It has been three weeks since starting to teach at my new school, Koga third; and I could not love it more! It has been such a short time, so my camaraderie with the other teachers isn't so strong, but the responsibilities of my job more than make up for that; and those friendships will come too! This is the highest level school in Koga, so the students are really studious and actually understand almost everything I say! Of course I am conscious to keep my vocabulary at a lower level, but students at my other schools still don't get much of what I say.
The biggest perk of this school is that I teach alone!! I can teach the students anything I want and I am not bound by a set curriculum or textbook! They only give me 20 students at a time, but that is a great number for me and I have such a blast every Friday! I have my own classroom - they have just given me the audio-visual room in case I ever want to use PowerPoint. And the librarian at this school is fantastic! When I have free time on Fridays, I go down to the library to speak with her and just hang out. She wants to learn more English, but I am able to speak to her a lot in Japanese, which is great practice for me.
My situation at this school could not be better. If my whole job was this way, I would have stayed a second year - no question. I had such a great class on Friday with a group of students from homeroom 5. From the moment they walked in, they were laughing and ready to meet me. I went through my self introduction and they were so enthusiastic and had some great questions for me. I was able to play back and forth with them and we all just had a really great time. It is fun to teach kids with dreams and aspirations. Almost all the kids at Koga third go to college - and really great colleges at that. I met a girl who was accepted to Meiji University. That is one of the best schools in Tokyo!
I walked around and took some pictures of the school last Friday and stumbled upon a display of student artwork that I found to be really impressive. The students at this school have enthusiasm and talent that I remember from my high school days. To me this school should not be out of the ordinary, this should be the norm.
I was able to watch some graduation rehearsal at this school too and it was actually kind of exciting! They have their own brass band (which most schools don't really have "arts" clubs) and they were conducted by a student. Before they began rehearsal, all the students got a lecture in the proper way to bow for such a formal occasion. There was discussion about how to sing the school song in a very loud voice - oh, and if you forget the words they are printed on the wall to the right of the stage!
It has been and will continue to be a refreshing place to work. I was really nervous in the beginning, but after a few weeks I have some nice warm and fuzzy feelings. Check out my new pictures of Koga third.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Blows my mind
On Wednesdays I have only one class to teach and it is the last period of the day. So generally I will catch up on writing letters or emails on Wednesday mornings and just bide my time until lunch. After lunch I have my aerobics class fifth period and then I teach during sixth. After aerobics today, I get back to the teachers' room, change back into my normal clothes and wait at my desk to go to class with Otsuka-sensei. So the bell rings for the class to start, and Otsuka is no where to be seen. I walk around a look for him a bit, but again, no where. So I just wait patiently at my desk, read some news online and keep an eye out. I ended up waiting the whole class period, and he never shows until after the bell has rung for class to be over.
Turns out, during fifth period a student and a teacher got into a bit of a verbal fight. The student had a question and the teacher proceeded to ignore his raised hand, so the student lashed out. He became unruly in the class and was very disruptive. Otsuka had to run interference during sixth period between the teacher and the student. The most surprising part of this whole scenario however, is that while Otsuka is taking care of this issue, our sixth period English class is just sitting down in their classroom completely alone and hanging out. They got a free period today. Now, would that EVER happen in an American classroom? Is one teacher going to completely ignore a class they should be teaching to moderate a situation of which they had no part???? I think not! Educational priorities are pretty screwy in the Japanese system to be sure.
Turns out, during fifth period a student and a teacher got into a bit of a verbal fight. The student had a question and the teacher proceeded to ignore his raised hand, so the student lashed out. He became unruly in the class and was very disruptive. Otsuka had to run interference during sixth period between the teacher and the student. The most surprising part of this whole scenario however, is that while Otsuka is taking care of this issue, our sixth period English class is just sitting down in their classroom completely alone and hanging out. They got a free period today. Now, would that EVER happen in an American classroom? Is one teacher going to completely ignore a class they should be teaching to moderate a situation of which they had no part???? I think not! Educational priorities are pretty screwy in the Japanese system to be sure.
Ingenuity
I planned a lesson for my classes yesterday that involved a board game and asking each other questions in English. Now, usually an important component of a board game is a device that determines how players progress down the game board. I think the most natural selections are either dice or spinners. My plan was to buy dice at the hyaku en shop (dollar store) and bring them to school. When I arrived at school yesterday morning, I was reviewing the plan with Endo-sensei and I realized that I had completely forgotten about dice! In her very Japanese way, Endo-sensei apologizes to me for me forgetting the dice. I tell her, no I am the one who is very sorry it is my fault that I forgot dice. In response she says, "Thank you for saying that!" I tell her that I will walk across the street and purchase dice during second period before our third period class. She looks hesitant but says okay.
Now, I feel like a dope and I start trying to rack my brain thinking of ways to solve this problem without going across the street. It hits me, and I run over to the one internet computer this school has and bogart it for about 30 seconds as I do a Google images search for "make-your-own dice." The first image that pops up is perfect, so I click on the image, do a copy and then paste it into a word document.
I resize the image to make it just a tad bigger and then I copy and paste six images to a page - I wanted to play the game with 10 groups, so I needed a lot of dice. I print my page, make a second copy and grab some different color highlighters, and some small paper fasteners that have a bit of weight to them. Back at my desk I sit there contemplating for a moment. I have no scissors nor glue and most of the teachers are not in the room for me to ask. So I just wait for the first person I see and ask to borrow their scissors and glue. I start my little arts and crafts project. I color the dice with highlighters, cut out the pattern. The adorable little adjunct science teacher that sits next to me, sees what I am doing and offers to help me!! He cuts out all my dice and then has to rush to class. I continue working on my little project; folding on every line, applying glue where necessary and dropping a fastener inside of each die before sealing it completely. I knew that little paper die were going to be too light to work well, so I thought that something inside would give them a little weight; it totally worked! Another teacher sees what I am doing and again offers to help me! We made twelve dice in less than an hour and they all worked!
