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Last Friday I taught at kindergarten for the second time. It was just as fun as the first time... maybe even more fun! Last time many of the kids were shy around me (though most of them warmed up to me once I had class with them) but this time they were excited to see me right away.

I was there from 8:00 to 3:30 and I only spent an hour and fifteen minutes teaching. Most of the rest of the time was spent playing with the kids. A few of the kids arrived a bit earlier than the rest and we spent a little while "cooking" cardboard doughnuts and cookies in the Hello Kitty kitchen set. As more kids arrived I was drug around a lot to look at different things. There were many times where I had kids pulling me in several directions at once.

One boy pointed to an object and said, "red!" I corrected him and pointed at the object and said, "blue!" Uhhh... it was yellow... lol... so much for teaching these kids English.

They pulled out a bunch of plastic food and asked me what each thing was called in English. They showed me a tomato and I said, "tomato." They started giggling like crazy. They started saying, "Toe-mah-toe" because that's how it's pronounced in Japanese. They just thought I couldn't pronounce it in Japanese. I tried to explain to them (in Japanese) that it's "tomato" in English and "toe-mah-toe" in Japanese, but they still cracked up any time I said "tomato." This happened with some other objects as well. It was pretty funny.

Eventually I actually did teach a lesson. My first class was the 5 year olds. We sang the Hello Song and played vegetable basket (which is the same as Fruit Basket, a popular children's game in Japan). Next I taught the 3 year olds. We played animal basket and sang Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. Well, I sang it and they attempted to sing it. The words are too difficult for them, but they had a lot of fun and many of them still attempted to sing the song! I liked the 3 year old class better than last time. Last time several of the students were crying when I walked into the room and most of them didn't pay much attention. This time they all paid attention! :)

Next I taught the 4 year olds. When I walked into the room one of the boys had his pants and underwear down to his knees and he was laying face down on the floor. Once the teacher convinced him to get up and pull his pants back up, we began class. We pretty much did the same things as the previous class plus I read a book to them.

After classes were finished, it was lunch time! This time I ate with the four year olds. The students took turns getting their meals out in the hallway and carried them into the classroom. While this was going on I walked around and commented on how cute and cool their aprons were (they wore aprons to keep their clothes clean). One girl had a Sailor Moon apron. I haven't seen any little kids with Sailor Moon stuff because it's old, but I was excited. I pointed to the different characters and said their names and the girl looked clueless. Lol, I knew more about Sailor Moon than she did.

A few of the students fought over which table I would sit at but there was only room at one table so I didn't really have a choice. They still tried to pull my chair (with me in it) over to other tables though. I sat at a ridiculously small table in a very small chair. I'm short, but I still barely fit.

For lunch we had chicken, vegetables (cabbage, seaweed, and mushrooms), bread, and pumpkin soup. I got double servings of everything. The boy who sat next to me probably still ate more than me. He went back for 2 or 3 servings of everything. I was also surprised at how fast he ate! At my other schools all the students and teachers eat fast and I've sorta gotten used to that, but he was just soooooo fast though!

Eating with a bunch of 4 year olds is very amusing. Many of them showed me the super weird faces they could make. They would put their fingers all over their face, in their mouths, and in their noses, and pull their face into really crazy shapes. Some of them were pretty scary!

All the students are supposed to finish their food. Several of the students didn't want to eat the vegetables so the teacher walked around and shoveled the rest of the food into their mouths for them.

After lunch was cleaning time! We scrubbed the floor with washcloths. They just put their hands on the ground on top of the washcloth and push with their feet to scoot across the floor. I'm sure I looked pretty crazy doing this with all the tiny kids with my butt sticking up in the air, lol.

After that the students brushed their teeth and the teachers went through some announcements (I think) and then it was play time again! So I got to spend about an hour and a half making sushi out of clay and building cars of out of lego-ish blocks.

