Englishiana with Kumu Lee
I didn't realize that people didn't know what I do here in Japan. I've been here a year and maybe I DO need to explain it a little.
Anyway like Joel says, "It sounds like some thing like Hawaiiana." Basically, that's it. It's Hawaiiana but English for Japanese kids. In Kyoto City, there are about 150 or so Elementary schools, and the Board of Education just passed a law that each school must have an English teacher there to teach English as somewhat of an elective type class. Kyoto being the education powerhouse of Japan, they made it so that each ALT (assistant language teacher) must attend public elementary and junior high schools.
So yours truly has a school district that has 5 junior high schools and 7 elementary schools. The usual deal is that each school district has about 5 elementary schools and 2 junior high schools. I just happen to get the one school district where all the schools are small and therefore are more plentiful. Most of my elementary schools have only one class per grade. While everyone lese has 3 sometimes 4 classes per grade. Just like a Hawaiiana teacher I go around to the schools and teach them English vocabulary and useful things like greetings and simple sentences. Our job in Elementary school is not to teach per se but to build positive English enthusiasm. Get them to be comfortable with English before they got to junior high and high school. In junior high and high school English is a mandatory class so when I'm at junior high school I just become a teacher's assistant.
Anyway because I have so many schools I have a very tight schedule where I have to go to a different school every three days or so. I have 2 big elementary schools where I stay for about a week but the other 5 schools are small. Junior high schools I end up staying at week to 2 weeks. And after I have visited all my schools the schedule starts all over again and I go and do the same thing.
I hope that answers your questions Joel.
So I'm at my 6th elementary school, Sujin. This has got to be the smallest school out of my whole roster. I have one grade per class but the classes are uber small. For instance today's third graders had the largest population with 15 students. 4th grade had 7 students, 5th grade had 10 students, and 6th grade with 8 students. I had lunch with the first graders today. The whole class was very cute, all four of them. But all the kids are cool and not as "punky" as they were at my previous school. Also this is the furthest schools put of the 12 I visit. This school also had an ALT last year so I'm thinking its not going to be too hard, especially the class numbers being so small.
So anyway its been raining pretty steadily the past few days and just before the rainy season hit us we had company over. So that means lost of laundry to do. Sheets, blankets, towels, and clothes started to create a giant mound in the bathroom. To make some space I had to wash the sheets. The only thing is that when we wash the sheets we need to dry them on the balcony, which at the moment was getting constantly bombarded by the rain. So I had to hang them up away from the edge as much as possible, but because of all the moisture in the air the sheets weren't getting dry. We just so happen to have a coin laundry room in our building but for some reason the management has a sign that says that only the people living in the particular wing can use the room. I guess the single apartments don't have room for a washer so they have this room provided. But the thing is that why isn't available to the people in the other wings? I'm sure if people had the choice to do laundry in their own apartment or go down to the first floor coin laundry they would choose their own apartments. So why is this room made especially for one wing? Anyway back to the sheets, they weren't drying properly so we decided to go down throw it in the dryer and be out in 20 minutes. (On the way upstairs after work, I just happened to see that the coin laundry room light was on, assuming that the door was open too.) Krystal and I went o downstairs with our damp sheets and headed for the room. The room was locked, but the window was open. We went around to the window and debated whether or not to jump in and open the doors. Krystal being obviously smaller in size refused to go in, not because of her size but the chance that there might be security cameras around watching us at that very moment.
Anyway we ended up chicken out and hanging our sheets in the middle of the kitchen and the living room. Just thought you might want to hear something quirky.
Ok, Break it Down
Anyway like Joel says, "It sounds like some thing like Hawaiiana." Basically, that's it. It's Hawaiiana but English for Japanese kids. In Kyoto City, there are about 150 or so Elementary schools, and the Board of Education just passed a law that each school must have an English teacher there to teach English as somewhat of an elective type class. Kyoto being the education powerhouse of Japan, they made it so that each ALT (assistant language teacher) must attend public elementary and junior high schools.
So yours truly has a school district that has 5 junior high schools and 7 elementary schools. The usual deal is that each school district has about 5 elementary schools and 2 junior high schools. I just happen to get the one school district where all the schools are small and therefore are more plentiful. Most of my elementary schools have only one class per grade. While everyone lese has 3 sometimes 4 classes per grade. Just like a Hawaiiana teacher I go around to the schools and teach them English vocabulary and useful things like greetings and simple sentences. Our job in Elementary school is not to teach per se but to build positive English enthusiasm. Get them to be comfortable with English before they got to junior high and high school. In junior high and high school English is a mandatory class so when I'm at junior high school I just become a teacher's assistant.
Anyway because I have so many schools I have a very tight schedule where I have to go to a different school every three days or so. I have 2 big elementary schools where I stay for about a week but the other 5 schools are small. Junior high schools I end up staying at week to 2 weeks. And after I have visited all my schools the schedule starts all over again and I go and do the same thing.
I hope that answers your questions Joel.
So I'm at my 6th elementary school, Sujin. This has got to be the smallest school out of my whole roster. I have one grade per class but the classes are uber small. For instance today's third graders had the largest population with 15 students. 4th grade had 7 students, 5th grade had 10 students, and 6th grade with 8 students. I had lunch with the first graders today. The whole class was very cute, all four of them. But all the kids are cool and not as "punky" as they were at my previous school. Also this is the furthest schools put of the 12 I visit. This school also had an ALT last year so I'm thinking its not going to be too hard, especially the class numbers being so small.
So anyway its been raining pretty steadily the past few days and just before the rainy season hit us we had company over. So that means lost of laundry to do. Sheets, blankets, towels, and clothes started to create a giant mound in the bathroom. To make some space I had to wash the sheets. The only thing is that when we wash the sheets we need to dry them on the balcony, which at the moment was getting constantly bombarded by the rain. So I had to hang them up away from the edge as much as possible, but because of all the moisture in the air the sheets weren't getting dry. We just so happen to have a coin laundry room in our building but for some reason the management has a sign that says that only the people living in the particular wing can use the room. I guess the single apartments don't have room for a washer so they have this room provided. But the thing is that why isn't available to the people in the other wings? I'm sure if people had the choice to do laundry in their own apartment or go down to the first floor coin laundry they would choose their own apartments. So why is this room made especially for one wing? Anyway back to the sheets, they weren't drying properly so we decided to go down throw it in the dryer and be out in 20 minutes. (On the way upstairs after work, I just happened to see that the coin laundry room light was on, assuming that the door was open too.) Krystal and I went o downstairs with our damp sheets and headed for the room. The room was locked, but the window was open. We went around to the window and debated whether or not to jump in and open the doors. Krystal being obviously smaller in size refused to go in, not because of her size but the chance that there might be security cameras around watching us at that very moment.
Anyway we ended up chicken out and hanging our sheets in the middle of the kitchen and the living room. Just thought you might want to hear something quirky.
Ok, Break it Down
posted by Chris at 10:43 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home