Fulfilling A Dream

School No.4 Update

Here’s what I think of my current school so far.

School
The school itself is relatively small. About 200 students, I think. It’s also relatively new. They renovated it a few years ago. They’ve only finished building the gym last year. The swimming pool still hasn’t been built yet. The school has a wooden interior which makes it feel more welcoming than the typical sterile white walls. In the middle, there’s a huge sky light that allows natural light into the foyer. 

In the foyer, there’s a table for lost-and-found. Forgotten/lost towels, jackets, water bottles, etc. So students come and claim the items freely. At any other place, the things would be stolen since they’re all unattended.

My impression of the lunches from previous ALTs was that the lunches here are very bland. But, actually, they’re not that bad. So far, they’re better than my first two schools. Yes, they have the quintessential pickled side dishes here too. However, they’re not as sour as the other schools. And, more importantly, they add other ingredients to the pickles such as soy sauce or sesame oil. 

Teachers
The teachers here are friendly. They don’t mind me walking around, observing other classes and clubs. They don’t seem to mind that the students come into the teachers’ room to talk to me. They like that the students are practicing English with me. My first school didn’t like the fact that the students were lounging around the teachers’ room talking to me…

But, here’s the problem I have here. They don’t tell me anything. More so than my previous schools. I’m given my weekly class schedule and that’s it. It’ll say something like Tues *Pre-ceremony — Weds *Entrance Ceremony on the bottom. But I’m not told anything else about them. Yes, I guess it’s partially my fault for not inquiring more details myself. But the rest of the time, how can I inquire about something I didn’t know exists?! So for the practice ceremony, they all went to the gym and didn’t tell me. There was a welcome party/assembly for the new students the following week. I walked into the latter part of it since I didn’t know it was going on for the last 90 minutes. Another day, I heard clapping coming from outside the teachers’ room. I went outside to see what was going on. Sure enough, there was an assembly in the foyer that no one told me about. There was the school foundation day which no one told me about also. I heard about it from a friend’s daughter’s husband. Yesterday, Saturday, we had open school. Again, no one told me about it. I only realized it because when I looked at my schedule earlier this week, I happen to notice that there were lessons on Saturday strangely. For the lesson observation, they started class early. So when I walked into class, everyone (teachers, students, parents) was already standing up and waiting for me to show up. You know how bad that looks? After that class, they had a PTA assembly. I was going to the restroom, when one of the new teachers (from my first JHS) asked me, “Are you going to the gym now?” “Why? What’s in the gym?” He told me, “I heard that the new teachers are supposed to give a short self-intro to the PTA.” And no one fucking bothered telling me about this?!

All this happened and it’s been only 3-4 weeks. Some ALTs prefer their alone time. They rather sit at their desks and read a book or write or study. I, on the other hand, am a curious and nosy bastard. I want to know what’s going on. It doesn’t matter if it’s boring or my presence is not required. Let me be the judge of that. If it is boring, then I’ll leave and go back to my desk. But at least I know.

Students
Because of the bright atmosphere of the school and students, the students are very carefree and well-mannered. They’re always smiling and laughing. They greet me when they see me. They say thank you when I pass out worksheets. They apologize if they bump into me or stand in the way. So well-mannered. They’re so different from the rest. They get rowdy too, of course, when they’re horsing around. But they do it on a different level. They have fun without the need to scream on top of their lungs or run up the walls like monkeys. They just have fun and enjoy life.

In class, the students participate. For karuta, most are very competitive. Which makes it more fun and loud. When they win, they would cheer with such joy. During ties, they quickly janken (rock-paper-scissors). Some classes are more louder than others, but with such enthusiasm how can anyone scold them for being loud?! Usually, during classes, the girls stick to the girls, the boys stick to the boys. But they mingle with each other without any reservations. There is a camaraderie among them. They feel comfortable with each other.

A couple students got over 10 stamps within two days of me handing out the stamp sheets. Then they talked to me exponentially less and less each week. Three weeks later and they all stopped coming to me. I was hoping at this school, at least, they’d come talk to me consistently  *Sigh* The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.

Lessons
The students are on time. They worry about being late to class. They’re quiet when needed; loud when they’re having fun. They participate. One time, two boys were wrestling each other at the chalkboard to write at the answer. =P Of course, not everyone is a studious student. There are a few poor students, naturally. One girl spends the whole classtime playing with her hair, checking her bangs in the mirror, looking at her purikura stickers, etc. However, despite being poor students, they are quiet. They just keep to themselves and do not disrupt the class. Unlike other schools.

Lessons are “slow-paced” and carefree. At times, 1/3 of the class is just playing karuta. When I ask them if they’re ready (yet) each round, they actually respond back with “YES!!!” or “No no no!” instead of the typical mute response. For the final round in my first-year classes, my JTE makes the losers write the vocab they missed. So that makes them even more competitive. That will only work here, since the students are good and will listen. At my last school? Hahahahahahahahaha. 

The ALT that is now teaching at my first school said what’s different about that school is how they (teachers) LOVE doing worksheets. I never really thought about it, but he’s right.They would just do 2-4 worksheets each class. Fill in the blanks. Review answers (read: students wait for the answers and copy them down without bothering to understand what they’re copying). Continue to next worksheet. I’m used to seeing this that I didn’t really notice the difference. But here, I’ve see them do only a worksheet or two during class. But they have the students write the answers here. They have to write sentences! Which I highly approve. I hate fill-in-the-blanks. They don’t learn word order, structure, writing, spelling, reading, grammar, etc. They just need to remember one word to plug into the hole. At this school, the JTEs also break the students into groups for worksheets and other classwork. So the students help each other figure out and translate words. It’s good for the slower students because they’re not left to fend for themselves.

Each school has an English Room, but none of my previous school used them. The BOE spent a ton of money on purchasing a digital blackboard for each school to use for English, but most of the teachers never used them. Mainly because they’re not comfortable with technology, didn’t want to learn how to use the digital textbooks, too much trouble to set up, etc. So each class, we would bring the CD player, picture cards, etc. to class. This school actually uses the English room, digital blackboard, and digital textbooks. So everything is already set up, we just enter and load the digital textbook. With a touch of a button, we can have vocab flashcards, Q&A, T&F, read-alongs, etc. Very convenient. However, the more they use the digital textbook, the less they use me. Some classes, I just stand there and they have me say nothing. One JTE has bad pronunciation and bad English. However, she insists on saying everything herself and having the students repeat after her. “Ice hock-eh ja-jee. Repeat me.” While I just stand there…

This school has 7th periods. Only one in the area that does. So classes are 5 minutes shorter in order to squeeze enough time for a short 7th period. During 7th period, they would review and drill. Previous ALTs just wanted to be left alone during 7th period, so they can relax. I, on the other hand, wish they would invite me to go to 7th period. I just sit in the teachers’ room by myself bored out of my mind. So recently, I would just wander around and invite myself to the classrooms.

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Overall, the school lives up to its local reputation as the best school. I don’t get used much as an ALT, and it’s increasingly frustrating each time they don’t tell me anything. However, the students are great. I’m sad that I only am here for another month before my next rotation. Ugh!!