Survived the 1st Week of Teaching...

So week 1 of teaching came and went. Teaching is a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be. Monday I was at Ube Nishi (my base school). The opening ceremony took a few hours and I gave a short speech in Japanese to introduce myself to the entire school. The ceremony took place in the gym - which is not air conditioned. The only room in the school that has air conditioning is the teacher's room - and even then, they don't turn it on all the time. Needless to say, the gym was hot and a surprising number of students passed out... but I guess they were all used to that. The students had to stand the entire time too. After the ceremony, all the students had to line up and one by one their hair was checked - to make sure it was straight and black and not any other color - , their ears were checked - to make sure they weren't pierced - , and their nails were checked - to make sure they weren't too long. If their nails were too long then they had to cut them right there in the gym... ew... all the clipping noises was kinda gross. Other than the opening ceremony, I didn't do anything else that day.

Tuesday I was once again at my base school - Ube Nishi. I didn't have any classes until the last two periods of the day - 5th and 6th. They were both with my supervisor and I had to give a little self-introduction. I gave my self-introduction for about 5-10 minutes and then I gave them a little worksheet about me with pictures and everything in order to see how much they understood of what I said. The students were really quiet and nobody wanted to participate. THAT IS SO ANNOYING. I know that Japanese students are shy, but come on. After all that was said and done there was some time left so we got right to the text book. My supervisor made it clear that he wants to be strict in his classes and that we will follow out of the text book and there will be no fun or games. Ok. He explained to me that Ube Nishi is a lower level school... as in the students aren't very smart. See, in Japan, high school isn't compulsory.... though about 95% of students go on to high school. Maybe more. Anyway, they have to take entrance exams in order to determine whether or not they can go to a high school. Turns out Ube Nishi isn't hard to get into. Students aren't motivated and not much is expected of them. That's kind of sad, I think. My supervisor told me that he really wants his students to understand English - so that's why he's so strict with them. I think that's good and bad. But he's been teaching for a long time... so I'm not about to argue. He is, actually, very good at the whole idea of "team teaching" though. So props to him for that.

Wednesday I was at Ube Shogyo - the commercial high school. This school is famous throughout Japan for their baseball and volleyball teams. There's even a boy who came from China just to play volleyball at this school. I didn't have to do anything when I was there on Wednesday because they were getting ready for bunkasai - or, sports day. One of the English teachers was explaining to me that having a sports day in a high school is rare because usually only elementary schools and junior high schools have sports days. So since they were busy preparing for their sports day (which was this past Saturday), I didn't have to do anything. I did get to watch though, and that was pretty cool. I didn't go to the actual sports day on Saturday though because I really didn't think it'd be any different than watching them practice...

Anyway. At this school they made it clear to me that it was my job to think of entire lesson plans for every Wednesday that I'm there - completely different than what is expected of me when working with my supervisor at Ube Nishi. Thinking up, finding, and then implementing lesson plans is a lot of work.

Thursday I was at Ube Kogyo - yet another school. This is by far my favorite school out of the three. All of the teachers - English teachers and teachers in general - were so friendly and helpful. This is the technical school and out of the entire school there are only 8 girls... the rest are boys. My introduction went much better this time around. I wrote ten words on the board that had something to do with me, where I'm from, my country, my family, etc. and then they had to guess what they referred to. The boys were very outgoing and willing to participate - it made for an enjoyable class. I didn't have any girls in the classes, but I did eat lunch with the 8 girls in the cafeteria. This is the only school I go to that actually has a cafeteria. Like I said already, the English teachers at this school are so friendly. Not that the English teachers at my other schools aren't friendly - there's just something else about them and the entire atmosphere of the school that I really enjoy. One English teacher just started in June. She had been studying to get her masters in Melbourne, Australia for 2 years so her English is actually fluent. AND, she's gotta be at least under 30 which is SO NICE.

One of the male English teachers was talking with me and he said something like "so, you go to Ube Nishi. There is a bridge that you have to cross on your bike. Have you stopped your bike and peered into the river and thought to yourself 'what am I doing here in Japan... away from my friends... away from my family... missing out on everything down to the current events of the world'?" In which I responded "yes, I have thought that actually." No, I haven't actually stopped my bike on the bridge and peered into the water, but yeah, I have totally thought that since I've been here. Whatever the reason though... whatever brought me to Japan... in particularly to the middle of nowhere Japan... I'm sure it's for a reason... a reason in which I'm yet to find out... but I'm sure I'll realize it eventually.

This school is actually in the center of Ube, near where the other ALT in Ube lives... so after work I met up with her and we went shopping for rain boots. I also bought a pair of old school high-top converse shoes because I've always wanted a pair... but anyway. Then we went to dinner. Thursday was a really enjoyable day.

Friday I was pretty exhausted. I had four classes and by the end of them I was totally burnt out. Two of them were self-introduction classes with some other English teachers and the last two were with my supervisor - not self intro though. We were teaching how to give directions. I think I said "excuse me, where is the post office" 100 times. But anyway.

So that was my first week of teaching. I don't have any pictures to post because I didn't take any. Sorry. BUT, you can check out the previous post because I finally have the pictures from Shrimp Catching up!