Then it was time for many of the students to go home. The parents picked them up. A few of the students stayed behind because it's also like a day care for the students with working parents. Then I had a meeting with several of the teachers about what to teach the next time I'm there. Sometimes figuring out things at the kindergarten is a little difficult because no one there speaks any English at all. But we still successfully picked a theme for next time... Christmas! :)

Right before I left, it was snack time. We had strips of sweet potato, vanilla wafer cookies, and tea. I loved it! :)

Overall it was a  lot of fun and the kids are SUPER cute! But, now I have a sore throat and a slight fever and I think I'm coming down with a cold. Whatever it is, I'm almost positive I caught it at the kindergarten. The kids are cute, but they are also gross. They pick their noses and cough all over the place and kept touching me and holding my hand. If I still feel like this tomorrow I'm probably not going to go to school. If I had junior high tomorrow it wouldn't be a problem, but I don't think I can handle elementary with this sore throat. :P

But maybe the experience was still worth getting sick... maybe...

First of all, it's cold here. When I came home it was only about 16 degrees (61 F) in my apartment. I wouldn't mind it so much if it was just the weather outside, but the school doesn't have any heat so I was cold all day long. But right now I am sitting at my kotatsu and have a space heater sitting next to me and now this room is about 23 degrees (73 F). My new heater is much nicer than my old one. I said something at school the other day about my apartment being cold so a teacher let me borrow an extra heater. I'm able to stay pretty comfortable in my apartment for now, but I'm NOT looking forward to the winter! My apartment is so drafty and it doesn't have any insulation.

Anyways... I've realized that my posts rarely talk about school even though I spend a lot of time there. So, even though today was pretty uneventful, I will describe my day so you can know what a typical day is like "teaching" at a Japanese junior high school.

It takes me about ten minutes to walk to my junior high school, which is nice. Once I get to the school I am greeted by several teachers, and every now and then a few students, at the crosswalk. I feel kinda like a little kid as they hold up flags to stop traffic so that I can safely cross the street (often there aren't any cars but they hold the flags there anyway). I greet them with "ohayo gozaimasu" (good morning) and then head for the entrance. A few kids are usually running in between the entrance and the gym so I say good morning to them but usually not much else because they seem to be in a hurry.

The first thing I do when I walk in the school is take off my shoes and put on my indoor shoes. One side of the entrance is lined with cubby holes where the teachers keep their shoes. I change my shoes and walk to the staff room while saying good morning to the students. When I enter the staff room I say "ohayo gozaimasu" and all the teachers say it back.

The staff room is where all the teachers have their desks. In Japan, the teachers move from classroom to classroom. The students stay in the same classroom all day (though they do go to different rooms for subjects such as home economics, art, P.E. and maybe some others). So the teachers do their work in the staffroom.

This morning the 1st/2nd grade English teacher had some worksheets she wanted me to copy. Sometimes she even wants me to make copies of stuff for her homeroom class, which is not my job. But I actually don't mind it because I strangely enjoy making copies, lol.

Today was Thursday so it was a busier day than most. All five classes have English on Thursdays. First period I went to class 1A. Every first grade class begins with one student who says something and then they all bow. Then the teacher says, "Good morning/afternoon everyone" and the students reply with "Good morning/afternoon Ms. name and Jenna." Then we usually have Hello Time which is where all the students have to talk to 3 boys and 3 girls and 1 teacher. They ask each other "How are you?" and one other question which changes everyday. Today's question was, "What sport do you like?"

Today we played a game called Crossfire where a row of students stands up. I ask a question and the first student to raise their hand and answer correctly gets to sit down. It continues until one student is standing. Then that column has to stand up. That made class a little more interesting than the usual reading and memorization of the text book.

Though we did still do reading and repeating from the text book. Part of the dialogue says, "Does she read kanji?" "No, she doesn't, but she reads and writes kana very well." So then the students asked me if I can read and write kana (Japanese alphabets). So then the students asked me to write some of their names up on the chalk board. I did very well with writing in hiragana, but then they wanted to see katakana and I messed up a little bit. I hate katakana! But it was funny, lol. 

However, we didn't have time for the Halloween quiz I made, but I wasn't too disappointed because I would rather not do it at all than have it so rushed like yesterday. She told me I'd have 10 minutes to do the quiz, but then I really only had 3 minutes and I had to make it less fun. Not cool. :(

Next was class 2A. They are learning the word "if." So the teacher found a song using "if" and she played it for them. It's called "If You Come Back," by Blue. Before she played the song she told the students that Blue is really cool and popular in England. I think that they were popular at some point, but I don't think they are anymore. Oh well, lol.

