First day of teaching

Aug. 20 Thursday

Hey! So today was the first day of teaching. It was basically a lot of self intro speeches. Today was first to the high school with the handsome teacher. He is so sweet and kind and tried to make me feel better about teaching and stuff cuz I guess I looked really nervous, which I was btw. I did 2 self intros: one for the 3rd grade (12th grade) ENglish class which only had 13 students and one for the 1st grade (10th grade) English class which had 33 students. The 3rd grade one had only 13 because the other kids were in agriculture class. This is an agriculture school after all. I saw the 2nd grade class. Their boys were cuter. =P But the third grade boys had 2 that I absolutely loved because they were so open and happy to speak English with me. I like that. The other kids I will have to do my best with when they don`t speak that much to me. Ganbarimasu! It`s alright, hopefully they will warm up to me. Everyone was still a little weary of me, but I was also super tired from the orientations and couldn`t really be as genki as I normally am. Which I kind of regret. But it`s okay, I`ll make it up the next couple of days. The second 1st grade class was about the same. I did my self intro with pictures and stuff and then kids did their own self intro and then we played pictionary. It took up the whole 45 minutes. Oh, and the teachers in the high school were pretty good. It was a little quiet in the beginning, but I would go up to each teacher, introduce myself, and try to remember their names. So, hopefully, they liked that and warmed up to me a little bit. But yes, the handsome　teacher tried to make me feel better about each class.

However, it did astonish me at the lack of attention the students seem to give to the teachers. And their actions were something I totally wasn`t expecting, but at the same time I did. The people at JET did warn us about stuff like this happening, but I didn`t know how exactly did these things work. The students would just get up and walk to one side of the room to talk with another student while the teacher was still talking. No reservations! I was surprised. I knew that students would also talk in class while the teacher`s talking, but not to this degree. It was a little astonishing. I felt a little uncomfortable like that, but since all the classes at the high school were kinda like that, I just gave up and gave in to it. That just seems to be normal and the teachers are okay with it too...o.o

Afterwards I headed over to the elementary school for lunch. I had lunch in the teacher`s room with a couple of the other teachers. It was excellent. I had vegetable soup with small pieces of bacon in it, wakame salad with corn, a link of sausage, and a piece of something that seems like french bread. It was very healthy and the right portion. Actually I thought it more than I would`ve liked, but i didn`t want to seem rude and not eat it all. So after eating the head teacher told me that I would be doing a sudden self intro speech in front of all the students of the school in the gymnasium. I was like "WHA!??" I was totally not prepared and they sprung it on me last minute. So all the kids gathered in the gym and waited in their little lines all neatly and quiet. Very well, disciplined students. So the vice principal introduced me to everyone in the school and then had me go up on the stage and say hi to everybody. So I did a self intro speech to about 100 or so elementary students. It was nervewracking. I gave the speech in English first, but then in Japanese because no one would understand me. I`m pretty sure I messed up several times too...lol

Anyways, after that the class representatives would come up and present a mini speech to me in Japanese or English. It was very cute. Afterwards, I just went back to the teachers`s room and just sat in there. The other teachers left me to go have a teacher`s meeting in another meeting room, so it was just me and the secretary/OL left in the room. Not to say the least, but I managed to befriend the secretary so that she gives me extra foods and drinks and stuff now. I talked to her quite a lot. She was super nice and easy to talk to. Then the two female teachers that I would be working with, one for 3rd grade and one for 4th grade, walked in and we decided to talk about what I wanted to teach. At first they were both very reserved, but after I chatted with them a little about their daily lives they loosened up a bit. They said I can teach whatever I wish to teach to their kids, so if I`ve thought up of something this weekend I will report to them next week. At around 3pm the man from the Asahikawa pan-ya-san came along selling bread. They were soooo oishii looking I just had to buy one. I bought mini loaves of bread. They were literally mini sized. Like a giant loaf, but made smaller. So I sat there and didn`t talk very much because there was very little to talk about with the other teachers and it was a little awkward for a little while. At around 4 I was able to go back home, and so I did. And it started raining like crazy outiside! Even though, I still rode my bike to Aoi to eat dinner. Yay miso ramen. I must sleep, I`m dead tired.

AUg. 21 Friday/today

Today I was super genki! Genki beyond belief. I`m stationed at the junior high all day today. But it`s fine. Junior high is actually my favorite place to be. The atmosphere is just so much more relaxed and happy like. Everyone`s just so much more outgoing and fun here. Even the principal and the head teachers are really awesome. I also had to do a self intro thing in a large ceremony here. Although there aren`t as many kids as in the elementary so it wasn`t as bad. Maybe because I was super lively that all the kids caught on to my liveliness. lol The kids here are so much more open! ^^ All the teachers here are so much cooler too. Awesomeness.

So my first class was with the 2nd year kids which my taiko instructor`s son is in. My new favorite class. Everyone`s so willing to participate and talk to me and be happy and fun. I loved it! I did my self intro with pictures once again and listened to everyone`s self intro of themselves. THey asked me random questions too. lol After class as I was getting stuff off the chalkboard that I pinned pictures on, the female students came up to me and started talking to me and looking at more pictures of my house. I was soooo happy! I was actually quite ecstatic that they came up to talk to me. Like i said, maybe it was because I was pretty enthusiasitc that my energy fed off to them. Everyone was pretty cool. I talked to them and asked for their names. Such great kids. ANd I swear, their English is a hell of alot better than the high school kids. Seriously. They were good. And not to mention that the Japanese English teacher was also very enthusiastic about teaching. He was soo awesome! I want to be more like him when I`m teaching. Perfect role model.

My next class was with the 3rd graders, less enthusiastic, but we will work on that. Actually, before that I met the 5 other exchange students from Taiwan, CHina, and Hong Kong who will be here for this week. 5 beautiful ladies who are all graduate school students in Japan so their Japanese is super fluent. We immediately bonded. It helped that I spoke their language as well. And they were all pretty close to me in age. Yay for that. They sat in on our ENglish class which was a little bit of a jama, because then it took up a little of our time in class. They`re awesome girls, but by being this way it was harder for me to bond talk more freely with the students. For lunch I ate with the 1st year kids and some of the exchange girls ate with the other grade levels. The first year kids didn`t really talk very much, but I tried my hardest with a mixture of Japanese and Englihs. They were very shy and didn`t really speak English so I had to use Japanese most of the time. Hopefully, the kids will all warm up to me soon and hopefully I wont be dead tired all the time like this week. This weekend is used for good sleeping time... Oh, btw, the lunch was delicious. It was pork curry, milk, and anin tofu. Soo healthy and good. The portion however, was still too much for me to eat. I think I`m becoming Japanese in terms of food portions. lol =P

Anyways, I`m still here in school on my laptop typing away and stuff and apparently there`s going to be an enkai tonight at 6:30 for me. This sprung up last minute. I was hoping to go to sleep and chill and do nothing tonight,　but this is fine too. I do like spending time with the junior high teachers. They`re cool. Well, anyways, more info on that will come up tomorrow most likely. or later tonight.

Otsukare for reading! ^^