My First Day

Today I had my first day at Sashiki Chugakko, the junior high school I will be going to just one day a week for this term and next. At first I was very bothered by the fact that just yesterday my supervisor told me to go to the school alone and find Mr. Hateruma, and this teacher wasn’t here. This was after I couldn’t find the school because it wasn’t quite where I was told it was. One of the office ladies directed me to “Reanna sensei’s desk” and told me to “sit here” and wait for another teacher who would speak with me. When I sat down, I found a letter Reanna had written so I observed it and the documents she left underneath it. It told me some, but not all of what I needed to know. It also said that I could help with the other classes that take place Tuesday, but I think I need to get the hang of working at this school and with its staff before taking on any extra work. I found out that I will be teaching 1 class of 8th graders and one class of 9th graders. This pleases me because I don’t have to teach 7th graders.
While I was waiting, the principal came in and started talking about “influenza” (they don’t say “the flu” like we do). Then he started asking teachers questions about their each grade- One of the teachers replied nana nin (seven people). I hope this doesn’t mean that seven students in the third grade are out with the flu… But it’s probably just a matter of time before we all get and become resistant to swine flu.
Finally the teacher who I was waiting for talked to me and told me he wanted to meet with me after lunch to discuss lessons. I sat and decoded the letter and papers Reanna had left up until just before lunch when I needed to use the restroom pretty badly, and finally just asked a random teacher where it was. She walked me there (probably for lack English to give me directions). I left to meet up with Jon and Ollie for lunch at MosBurger. On my way out, some students saw me so they said hello. The teacher sitting next to them told me to introduce myself, so I did. Turns out the middle of the three was a student of mine at ESL camp from last summer when I first arrived. I remembered her because she was very genki, but she looked very different. I amazed the students and the teacher when I recalled that she played basketball.
Reanna called me just after I’d left because she was there to show me around (wish she woulda warned me), but I’ll have to come back tomorrow after lunch to meet with her. It’ll be good to have us both here at the same time, in case there is anything anyone wants me to know that they can’t tell me in English! However, I assume teachers will be very busy since it’s the first day of school.
After lunch I was given a place to put my shoes a page to “sign in” on, and told where teachers eat lunch. Mr. Ishikawa’s English is very good so I am glad that I will be basically just working with him. He asked me to make an interesting way to introduce myself so I spruced up my power point presentation I used last year, made a quiz to go with it, and will give the students candy or stickers after the presentation for correct answers. Now I just hope they can read it! I’m going to read the questions to them, and probably the answers too, so hopefully they can recognize the things that were written down in my presentation (gotta get them used to the written alphabet and language sometime, right?). Mr. Ishikawa said he wants them to hear as much English as I can speak to them on the first day. I’m not 100% sure what that means, but I will do my best… So much for being a tad bit shy… Anyhow, I also learned how to use the Riso machine today, which nobody has really taught me anywhere else I’ve worked. I really hope that all of this thoroughness today means that this guy knows how to “train” a new member of his school. Then again, that could be why he has the seat next to the vice principal (he helps out with many things in the office/school).
I also found today out that the classes Mr. Ishikawa teaches don’t follow the book. I look forward to teaching them because the book isn’t great! However, it will be a new challenge because I haven’t really done activities completely on my own before. I assume a lot of it will be the teacher telling me what kind of an activity he needs and me coming up with it on my own, or finding one on the internet if there are any available. I really liked the website I was using when I worked at Chinen Chu- not all the lessons were great, but we used many of them and they worked pretty well. I really hope this school likes me and that I like this school! Then again, I most likely won’t work here after March, but I’d like to have at least 1 day a week where my day is manageable and I feel welcome and happy at work.
School starts here tomorrow so my first class will be on my next day here, September 1st… Wish me luck!