Sakiyama Junior High Reflections
Lately school is exceptionally delightful; I don’t have any complaints. I’m not even worried about being required to play an instrument (a triangle) at one of my school’s graduation ceremonies. It’s all good.
I alluded to this in my previous post but my joy is in large part due to my chemistry with my co-workers and students: they feel comfortable teaching and learning with me and I understand their teaching and learning styles, respectively. It has taken six months to be where I am, which in the grand scheme of things isn’t a lot of time. I am pleased with my progress.
The past two Mondays at Sakiyama Junior High School really demonstrate the progress we—my co-workers, students, and I—are all making. Back in December my students took a listening test and did not score very well. Two weeks ago they took another test: the first and second year students were required to answer all the questions I posed to them in English while the third year students had to carry on a conversation with me for three minutes. Overall the students did really well! While I doubt every student enjoys English, they made an effort to speak and seemed upbeat (ANY words are preferable to silence and blank expressions).
Last Monday my teachers, in an act of trust, turned the class over to me to lead (typically I assist with pronunciation and clarifying English grammar points). While the lesson was already planned for me, I set the pace, gave the instructions, and posed questions. Truly it was my first time teaching and the first time the students had a class exclusively in English. My teachers were so pleased that they want me to lead next week’s classes too and gave me liberty to create a lesson plan. This method works to everyone’s advantage:
1. The students can hear natural English and be exposed to and learn new instructions.
2. The teachers can learn new English instructions, which will contribute towards the goal of teaching class almost entirely in English.
3. I gain valuable and authentic teaching experience.
Two weeks from now one of my classes will Skype with my girlfriend! I’m looking forward to seeing how they perform. I think it’s so cool that my teachers are experimenting with the curriculum and including projects like these. It increases the students’ knowledge and awareness by exposing them to new experiences, forms of communication, and information. It allows me to take a more proactive role in the classroom beyond the often lamented “tape recorder” function. In short this is exactly how JET is supposed to work.
The Brass Inspection
Last Friday an educator from the Ministry of Education in Tokyo and an educator from Nagasaki’s Prefectural Board of Education observed English classes at Sakiyama Elementary School. I admit to being a little nervous but the classes went well overall and I believe the Tokyo brass was pleased with the results. I mentioned previously that she came in response to the presentation my students and Dan presented in Tokyo last fall. While this in part true, I heard that Tokyo is designing a new curriculum and wants to feature Sakiyama Elementary School in it. One aspect of the plan is to make English a graded subject; right now it is considered more as an activity. This move is expected to encourage teachers and students alike to take English as a subject more seriously and to improve the quality of English education in Japan overall.
While the Ministry wants quick results in expectation of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, prefectures and schools move slower. I can proudly say that in Sakiyama my teachers feel different. They seem generally interested in pushing the envelope and challenging their students to do more and better in English class. I don’t doubt this is true of many schools in Goto but in Sakiyama it seems especially prevalent. I honestly did not this expect this when I arrived here in July.
Scrap Paper Recollections
Sometimes when a student stands to answer a question, they get nervous and forget the answer. Teachers always encourage students to ask for help from other students. One afternoon in class a student stood up nervously and forgot the answer so the teacher said, “Say ‘help me’!” Immediately a student in the back who knew the answer raised his hand shouting, “HELP ME! HELP ME!”
I was some meters away from pulling into Midori Elementary School’s parking lot when I locked eyes with a third grader. He immediately began racing me towards the school. I urged the driver ahead of me to pick up the pace and sailed past the student. We both laughed.
My favorite kanji (Chinese character adopted and used by the Japanese in addition to their native alphabet) is or “dream”. Coincidentally one of my teachers attended the retirement party of a principal and brought me back a coffee mug; on the mug was the kanji for dream as well as “Mr. Fujita’s Retirement Party 11-26-16”. I take this mug almost to all of my schools. Naturally my co-workers at my other schools were confused why I walk around with said mug. I explained it to them and they laughed; then they promised to get me another mug or two so I have a matching set!