Yesterday I got to teach at a kindergarten. Though I spent more time just playing with the kids than actually teaching. My schedule even had "play outside" written on it. Awesome. :)

I arrived at the kindergarten around 8:00 but the kids didn't start arriving until a little before 8:30. Once they started arriving I went out in the hall and greeted some of them that were running around and playing. Most of them were pretty shy at first and just stared at me. However, one boy ran up to me and grabbed my hand and dragged me up the steps. Then he dragged me back down the steps... then back up again...

Soon I had a meeting with the teachers. Like at most Japanese meetings I didn't understand most of what was said. I understood the most important part for me though and understood the times I was supposed to teach each class.

I didn't teach my first class for about another hour so I went to the five year old class and played with them (it was raining so we didn't actually get to play outside). They were still shy but I did manage to get a few of them to say hello to me. Many of them were sitting at a table folding origami. I pointed to some of the things they had folded and said what they were in English, such as "heart" and "star." Then when I started folding a crane that really got their attention. After just a couple folds they all knew what I was making.

Before I knew it, it was time for me to teach. First I got them to say "hello" and "good morning." As a class they were much more eager to speak English. Then we sang a hello song. Then I taught them the names of colors in English. A few students already seemed a little familiar with the English color names, but most of them didn't seem to know any of the colors. One student in particular was really good at English for his age. When the other students said, "White-o" he turned around and said, "Noooo! White!" I wonder how he's learning English because it's working very well!

After teaching them the names of the colors it was time for a color game! We played a common Japanese childrens' game called Iro Oni. I played music and the children danced around. When I paused the music they had to freeze and I would yell out a color. They had to run and find something in the room with that color and touch it.

They had a lot of fun with the game! Before lunch one of the boys from the class got on the intercom and talked about English class and I heard him say that Iro Oni was fun. :)

Next I taught the three year old class. The lesson was only fifteen minutes. It's probably good that it was only fifteen minutes because it was tough to keep their attention for even that long. When I first walked into the room a couple kids were already crying and many of them seemed distracted by their parents (it was a special day that they have three times a year when the parents come and watch the classes). I also sang the hello song with them and then I taught them animals. I'm not sure if they really learned the names of the animals, but they had fun running and jumping around acting like the different animals.

Then I taught the four year olds. I did the same things with them as I did with the five year olds. After that I went back to the five year old class for lunch time!

When I went back to the classroom they were not shy around me anymore. They were all pulling on me and trying to get me to sit at their tables during lunch. Two boys were arguing over who I would sit with. They played janken (paper, rock, scissors) to decide. The loser accused the winner of cheating and then they began punching each other and another little boy quickly jumped in between them and pushed them apart. One boy started crying. I thought it was pretty amusing, and so did the teacher.

I ended up sitting at a table with three girls and a boy. The two girls next to me were super talkative even though I didn't understand most of what they said. They didn't seem to understand that I don't know Japanese. They looked very confused when I didn't understand them. Though I did understand some of what they said. They talked about Heartcatch Precure, which is a popular girls' anime right now.

I figured I might as well put a picture of it. It's cute! Plus, this post needs pictures!

Anyways... the lunch was very good! I had a cheese sandwich, some soup with meatballs and carrots and potatoes, asparagus with little bits of ham, and pears. I don't usually like asparagus at all, but it was actually pretty good. Though several of the students didn't want to eat it. They're supposed to eat all their food. The teacher tried to get them to all finish their food. One little boy kept putting the asparagus in his mouth and then spitting it out. Another kid was just licking it.

After lunch they all brushed their teeth while the teacher played some really cheesy sounding song.

Then it was time for more playtime. I read stories to them. They kept bringing me books and asking me to read to them. I looked at the pictures and made stuff up. I also made stuff out of clay with the kids and had several of them dragging me around to show me pictures they were drawing. The boy who was good at English pointed at a lot of things and said what they were... mostly animals and food but it was pretty impressive!

At the end of the day they all sat at their desks and the teacher reviewed the day with them. She said various names of colors in Japanese and got them to say the English names. I could definitely tell a difference from the beginning of class that morning. So I think they actually learned something. Then a student went up front to lead the formal phrases they say at the end of class. It was the boy who was good at English. When they were supposed to stand he actually said "stand up" in English!

I followed the students to the front of the school where the parents came to pick them up. As the parents came and the students left, I said "sayonara" and then gave a high five and said, "goodbye!"

