the food, which looks pretty healthy - a chicken curry, rice followed by melon and a salad. It is all organised with military precision and no one eats until everyone has their food. I wasn't sure about this so I just waited and watched what was happening. Then there was a chorus of "Itadakimasu" (Thanks for the food) and eating began. The kids didn't try to talk to me and I didn't want to put them on the spot by questioning them. At the end though, I wasn't sure what to do with my bowl and a sweet kid came over and showed me the ropes, which made my day as I was starting to feel like an alien who had been plonked into a strange world and knew nothing of its customs.

As I don't eat meat, the school provides me with rice and a small milk bottle of sweet tasting milk (they seem to love it here - kind of like the mini milk bottles we had in the UK in the 70s and early 80s in schools). The last English teacher was lactose intolerant, so they seemed pleased I'd drink the stuff, even if I am a pesky veggie.

After lunch I had my final lesson for the day with the oldest kids in the school (3rd grade 15-16 year olds). The age difference from the morning made a big difference and I felt more relaxed in this class, although that may also be because it was the third time of doing it! After that class, I had a free period to sort my stuff and the final hour of the day is where all the kids clean the school! Can you believe it - in the UK we have caretakers, in Japan they build it into the curriculum. Again, with military precision, the kids in small well organised groups don bandanas and clean the classroom they ate in. There is a flurry or sweeping, moping, polishing and hey presto, a clean classroom. This works so well - but I can't imagine it working in UK schools somehow!

I was pretty done in by hometime, but a few teachers were meeting in Iida, so I went out for a Thai meal with a few of them - then came back early and crashed out. I was so tired and that was after one day (a very long day granted, full of not quite knowing what was going on). I dread to think how knackered I'm going to be by this time next week!

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