 | Coverage Day: Thursday, October 22nd
Schools Visited: ES1
His title... "Assistant Language Teacher"
His duty... "to educate the youth of Japan"
His charges... "the students of Xeno Memorial Elementary School #1"
His assignment... uhhhhh... whatever the teachers tell him to do.
He is... GTX, Great Teacher Xeno!!!
Despite my being hired as an English teacher here, it's far from the only duty I have. As you've been able to tell from my year's worth of blog entries, my other roles here include "volleyball coach, tennis ballboy, PE competitor, janitor, hiking trip scout master, playground monitor, 24-hour 'rock/paper/scissors' challenger, gymnastics coach, art instructor, goalkeeper, tear-dryer, swimming instructor, parking lot attendant, videographer, tech assistant... and maybe about a dozen other things that I could list if I put more thought into it." Anyway, today I get to add in another role.... something I never thought I'd be asked to do while here in Japan: math teacher.
Probably not a surprise to hear this based on the title of the entry, but yeah, that's what was added to my resume this afternoon. It's kinda odd how it came about. I came into the school this morning assuming I would be teaching my normal 6/3/1/4/5 schedule, but I guess something big was up, considering that all the teachers were still in their morning meeting when I walked in at 8:30am. Being an hour early helps, especially in cases like this, when I discover things like my schedule is going to be flipped all upside down and around in circles. I was told twice of the occurrence of changes... with the final layout as 5/3/4/1/6. There was just one problem with this...
no one told 4-sensei about the change. I'm still omega confused though. He came up to me in the start of the 3rd-period and told me that he had taught his class the English lesson by himself. From what I understand, he thought I was supposed to be teaching his class in the 2nd-period. But even so, I don't remember my schedule ever saying 4th-grade English would be in the 2nd-period. It seemed to be a non-issue right away because he was just like "oh, in the 4th-period, they will have Math, but I want you to come anyway." I thought it was a strange request, but hey, it's something new and potentially interesting, so why not?
But you know what? All this happened a bit later in the morning. Let's get to other things first. My first class was 2nd-period with the 5th-graders but nothing interesting happened there. During the morning recess, I was glad to see that the normal massive soccer-melees have resumed. All the male-teachers were outside playing in the sea of about 60 students.
Today was the beginning of my new experiment. My biggest and most rowdy class is the 3rd-grade class. Twenty-eight 9 year-olds, evenly mixed amoung the genders... versus one helpless gaijin. Their HRT jumps in from time-to-time to quiet them down, but she's usually just screaming at the top of her lungs. I hate it more than than the kids do, and besides, it's obviously not working if the kids are going back to be being loud again the following week, if not later in the same period. I figure the key to solving the problem isn't to scare the wits out of them, but rather to give them better incentive to pay attention. Taking a page out of A-sensei's book, I made a chart using a trail of boxes that the kids can mark with stickers. They earn stickers by answering questions during review and by winning games. I promised them prizes if they completed the trail, but I haven't thought about what I would give. Maybe some of the coins I brought from the US.
But yeah, the strategy worked out insanely well. The kids were even surprisingly attentive during the explanation process. The bigger surprise was when I told them not to bend or fold their charts. In fact, I told them "don't even TOUCH it!! No touch!!", haha. And you know what? At the end of the class, I got back a crisp, clean stack of 28 progress charts. I am so proud of those little boogers.
During the class, the effects the incentives had were seen immediately. I started the lesson with reviewing colors, and right from the start, every hand was high up in the air. All of a sudden, I had a room full of little English geniuses, haha. Unfortunately, the incentive initiative didn't stop the talking during game-time, and actually, because all the talking slowed the pace of the game, we only had enough time to get through one round instead of the required two. However, I think my disappointed speech afterwards had some effect on them. After all the groups did their one pass through the Quiz Game on Days of the Week, they all looked at me to see what was next. I got them all quiet and paying attention, and I was honest with what I said to them. I told them calmly and sincerely that we would not finish the game today because they talked too much. I pointed at the clock and said that they wasted too much time, and maybe if they behaved better, then we could have more fun with our time together. They all seemed kinda sad, so maybe the message sunk in a little bit. We'll see what happens next week, heh heh.
I've noticed working in these schools that two kinds of teachers exist. There is the type that yells and screams, hoping that if they become terrifying, then the kids won't dare mess up out of fear of invoking rage. Then there is the type that gets the whole class quiet, and calmly talks about what the issue is and how it affects the classroom environment. Is it obvious which one works better? The classes with teachers who yell and scream all the time have the same problems week-to-week. The classes with teachers who talk like rational adults usually see remarkable improvements in overall attitude. Of course, there are other factors to consider, and even much so the possibility that maybe the classes function differently during their other subjects, but it just bothers me that some teachers would resort to harraigning their students instead of just having a simple talk with them. Kids understand what's going on, so it's not like shouting like an angry monster is even necessary.
