I'm just sitting here wanting memories to teach me...
I’m just sitting here in the teacher staff room having some what of a flashback slideshow in my head. It’s the first official school day of my last year in JET. I was fortunate enough to have my original base/home school as 1 of 12 schools that I have. Although my base school has changed in the previous years I secretly feel that this school will always be my base.
Anyway because the school year in Japan is from April to March, I have been a part of three school years here. It’s been pretty cool watching the students grow mental and even physically. When I first came here the third graders were the first group of students that I played with at recess. This year they are now 5th graders, upperclassmen. And then the 4th graders that I taught English with have now become the “seniors” of the school. Maybe that’s the reason why I love Elementary school, because you can literally see the growing the students go through.
As I’m sitting here during the morning teachers’ meeting I noticed that there are a lot of new faces. The system here is a little weird in that a teacher is 75% likely to move schools every year. If by chance they are loved by the principal or have some kind of special arrangement they get to stay. I noticed that the teachers don’t really take offense to leaving, and accept it as a general part of being in Education. I think tenure here is their 7th year. So for 7 years their placement in school is undetermined and totally up to the higher powers. Some of the older grade teachers have become 1st grade teachers. In Japan a teacher can start with a class and follow them up all the way to 6th grade and watch the graduate. I think that’s pretty cool, but what if you have a demon in your class? Does that mean you have him/her all the way to 6th grade? I also noticed that the new teachers are all pretty young. They’re all pretty much right out of school or only have a few years of experience under their belts. This interesting fact brings me to 2 conclusions, 1: The principal is a perverted old man that has too much power hiring young fertile women right out of college, 2: he’s started a revolution in education and getting rid of the old teachers with their out dated teaching methods and un-hip perspectives. I’d like to think that he’s more number 2 than number 1. This act of hiring new teacher has been one of the most noticeable changes that I can see here in the Japanese Education System. Bottom line is that I like it here.
The first week of school was pretty slow since the first two days were all about the opening and entrance ceremony. I was a little excited to see the 6th graders now in their junior high school uniforms and stuff but when I saw them they didn’t seem too happy to be there. Both ceremonies were over in like an hour and then I had the rest of the day to just chill out I guess. On the first day I made an excuse to leave for the GEC, General Education Center. It’s where we go when we want to make school materials, do research, or talk to other JETs during work hours. Anyway on the second day I wanted to leave but I didn’t want to give the impression that I HATE their school which I don’t except when there is nothing to do and you need to sit there until you get to go home at 4:30. So I decided to do something creative and borrowed Krystal’s iBook. Back when it was Lisa’s birthday we made her a slideshow with the iMovie program. Krystal taught me how to use the program and I ended up hogging the laptop. Anyway I decided to make a commemorative video of when Jake and Lauren came down. It would be perfect since I had lots of pictures and lots of time. So the night before I burned all of my pictures with Jake’s and planned to take it into a movie. Stupid thing was that I totally forgot to take the CD in the morning and I had to work with whatever pictures that Krystal had on her Mac. She had just enough to make a 3 minute mvie which took me like 4 hours to make. But what it did do was call kill the time just before I left. Anyway since I have way more pictures and more time I’d probably tweak the old video and make a bigger better one. I did got a chance to show some kids because my teacher wanted me to do presentation on my Spring Break. I think they liked it they got a chance to see me outside of class especially with a Luchador mask on. Anyway there was a minor miss that no one caught except me. I have a clip of Green Day’s American Idiot in the video but I chose to use the line “subliminal mind… fuck America.” I just heard it on the speakers and freaked out but everyone was calm and enjoying the video.
This past weekend was the first “real” taste of spring. It was semi-warm and the there were no rain clouds in sight. This meant that it was perfect for Hanami. Every spring, Japanese people look forward to the Cherry Blossoms to come out and fall within the week. It was actually really moving to see the forests of Cherry Blossoms everywhere. But the thing is that they are only out for a short time, like a week. Then the summer green foliage comes out and then they’re bare from mid-autumn all the way through winter. Anyway it was really cool to sit on GRASS and watch the Cherry Blossoms while drinking alcohol. Last year we went to the river to watch the Sakura but this year we went to a fancy botanical garden for the viewing. It was really nice in there and surprisingly not too many people. It was also our friend Colleen’s birthday which just make it that much more special. We drank and stayed out as long as possible but by 6-ish the wind was really strong and the sun was hidden by clouds and a haze that came all the way from the Gobi desert in China.
