Good to be here again!
I’ve been taking notes about school, and thoughts I’ve had throughout the day on scrap paper that I carry around with me to class. I haven’t had time to organize these thoughts into any sort of order, but since you voted that you’d like to hear more personal stories, I thought I’d just add these thoughts in the order/form that they are in. It will look more like a list format than a journal entry, but that’s how it’s going to be today! I’d like to get all of these scraps of paper recycled.
-Are people/students who are good looking act a certain way because they’re good looking, or are they good looking because they act a certain way? It can’t be what they’re wearing because they all wear the same uniform, nor is it makeup because they’re not allowed to wear any. Their hairstyle would definitely make a difference, and the way they carry themselves I think would make a big difference as well.
-At the school during the summer you can’t always tell the difference between the boys and the girls. Their summer sports uniforms are all the same, and some of the girls cut their hair very short
-They stopped wearing their normal “sailor” uniforms for a while… I think it was because it’s too hot. Now they have switched to wearing the normal outfits again, and some have switched to their winter uniforms since it’s gotten a little cold. I don’t know how it works though… isn’t there a specific date it’s supposed to switch over? I’m confused.
-In class they write notes very slowly. I don’t remember having that much time to write notes ever. The teachers would write and write and write and we were expected to keep up. Then again, this is not a very high-standard school when it comes to academics, so maybe they get a handicap?
-Currently, I’m finding young people’s hairstyles to be a little funny. It seems like “uneven” is really popular. That, or really long thin layers, with a thick bob near the chin line. I’m a little nervous to get my hair cut here. Last year it turned out interestingly…. They thinned out my hair to a very extreme extent.
-If I ever teach my own language classes, or if I want to suggest ideas taken from old teachers to new teachers, here are some ideas I might use. 1) Flip cards with student’s names on them. If they don’t volunteer, use the cards. Shuffle often. 2) From the beginning, teach common classroom phrases and use them in English throughout the year. Avoid using any of the native language as long as possible. 3) Hand out poker chips for certain good and bad situations, color-coded. Good situations can be used as extra credit points, or passes while bad chips should be reviewed. For example, three no native language chips, means the person stands up at the end and says “No _____” three times.
-One of my teacher’s voice blends in with the students’. They don’t hear or/they don’t listen. She is new, and she doesn’t have very good control of our classes. Last week we had to have the vice-principal sit in on our classes together because the students are hard to control. I’m getting better at handling these classes, and I’ll continue to learn and grow from them. They students listen to me more than to her, but I’m not the one conducting the majority of the class so I feel bad during my silent time. Also, I’m not allowed to speak in Japanese, so I have very little discipline control over them. Also, as an ALT, disciplining students is not part of my job so I’m supposed to avoid it if I can.
-Some advice from one of the other teachers to keep the students “tame,” was to keep them busy. Now I know why we had all that “busy work” in school for all of those years! Without it, the kids get bored and start to talk. Also, busy work reinforces learned material. It gives the fast students something to do while the slow students try to learn. It is quite difficult to teach a class with such a varying levels.
-Seeing the class from the back is such a different experience. I would be bored too!
-I started writing letters with some of the students! One of them did her best to try English. Two of them used Japanese. In this case, I’m thinking that it is better to have a relationship with these students than to be really strict about the English. Especially one, who I’ll call ANU. She is a bit of a trouble child to many of the teachers. I knew she spent the majority of her class time writing notes to friends, and she didn’t really show much interest in our class at all. That, or she would cheat. If she wasn’t being a bother, then we didn’t try to make her do the lesson simply because she was sitting still, being quiet. I asked her if she would write letters with me, mostly because I wanted to be on her good side. Also, I was hoping that if she respected me more, then maybe she would respect the class more as well. Maybe even start to want to learn if she thought there was any benefit to it at all. We’ll see how this goes. It may or may not pan out as I hope. I bought a bunch of $1 stationary papers to write the letters with the students. Also, since she is a first year, I think trying to make a friendship with her is wise for me since I hope to work here for more than one year. Currently, all of the easiest students are the 3rd years, while the rowdy ones are the 1st years. Due to age however, that is to be expected.