Well, anyway, moving on to happier topics, my 4th-grade Math class was up next. I was invited to be an observer, but luckily they were starting on simple Algebra, which, luckily again, uses the same symbols we use in the US. Even though I didn't know the words for "add" "subtract" "multiply" and "divide" in Japanese, whenever I said them to the kids I ended up helping, they seemed to understand me without issue. And since I really like the 4th-grade class, I got in plenty of interaction with random students. I was able to offer help to any of the kids who came back from the checkpoint with 4-sensei with questions marked wrong. A lot of the issues were just messing up the symbols, like multiplying when they should be dividing. When I walked them through the equation step-by-step and pointed out to them where they were taking the wrong turn, they were able to understand completely. Using numbers in English was a way to make them think in two languages without even realizing it.
oh, sneaky, I am.
During the lunch period, I got caught up on all my reports and preparation for the afternoon classes. I needed a music CD from the 2nd-grade classroom, however. When I arrived at the room, I could hear English songs being played. Apparently they use the music CD to time their tooth-brushing. Today's song was "the Hokey Pokey." I don't know if there is actually a set way to do the Hokey Pokey, but I stood in the doorway as I was listening and just wiggled around to the different movements. The kids thought it was hilarious. As for me... well... the song went on longer than I had hoped. And considering it was after lunch, I did more wiggling than I should have. Oh well, it was worth the bit of stomach cramping to entertain some of my favorite students.
Afternoon recess was more soccer. After recess came cleaning time. I was grabbed by one of the 1st-grade girls who wanted me to join her group, which was fine since I knew she was cleaning outside on the front steps, which is where I like to clean most of the time anyway. She is also in Cuteness-chan's group, which is good since I got to spend a little time with her. She used the time to check up on her memory of the new vocab she learned today. Apparently with a lot of the kids, Moku-youbi is "Thursday" (correct) and Kin-youbi is "Thursday" (not correct... obviously). Bah, a little more practice.
Anyway, she was trying to keep up her spirits, even though the 1st-grade girl was being a pain-in-the-ass to her. Anytime she asked the girl to do something, she'd defy her, often walking off to go sweep something random. It wasn't until I asked her that she finally went and did it. Cuteness-chan isn't ever mean to her (well, not that I know), so I don't know why she refuses to listen to her. Meh... kids... whatever.
5th-period with the 1st-graders kinda hit a roadblock. Some of the kids got really talkative as we were getting started, and when 3-now-1-sensei was out of the room, I had to use my loud voice to take control. I guess the teacher heard me from down the hall and came back to find out why class hadn't even started yet, despite our being 5 minutes into the period. She ended up taking 6 or 7 of the kids who were fingered as being the main culprits to a room down the hall where she yelled at them for 20 minutes straight... not even kidding... 20 minutes!!! One of the girls came back in tears, but her classmates and I were able to calm her down quickly enough.
This was my second lesson with English-chan, and luckily she wasn't in the group being berated, which meant she got to enjoy our lesson. Oh wait... no, she complained, haha. Well, just about the song. She asked me "can we do a new song?" I just kinda ignored her, hoping maybe she'll understand that for the other kids, it's still a challenge. If she doesn't get it, I'll have a talk with her soon enough.
6th-period was with my 6th-graders. Something I've always noticed, but never remarked, is that the students in this class are extremely extremely extremely well-behaved. No one EVER talks in this class, and they always pay attention without distraction. I'm not sure where it comes from since their teacher last year was kinda wishy-washy and their teacher this year has been reknowned as the irresponsible-type (but he's still a good teacher, from what I've seen). I think good leadership is what drives this class. I only wish I was still at this school on Tuesdays so I could join in their Soccer Club. Oh well, at least I got to spend some time with them after school today when I helped them with moving the scenery pieces for the Culture Festival from one storage-room to another.
Wait... what was the point of that? Someone please tell me!!
Well, whatever. I also got to drop in on the 3rd- and 4th-grade music rehearsal. It's kinda interesting to hear a song composed of recorders, accordians, xylophones, a taiko drum, a piano, an organ, and some kind of air-powered keyboard thingy. Yeah... where the hell am I? What strange dimension have I fallen into? Why did I eat that left-over pizza at 1 in the morning?
The afternoon ended with some soccer played with the 3rd- and 4th-grade boys. The only problem was, they were using one net, but playing with three balls. This was a disaster waiting to happen since once you successfully dodge one ball, you can't even have a second to catch your breath since you don't know if another is gonna sideline you upside the head. I kept telling them that it was dangerous for the kids on goal, and though some agreed, it still lead to lots of whining and trying to get back the ball I threw up onto the top of the goal netting, haha. At one point, a line-drive flew at rocket-speed over my shoulder. Had I been standing just 4 inches to the left, I would have permanent glasses embedded into my skull.
After all the kids were gone, I was happy to see that all the male teachers were outside hitting some baseballs. They sent some of the students hanging around to the teachers room to come get me. It was fun as we all took turns hitting the ball. They kinda underestimated me, which maybe was okay since I hadn't hit a baseball in years, but I impressed them by knocking a low-flying ball out to the far wall. The more impressive hit, actually, was when I foul-tipped a pitch straight up into the air, and as it came down, I backhand swung the bat perfectly to knock the ball back into fair play, haha. Not bad considering that it was dusk and difficult to see clearly.
Mountains, fresh air, blue skies, crisp clouds, an elementary school field, a baseball, a bat, and some nice coworkers... nice way to end an afternoon. And a nice way to end this blog entry. |
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