I have really been slacking at writing, so now it is time to catch up! I will do this entry, and then do an entry on the random Beetles cover band I saw, an entry on Shuzenji, and then an entry on Atami (that's where I'm going tomorrow!).

I teach at one elementary school and one junior high. Once every semester I will teach at a kindergarten... sooooo cute!

I have been in school for three weeks now. I didn't teach at all the first week, but I attended many ceremonies. The first day I attended a ceremony at the elementary school. There used to be two elementary schools in this town but they have merged into one school. So there was a big ceremony the first day with photographers from the local paper and a lot of important looking people. When the important looking people (maybe like the mayor or something) came in all the teachers stood up and we bowed to each person. I was bowing for several minutes straight, haha.

Then the second day I attended another ceremony at the elementary school for the first grade students. It was very formal! Many parents attended the ceremony and some of the mothers were even in kimonos! The tiny little first graders walked in a line and sat at the front of the gym facing everyone else. Many older students got up and performed a song for the first graders. Many people gave speeches. I didn't understand most of them, but I understood part of the principal's speech. He was telling them something about breakfast and that the school lunch is delicious.

I found a picture from the ceremony on the Izu website, which made me really excited. Here it is: First Grade Ceremony Picture
Their clothes are adorable! The boys even have on little jackets and ties!
The picture made me really excited because we're not supposed to take pictures of the students and put them online, but if they put it up I'm sure it's okay to link to it. So yay! Now you can see some of my students. :) I haven't gotten to teach first grade yet. I wont get to until late May.

Later in the week I attended a couple more ceremonies and spent most of my time planning activities. That was pretty boring because I didn't want to plan too much because I really had no idea what kind of activities I needed to prepare for. However, I did have fun because a couple days I got to go hang out in some of the homeroom classes and talk to the students while they made posters.

The second week I gave my introduction to many of the classes. Students also had the opportunity to ask me questions. In almost every class I was asked if I had a boyfriend. I think some of the elementary students were trying to hook me up with another teacher because they asked how old I was and then told me the other teacher is 22 and were pulling him over towards me. Then the kids asked if I had a boyfriend and when I said yes they seemed disappointed and quit trying to pull that teacher over. The kids are crazy. :)

I didn't get asked anything inappropriate though. Some other ALTs said that they were asked their bra size and other odd things. Though one student in the 4th grade class asked something in Japanese and the teacher would not translate. I asked him, but he just waved his hands and was like, "no, no, no" and quickly picked another student to ask a question.

This week I have started regular classes. I taught two classes in elementary this week and have had several junior high classes. The junior high classes are really easy though. The teachers pretty much have everything planned out and I'm just an assistant. I read a lot of stuff out loud and also help lead some games. The teachers have told me what games they want though, so there's not much planning on my part. It's fun though.

I really like the first grade class in the junior high because they seem really excited about learning English. I like the 3rd grade class because they're pretty good at English and I can talk to them more than the other students. I can ask them things besides "how are you?" and "do you like cats?" Several of the 3rd grade boys think it's really funny when they greet me with a loud, "HELLO! I LOVE YOU!" They're so weird, haha.

The elementary students are really adorable. After class they all come up to me and talk to me in Japanese. One little boy asked me if I like Mos Burger (a fast food chain). I said I liked the Teriyaki Burger so then he went on and on about the different sets that they have and how much they cost and I think he was talking about which ones are the best deals. He's obsessed, lol.
Also, they all like to grab onto me and hold my hand when they talk to me. It's really cute.

Today there was a school assembly at the junior high and we watched a horrible video about bicycle safety. It was horrible in a hilarious way though. From the video I learned that if you collide with a car, you will fly really high in the air and flip around, but when you land you'll be fine. You might be stuck in a garbage can, but you wont get hurt. However, if you hit obaasan (a grandmother) with your bicycle, obaasan will beat you with your cane.

This has nothing to do with school, but today I bought some Cookies and Green Tea ice cream. It was very very green. It tasted a little strange at first (I expected that though). It really did taste like green tea. Towards the end though I didn't notice the green tea flavor as much and noticed the cookies more. Mmmm... chocolate. :) So overall it's not as good as cookies and cream, but I still enjoyed it! It was worth the money just for the experience.