-Working at a middle school has made me remember all the things my friends and I used to do as students there. For example, if we forgot our books, we’d borrow a friend’s if they didn’t have that class at the same time. If you didn’t do the homework but you could get away with showing a friend’s and getting credit for it, we might have done that too. We wrote notes in class, doodled on the pages, zoned out, made faces behind teacher’s backs that we didn’t like, made other teacher’s lives living hell, group-cheated on the occasional quiz if the teacher stepped out of the room, borrowed friends notes, etc. Funny how seeing all of these little tricks from the other side seems so much different! I have way more respect for my teachers now looking back on it.
-Sitting in the back of the class, the teacher seems so far away. It seems like it would be easy to get away with reading a book in your desk or do something unrelated to class… but from the front of the class it is so easy to see everything that is going on in the classroom! It’s really easy to tell which students aren’t paying attention. Usually we let things slide depending on how disruptive it is, and due to the personality of the student. For example, if it is normally a disruptive student but this time he’s just sitting at his desks clearly not working, we’ll ignore the fact that he’s not working simply because he’s not being loud. I thought I would mind this, but really I don't when I see that students are being good. If they don’t want to learn English, that’s up to them. They shouldn’t HAVE to learn English… they live in Japan after all. English is not the end all be all of the world. It is the international language right now, and is definitely beneficial to know, but if someone told me I had to start taking Chinese for the same reason I might be a bit annoyed.
-I think one reason the students aren’t learning English very well at Isawa is because there is very little variation from the textbook sentences. The students don’t understand that with the same words in a slightly different order can mean the same thing.
-Some of the students definitely are scared of me. I think I’d prefer that from the start than no one taking me seriously ever. Some of them still don’t, but that’s better than nothing!
-Is it not part of the requirement that if students don’t cut their hair short, they don’t have to pull it back into a ponytail? Maybe that was just specific to another school, or maybe they just don’t follow the rules so strictly for some things. Students are not allowed to eat or drink during class. Students are not allowed to put their towels on their shoulders during class or walking around school. Students must tuck in their shirts at all times.
-Some students will stand up when they’re called on, but they won’t say anything. You’ll wait, and wait, and wait, and they won’t answer your questions or explain themselves. In this one class we were doing mini presentations. Two girls went to the board. One faced the class, and the other faced the board. The one facing the class did her half of the presentation while the one facing the board wouldn’t speak, wouldn’t turn around, wouldn’t answer the teacher’s questions, nothing. She wouldn’t say anything to the teacher either when she asked why she wasn’t saying anything, or why she hadn’t done the work. I don’t know if it’s because they’re shy, or because they’re embarrassed to give a reason. For me, it would be more embarrassing to say nothing at all. I’d say something like, I’m sorry but could I please explain it after class? Or “I didn’t have time to do it” would suffice. Now that I’m getting up and talking to a classroom, or school full of people, public speaking isn’t so hard anymore. I’m glad actually because public speaking is something that I enjoy, and would like to continue to get better at. I have forgotten what it feels like to be shy in front of a bunch of people, and I forget that in school there were other people who WERE really shy. I should try to be more sympathetic.
-What does the phrase “TO BE A GOOD LEADER” mean to you?
-Quote: “If you put your mind to it, you can do it; if do not, you cannot—that is true for all things. When something cannot be done, you are the one to blame for not putting your heart into it.” – Uesugi Harunori 1751-1822
-I’m under the impression that it takes a long time to get to know me.
-I want to be an organizer, leader.
-I want to learn how to dance! Hip Hop dancing can be so cool.
-Despite being developed, Isawa and Yamanashi is still more countryside than I took it for at first, meaning mannerisms are different. Most of the people around here are farmers, or come from farming backgrounds. Some even have two lives, their week job and their weekend farming job.
-At Isawa middle school, they are REALLY REALLY good at sports. That tends to happen at big schools.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteGreat post, very informative. Looking forward
to your next one.
It's Sunday,where are you?
ReplyDeleteGuess who's asking?