New School

This week, I started work at my new mountain school, NJHS. On Monday I went for opening ceremony, which was quite short. I got to give a little self introduction speech to the staff and students, and I felt pretty welcome even on the first day. In the afternoon, we also had an earthquake drill and AED training. The earthquake drill was a good thing to be present for, since at this school they actually evacuate the grounds entirely. The junior high/elementary is very close to a steep hillside, so I'm guessing it's for fear of landslides. In any case, we first exited to the playing field, were duly counted, and then evacuated to the nearby preschool. After that we all went to the gym and learned how to use AEDs (automated external defibrillators). It seems that most schools have them now. We practiced doing chest compressions, attaching the stick-on defibrillator pads, and pressing the correct buttons. It's kind of cool how the AED gives you instructions out loud, so you don't really have to know much about it in order to use it. Well, assuming you understand spoken Japanese. But after watching the students do it a few times, even I was able to go through the routine.

On Friday I returned to that school for my first day of classes. I had a self intro lesson with the first and third grade junior high students. The first grade class was very quiet and shy, although they did manage to come up with some questions for me. Kind of a neat feature of the lesson was that the teacher also gave a self-intro, and it turns out that she has a lot of hobbies. She plays several sports, and her soccer team will be competing in a national tournament this fall. The third grade class was pretty boisterous, and so my self-intro ended up being somewhat interactive. They seem like they'll be fun kids to work with. I'm already rather fond of two of the third graders. One of them is a special education student. She wasn't in class with the other third graders, but she rides the same bus as me, so we've talked a little bit before and after school. The other teachers have told me that she loves English and ALTs. I can believe it; her English is unusually good. She can ask and answer a lot of standard questions, probably better than many of the third graders in the regular class. She wrote me a letter and gave it to me on Friday afternoon. This is what she wrote:

Hello Andrea sensei
I am Mako
I like mouses
Because they are small and cute
I like stars Because they are bright and beautiful
I sometimes play the piano
I have a cat
Her name is mel
Nice to meet you
See you

Getting a spontaneous gift like that, especially on my second day, was heartwarming. I hope I'll get to work with Mako directly from time to time, because it's so rewarding to work with students who have such an interest in English. Not to mention a talent for it.

The other student who caught my attention was a boy named Iori (pronounced like Eeyore-ee). His English also seems pretty good, and in class he was very motivated to talk with me. He had a lot of questions and was willing to answer mine. He seems a little odd; his movements are kind of unusual, he apparently has an obsession with Pokemon, and he responded with surprising enthusiasm to my self introduction, occasionally giggling with excitement. After class he walked with me back to the staff room, asking me questions about my favorite Vocaloid (a type of animated character that you can make sing various songs on the computer, I think).

At lunch time, I ate with the second grade junior high students in their classroom. Their homeroom teacher had figured they would really want to meet me since I didn't have class with them that week, but in the end they didn't  have anything to talk about. I think the teacher might've said they were worried that it would be rude to ask me questions since I hadn't done my self-introduction yet. Well, that's only a guess; I really couldn't understand much of what that teacher said. But the students didn't have anything to say, and I was so concerned with eating my lunch in the allotted amount of time that I didn't attempt to engage them in conversation myself. It's pretty bad form not to eat all of your food, and I have a hard time eating quickly, so it was kind of a race against the clock.

After lunch, I also went to the elementary 5th/6th grade class. Even with the two grades combined, there are only seven students in the class. Their homeroom teacher is a little intimidated by teaching English, but nonetheless she led the lesson herself, and it was quite fun. The junior high English teacher also came along to help, which was kind of reassuring because I think the elementary teacher was afraid we wouldn't be able to communicate, and the kids seemed a little nervous about me as well. I really enjoyed the students' self-introductions; one of the little girls said that she likes Infinite (a K-pop group that sings one of my favorite songs) and... guns. I wasn't expecting that one. These really seem like fun kids.

Later in the afternoon I noticed one of the other teachers editing some video on the computer. It was of a student demonstrating a dance. From my desk I couldn't see clearly who the student was (and I don't even know some of them yet), but just from the style of movement I was pretty sure it was Iori. Eventually I got my nerve up and went over to ask about it. Turns out it was Iori, and he has a real talent for dancing. The teacher told me that in about three days he had made/learned (I'm not entirely sure which) a routine that he was teaching to the other students for Sports Day. The choreography was pretty unusual, with some slightly goofy movements, but really creative and enjoyable to watch. I won't be at that school for Sports Day, but I'd love to learn the routine all the same. Since I was interested, the teacher pulled up a few other videos of Iori dancing. He had done some really interesting rhythmic dances using a tambourine. I don't know how to describe them exactly, but I was seriously impressed with his sense of rhythm and timing. Anyhow, given that he seems to like English, has shown an interest in communicating with me, and loves to dance, I think I'm likely to become quite fond of him.

Anyhow, at the end of the day I rode the bus home with Mako, and we had another conversation/interview. All in all, it was quite a nice day. I'm looking forward to going back this week. It's still sad to know that I won't be going back to TJHS, but I think it will be pretty easy to settle into my new school.