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Published: December 18th 2007
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Nate Sanensei
This was the halloween lesson at Nate Shogakko. The Sanensei/thirdgraders are really cute! Here are pics of my other Shogakko!
Nate Shogakko is my biggest elementary school and probably has around 280 students...this is where all the bad kids are it seems like...but it's probably just because it's the biggest school and so the class sizes range from 22 students to 38 students per class (the ichinensei/first grader class...chaos everytime...). I go to Nate every Friday and teach around 4 classes, including the special education class. It's funny because sometimes there's 4 kids in the class, but sometimes there's up to 8 kids...they are from all grades and have varying degrees of learning and mental disabilities. It's always fun though because one boy always repeats every word that I say, one boy has ADHD or something and is always trying to take things from other people's desks, one climbs on everything during class, hates taking pictures and sometimes "escapes" as the teachers say. Another girl seems perfectly normal and another girl named MIWA always slowly puts her foot on top of my and smiles on me while she steps on my foot...it's a funny class always. In general Nate is just harder to teach because I see the students less frequently since there
more sanensei
At Nate there are two sanensei classes.... are two classes of each grade and I only go once a week. It takes about 3 weeks to get through the whole school with one lesson.
Even though it's bigger and I am always shouting just in order to be heard, I really enjoy Nate for the most part. I really like the teachers and staff there, especially the Kyoto Sensei, or Vice Principle. He teaches me funny works in Japanese and is always very energetic and joking around with everyone.
I think Ozu and Nate compete for the cutest 1st graders...Ozu is my second (by far...only about 80 students) largest elementary school. BUT, I really like all the kids there, especially the 6th graders (rokunensei) who are just fun and goofy all the time...except for one girl who cries whenever you try to make her say anything...crybaby, but other than that, they are probably one of my favorite classes. The school is kind of remote, across the river and in the foothills, but the kids are really sweet. I teach 5 classes here every 2nd and 4th thursday of the month. Also at Ozu, I eat school lunch (kyushoku) with a different class every time. The
Nate Special Class
Here are the kids from the special class- they are a lot of fun and the teachers are really nice! It's always a bit wild and crazy, but fun. Since it's so few people it's easy to talk to the kids and joke around more. kids always eat so fast! They really encourage them too though and they announce on the loudspeaker when you're supposed to be done. They also announce what's being eaten and the nutritional value and components of the meal...one of the older students does this at every shogakko. Ozu is kind of isolated, like Kaminate, since it is in the foothills. While Kaminate is isolated by being on top of a mountain, Kaminate is across the Kinokawa river, so it's a bit out of the way from town. But it's very pretty and the kids get a much better teacher to student ratio and probably end up learning more because of it.
In Chugakko, the kids change I guess. All the kids from Ozu, Kaminate and Nate all go to Naga Chugakko...and transform either into lazy, obnoxious brats or really shy quiet wallflowers...it's kind of sad. All the good energy goes out the window and since English becomes mandatory it becomes a chore...there are some who are still interested, but they are kept quietly intimidated by the other louder, ruder kids. But really all you have to do is speak to them roughly in english and stare them down until
Christmas
Nate Christmas pics...third graders they shut up. It sounds mean, but some teachers put up with a lot from the kids...they let them get up and walk around in class, sleep, talk back, throw things across the room and with very little punishment or even notice. It can be really frustrating. With the ichinensei, it's oooookay because they really get into games and get competetive, so I just have them play games all the time.
Lastly, about the other JET teachers in the area. Since Kinokawa is a merger of 5 towns, there are 5 JETs in Kinokawashi. Zach is one train stop away from me and teaches in Kokawa, the neighboring town. He's from Penn and just graduated with an International Studies degree. He studied at Kansai Gaidai for a year, so he's all pera pera (fluent) at Japanese...sigh...Lara is in the town next to Zach's. She's a second year and is from London. She graduated from OXFORD (smarty pants) with a degree in French and English lit I think...something like that. She probably speaks the least Japanese of all of us and I do taiko with her. Momoyama is kind of out of the way, but that's where Christine teaches. Christine
oops...
actually these are the third graders....the last pic was actually fourth graders.... is from Hawaii and just graduated too, with a double major in education and Japanese....so she was made for this job. Her mom is actually from Wakayama and her dad is a JA-Hawaiian Sansei. She also studied a year at Kyoto so she is fluent as well. In Kishigawa is Noel, who has been there for going on 5 years!!! He is obviously fluent, but is originally from the UK and studied biology. He is a hermit. Meditates, fasts and does tug-of-war...that's Noel in a nutshell...probably the next Buddha or something. Last is Josh who is in the neighboring city of Iwade. He's from Ohio and just graduated with a degree in Japanese studies. He studied at Kansai Gaidai for a semester at the same time as Zach, and his Japanese is fair...he's really TALL so he really stands out over here!
Anyhow, that's about it for now...I should get ready for class!!!
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