This weekend we have another Pub Quiz. Hopefully we can keep the 1st place slot. The original quiz masters are back and I know its going to be hard again. Well until next time…
Anyway because the school year in Japan is from April to March, I have been a part of three school years here. It’s been pretty cool watching the students grow mental and even physically. When I first came here the third graders were the first group of students that I played with at recess. This year they are now 5th graders, upperclassmen. And then the 4th graders that I taught English with have now become the “seniors” of the school. Maybe that’s the reason why I love Elementary school, because you can literally see the growing the students go through.
As I’m sitting here during the morning teachers’ meeting I noticed that there are a lot of new faces. The system here is a little weird in that a teacher is 75% likely to move schools every year. If by chance they are loved by the principal or have some kind of special arrangement they get to stay. I noticed that the teachers don’t really take offense to leaving, and accept it as a general part of being in Education. I think tenure here is their 7th year. So for 7 years their placement in school is undetermined and totally up to the higher powers. Some of the older grade teachers have become 1st grade teachers. In Japan a teacher can start with a class and follow them up all the way to 6th grade and watch the graduate. I think that’s pretty cool, but what if you have a demon in your class? Does that mean you have him/her all the way to 6th grade? I also noticed that the new teachers are all pretty young. They’re all pretty much right out of school or only have a few years of experience under their belts. This interesting fact brings me to 2 conclusions, 1: The principal is a perverted old man that has too much power hiring young fertile women right out of college, 2: he’s started a revolution in education and getting rid of the old teachers with their out dated teaching methods and un-hip perspectives. I’d like to think that he’s more number 2 than number 1. This act of hiring new teacher has been one of the most noticeable changes that I can see here in the Japanese Education System. Bottom line is that I like it here.
The first week of school was pretty slow since the first two days were all about the opening and entrance ceremony. I was a little excited to see the 6th graders now in their junior high school uniforms and stuff but when I saw them they didn’t seem too happy to be there. Both ceremonies were over in like an hour and then I had the rest of the day to just chill out I guess. On the first day I made an excuse to leave for the GEC, General Education Center. It’s where we go when we want to make school materials, do research, or talk to other JETs during work hours. Anyway on the second day I wanted to leave but I didn’t want to give the impression that I HATE their school which I don’t except when there is nothing to do and you need to sit there until you get to go home at 4:30. So I decided to do something creative and borrowed Krystal’s iBook. Back when it was Lisa’s birthday we made her a slideshow with the iMovie program. Krystal taught me how to use the program and I ended up hogging the laptop. Anyway I decided to make a commemorative video of when Jake and Lauren came down. It would be perfect since I had lots of pictures and lots of time. So the night before I burned all of my pictures with Jake’s and planned to take it into a movie. Stupid thing was that I totally forgot to take the CD in the morning and I had to work with whatever pictures that Krystal had on her Mac. She had just enough to make a 3 minute mvie which took me like 4 hours to make. But what it did do was call kill the time just before I left. Anyway since I have way more pictures and more time I’d probably tweak the old video and make a bigger better one. I did got a chance to show some kids because my teacher wanted me to do presentation on my Spring Break. I think they liked it they got a chance to see me outside of class especially with a Luchador mask on. Anyway there was a minor miss that no one caught except me. I have a clip of Green Day’s American Idiot in the video but I chose to use the line “subliminal mind… fuck America.” I just heard it on the speakers and freaked out but everyone was calm and enjoying the video.
This past weekend was the first “real” taste of spring. It was semi-warm and the there were no rain clouds in sight. This meant that it was perfect for Hanami. Every spring, Japanese people look forward to the Cherry Blossoms to come out and fall within the week. It was actually really moving to see the forests of Cherry Blossoms everywhere. But the thing is that they are only out for a short time, like a week. Then the summer green foliage comes out and then they’re bare from mid-autumn all the way through winter. Anyway it was really cool to sit on GRASS and watch the Cherry Blossoms while drinking alcohol. Last year we went to the river to watch the Sakura but this year we went to a fancy botanical garden for the viewing. It was really nice in there and surprisingly not too many people. It was also our friend Colleen’s birthday which just make it that much more special. We drank and stayed out as long as possible but by 6-ish the wind was really strong and the sun was hidden by clouds and a haze that came all the way from the Gobi desert in China.
This weekend we have another Pub Quiz. Hopefully we can keep the 1st place slot. The original quiz masters are back and I know its going to be hard again. Well until next time…
posted by Chris at 1:48 AM
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