On days when the job is good...

...it's really good! Now, at the end of my time here, I am starting to have more successful classes and the feeling at the end of the day is great. Last Thursday, I taught by myself for the first time at Koga Second. The class was a group of second grade (11th grade) students, whom I have known and taught for the whole year I have been here. They are good students, but the prospect of teaching them alone was a bit nerve racking. The lesson I was to teach was in their reading textbook and discussed a little girl named Sally who had Down's Syndrome. Their regular teacher asked me to discuss the article and check for comprehension and also to relay some of my own experiences knowing people with Down's Syndrome. In Japan, they have special schools for all children with handicaps, so most students have never been in a classroom with anyone different than themselves. This is just one sheltering technique Japan tries to use to pretend everyone is all the same.

We discussed Sally's story and then I spoke to them about going to school with students with Down's Syndrome. They could not imagine how it was possible for different students to all be in the same school, but I explained it the best I could. Sally is quite an exceptional girl and very high functioning. She had a talent for painting and would sell her work in order to send the money to care for children in Africa. The whole article was a feel-good inspiration, so at the end I asked the students to each complete the sentence, "My dream is _______." They had to write three reasons for their dream. At the end of class I had each student read their dream aloud to the rest of the class. It was so much fun to hear their aspirations and see the reaction of their classmates - everyone was impressed by their peers and it left the class on a really high note.

At the end of the day, as I was leaving school, one girl from this class came to me to talk. She wanted to tell me that she really enjoy my English class today and that I was a good teacher. I was really touched that she thought so much of the class that she wanted to seek me out and let me know. That kind of forwardness is almost unheard of in Japan, so it really means a lot to me.

Then on Friday, I was at Koga Third. I was nervous to be at this school because I was trying out a new lesson. I had three classes total and the first two were okay, but nothing spectacular. I was starting to get pretty down about my new lesson, so for the last class of the day, I decided to change it up a bit. I always had the intention in previous classes to teach the students how to listen and dance to the Cha-Cha Slide, but I had never quite had the time so it hadn't happened. Since I was a bit discouraged and wanted to end the day/week on a good note, I scrapped my plan as it was and spent the class teaching/coaxing the students to dance the Cha-Cha Slide with me! It was so much fun. By the end of the class we had moved the tables and chairs out of the way and everyone was in the middle of the room dancing! I justify it by telling myself they had to listen to and understand the instructions being said in order to do the dance properly. Ultimately I just wanted them to have fun - and I needed to have a bit of fun as well.

There are definitely secrets to this job that I wish I had known from the beginning. In my position, I am not here to teach hard and fast concrete English. I am here to talk about America, have blond hair, dress differently, and make them laugh. These are things I can do.