Surprises

Day 1, Week 2, School: Higashi. And so begins the next step of my continuing responsibilities as English ALT. Today might have been the busiest day I've had in regards to teaching so far. It went really well, too! Here's the deal.

Higashi Elementary and Junior High is the largest of my three schools with 122 students. It is visible from my back door. So I walked to work this morning, taking a grand total of 1 minute, 32 seconds to reach the entrance to the staff section of the school. It was just in time, as Kyoto先生 (vice principal) walked in right behind me. He's also my neighbor, so I can only imagine where he was beforehand or how closely he had been walking behind me without my noticing.

In a much different atmosphere than Takae, things started right away. First period was my introduction to the 7th graders and I'd say it was one of my smoothest. The larger class size of 13 students (there is only one 7th grade student at Takae) allowed me to make use of a great worksheet, recommended by one of the third-year ALTs here in Okinawa. More students also means each individual step takes a little more time, which means I don't need to have five activities ready to go in case time runs quickly. In all, I think the students were really receptive.

Second period free, I prepared for my first elementary lesson at Higashi. Fourth grade was the target, and I went it for high levels of movement and creativity, keeping the actual English discussion pretty tight. My relatively quick intro was followed by a "get to know the students" activity, as they named and drew their names, hobbies, favorite foods, etc. Janken followed immediately...and what a great game! The kids know this game better than anything I've ever seen (lunch tray clean up duties between ten people can be settled in three rounds of Janken and I have no idea how it works). So I divvied out some random animal cards I had and stated that the top three cardholders would have a chance to face me as Janken Master; I even got Shizuka先生 in on the deal (she's the homeroom teacher). The only downside I didn't see was for the kids who lost three games in a row and were out of cards - I'll need to figure out how to make that less of a put off.

Fourth period was the 9th graders class and it went about as smoothly as the 7th grade class did. I changed it up a bit by having a Q&A session, but I found getting the students to vocalize somewhat difficult. I'm definitely working on activities that will promote speech, focusing on getting the idea across first, then moving toward proper syntax. If they can't even feel comfortable speaking and making mistakes in the first place, then there really isn't going to be any noticeable speech development taking place.

Tomorrow brings a slightly slower day, with ... wait, no it doesn't. I've got 2nd grade elementary, 7th grade introduction, and I think I'm back in the classroom for the 9th graders. I'm not sure if it's because of the field day practices we have this week, but it seems I'm only hitting the junior high classes twice a week. I'll have to ask Takako先生 about that.

Oh, by the way, a good number of the kids I'm teaching live in my housing development, the danchi (団地). I think and hope that a few weeks of good classes will make them less shy. While I don't plan on offering weekend pizza parties or movie nights, a few hours of random childish fun sounds like a great idea. What I really need to do is get my ass on that unicycle Ben left me.

In other quick news, I thwarted a huge infestation of something by noticing a larval nest in my trashcan. Two hours later, the bins are clean, the organisms are outside of my house, and I can sleep soundly knowing that a horrible disgusting colony of insects (think Temple of Doom, when Short Round makes the adept statement, "Indy, sounds like fortune cookie!") will never live to see the light of my apartment.