Teaching in an Elementary (Finally!)

Wow, I’m putting up a lot of posts on my blog today!  I guess that’s what happens when you take many pictures but don’t have the time to write about them…until you have no classes on a Monday.  That’s right.  Today I had no classes.  Ok, I had ONE class.  And I had to eat my lunch with a ninth grade class.  Does that count?  (I’ve been told that the students are just finishing their testing today, and so I’m not needed for these tests.  They’ve already recorded my voice for the listening portion of the English test so I don’t need to read it to them in person.)

This actually is a good segway into what I’m going to be talking about for this post.  I finally had an opportunity to go to an Elementary to teach English.  Finally.  I can’t use the word “finally” enough. 

You see, other previous Tarui English ALT teachers before me have taught at different Elementary schools every Monday.  After that, they go to the Junior High schools.  So far, I have only gone to Junior High Schools.  I guess in the past couple of years, the Tarui School Board has changed the contract so that the English ALT teacher only has to teach at Tarui’s Junior High Schools.  I don’t think the other ALTs in the past couple of years have complained since they taught at a High School and a Junior High School in Calgary.  I, however, didn’t “complain” but questioned why. 

When I came to Japan, I was expecting to be asked to visit some Elementary schools.  In fact, I brought some of my easy English music books to Tarui specifically for the Elementary English classes I thought I would be teaching.  But when I got here, I found out that I was only supposed to teach at the Junior High Schools.  That was fine.  I didn’t mind.  Besides, I’ve taught both Elementary and Junior High students back in Calgary.

The problem I had was that sometimes I would be at a Junior High School and I would have an entire morning free.  Or sometimes there would be an afternoon free.  Or there would even be times where I wouldn’t have any Junior High classes to teach all day.  Like today.  (That’s why I’m posting so many postings today…having no classes gives me an opportunity to catch up with my blog!)  I don’t mind, of course!  I mean, I simply sit at my desk and work on other things for other teachers (or my blog;-)  But I also think that they have this native English speaker that is sometimes just doing deskwork instead of working with young students who are new to English.

The Head Elementary English Teacher of Tarui questioned this to one of the Head Supervisors at the School Board.  (You see, we are friends and so I mentioned to her that I was interested in teaching English at the Elementary level.  So she said she would see what she could do.)

This resulted in me having a short meeting with one of the head supervisors from the Tarui School board, who stressed that the contract I signed stated that I was supposed to only teach at the Junior High level and that we had to follow the contract.  I told him that I was open-minded and flexible enough to do Elementary, Junior High, or even High school if they needed, but I also said that I would go wherever they needed me.  So if the contract said I was supposed to only go to the Junior High Schools in town, that was fine with me.  But I did try to stress that I was comfortable teaching students of any grade at any school in town.

I guess our short meeting caused a few of the head supervisors to ask the number one boss in charge (the Superintendent) about the contract.  He was thrilled with the idea of me working at an Elementary.  He was actually surprised that I hadn’t visited an Elementary school yet!  (I’ve met him and he has very limited English, but he’s a very nice, understanding man and I’ve heard that he’s an excellent leader).  So finally, I got the green light to go to an Elementary school IF my Junior High Schedule allowed for such a visit.  Which it did last Thursday!  (And I guess I could have visited an Elementary today, too…well, almost.  I did have one class today.)

Oh my, this is beginning to be a lengthy explanation when all I wanted to do was to show some pictures of an Elementary school.  So here are the pictures.  Finally!  (There’s that word again!)

This is the exterior of the school.

My day began with a school assembly.  The students were singing a song, they had announcements, and then I had to go to the front to introduce myself.

Here are various photos of the teachers teaching in their classrooms.  Some students even played the recorder for me!!!

This is a picture of the office.

This is the Home Economics room and storage room.  Yes, the students learn how to cook, clean, and sew starting in grade 4. 

In the art room, the students were working on an activity.  Check out the band-saws and the number of sinks!  Wow!!  Also, I took a picture of some finished products.

These are pictures of the Science lab and Science/Math storage rooms (keep in mind this is an Elementary school, not a Junior High or High School).

The Library.

Here is a picture of the music room.

It’s lunchtime, and here are the students preparing the lunch for the class.  I’ve already mentioned in other blogs how many responsibilities the students have (cleaning, chores, conducting, leading, etc), but I forgot to mention that the students also prepare lunch.  They don’t necessarily cook the food, but they do have to scoop the rice into the bowls, hand out the milk, etc.  Well, the Elementary classes are no different.  So, here are some students preparing lunch for their class.

Ok, let’s get to the good part.  Oh, wait, I’ve already posted pictures of lunch and the music room.  (J/K!)  Here are some pictures of the English classes I helped teach for the day.  All of the students were brought down by their homeroom teacher to this room for English class.  The Head English teacher, the homeroom teacher and I would then teach the class an English lesson to the students.  This was the only room with a Smart Board in it. 

Finally, here are some pictures of the back of the school.  The students are all wearing bright, yellow hats and are about to go home.

It was interesting to see the students.  I caught the students peering through windows just to stare at me.  Many of them ran up to me to talk to me (even though the only word they seemed to know was “hello,” but they said it so enthusiastically that I never grew tired of this greeting), but I’ve never had so many students simply “stalk me” (I’m not joking here) and stare at me from afar. 

It was finally explained to me that many, if not most, of these students have never seen a foreigner before…and they may never see a foreigner again for a long time.  I guess in the big cities, there are many English ALTs through the JET program as well as other programs.  But I am the only English ALT in all of Tarui town.  And most of these students grow up in Tarui and the surrounding area and don’t have much of an opportunity to go to the city and perhaps see other foreigners.  So the teachers explained that many of the students were just fascinated with me.

I just hope that in the future I will have more opportunities to work with these Elementary students so that I don’t seem so strange or so “foreign.”  The students were just wonderful and even though I had a busy, full, tiring day, I had a fabulous time.  I’ll just keep my fingers crossed and hopefully I’ll see them again…one day…

By the way, I took some unknown back roads to return some videos I rented from the local video shop and check out what I saw:

I love Japan.  You simply never know what you are going to see…especially if you take a wrong turn.  I need to get lost more often!!

[PS, And by the way, I’ve posted many MANY posts today.  And I’m “finally” finished and I’m “finally” caught up.  Hopefully next week I’ll be writing about Nara or Kyoto if everything goes to plan…]