Endo-sensei saw what I had done and asked the teacher helping me, "Was that your idea?" And the teacher said, "No, it was all Annelyse." I was pretty happy about being able to trouble shoot so quickly and really thankful for the help and supplies that the other teachers gave me! And just to show that students are wholly unaware of what their teachers go through for them...
...Once I got to class and the students started playing the game, one of the students completely destroyed one of my dice and then refused to play the game and left his team without a means to play either. Brat!
Now, I feel like a dope and I start trying to rack my brain thinking of ways to solve this problem without going across the street. It hits me, and I run over to the one internet computer this school has and bogart it for about 30 seconds as I do a Google images search for "make-your-own dice." The first image that pops up is perfect, so I click on the image, do a copy and then paste it into a word document.
I resize the image to make it just a tad bigger and then I copy and paste six images to a page - I wanted to play the game with 10 groups, so I needed a lot of dice. I print my page, make a second copy and grab some different color highlighters, and some small paper fasteners that have a bit of weight to them. Back at my desk I sit there contemplating for a moment. I have no scissors nor glue and most of the teachers are not in the room for me to ask. So I just wait for the first person I see and ask to borrow their scissors and glue. I start my little arts and crafts project. I color the dice with highlighters, cut out the pattern. The adorable little adjunct science teacher that sits next to me, sees what I am doing and offers to help me!! He cuts out all my dice and then has to rush to class. I continue working on my little project; folding on every line, applying glue where necessary and dropping a fastener inside of each die before sealing it completely. I knew that little paper die were going to be too light to work well, so I thought that something inside would give them a little weight; it totally worked! Another teacher sees what I am doing and again offers to help me! We made twelve dice in less than an hour and they all worked!Endo-sensei saw what I had done and asked the teacher helping me, "Was that your idea?" And the teacher said, "No, it was all Annelyse." I was pretty happy about being able to trouble shoot so quickly and really thankful for the help and supplies that the other teachers gave me! And just to show that students are wholly unaware of what their teachers go through for them...
...Once I got to class and the students started playing the game, one of the students completely destroyed one of my dice and then refused to play the game and left his team without a means to play either. Brat!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
Crazy quick read - it only took about an hour. However, it was still fun and a nice little throw back to the Harry Potter series. I think J.K. Rowling is incredibly creative and has created a world much akin to The Wizard of Oz in my mind. Now, I love the Harry Potters books, but they will never replace the Wizard of Oz for me. However, the world of Harry Potter is so rich that anything written on the subject (by J.K. Rowling, of course) immediately sucks me in. If you're a Harry Potter fan, it is worth an hour of your time. If not, that's cool, but let me have my fantasy!
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster by Dana Thomas
I took a dive into non-fiction with this incredibly informative and witty book. If you don't buy into the whole luxury industry and their exorbitant pricing, this book will help to further justify your disdain for $2000+ handbags. If you happen to be into the whole luxury thing, this book will hopefully steer you in the direction of luxury companies that are worth your money as opposed to Louis Vuitton and the crap they try to sell you.
Thomas delves into a world of obscene wealth (consumers) and an industry born of true craftsmanship and elegance and mutated into greed and sweatshops. There are very few true luxury brands left that adhere to the principles of ultimate quality and integrity, such as Hermes. For me, this book was fascinating to discover how the industry is divided among conglomerates and which companies own certain brand names; my business nerd was in heaven.
Another fascinating point of the book was how societies of people buy-in to the image brand names provide - the shallowness of it all was astounding. There were many sections of the book dedicated solely to the Japanese and their buying habits. Often these brands will open stores in locations specifically targeted to the Japanese. For example, Hawaii has exploded with luxury shopping strips in the past 10 years due entirely to the high volume of Japanese tourism on the US islands. Japanese travel agencies have taken their cue and now offer travel primarily for shopping. There are weekend excursions to Hawaii from Japan that are two or three days long, have a shuttle from the airport in Hawaii to the luxury one-stop shopping, and back on the shuttle to catch your plane back home.
This book was a great lesson in marketing and the ability of something shiny to woo the masses and get them to dump all their money into a big vat of greed.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Broadway in Tokyo and singing all the way back to Koga
This weekend, I went with my partners in crime, Lauren and Chika (and other friends), to see Wicked in Tokyo. Now, I am sad to report that Wicked is the only Broadway show I have ever actually seen, but now I have seen it in two languages; so that basically rocks! We met up on Saturday afternoon in Tokyo and ventured to our hotel to drop our bags before lunch. Now Lauren is our travel coordinator extraordinaire, and she booked us a fabulous hotel that was fun and a little luxurious. The lobby smelled of fresh flowers and had marble floors and a rich wooden staircase.
Next we headed out to lunch and hit up a little Italian cafe with a great lunch special! It was great fun to sit and gab with a bunch of girls about nothing and everything at the same time. Even all the way over here in Japan, the little things are still the most important. We spent an hour and a half at lunch lounging and making new friends with our waiter. He was a fun Japanese guy who liked to try his hand at English while we were ordering in Japanese. He was showing us the display case full of dessert at the end of our meal and we couldn't see, so he said, "chotto sorry," which means, "little sorry." It was so funny that even the Japanese woman sitting at the table next to ours started laughing at the new Japanese/English expression.
We don't have many occasions to dress up here in Japan, so we decided to break out the fancy clothes to go to the theatre. After lunch we went back to the hotel to change and get ready for the show. The theatre was a little odd - it was a theatre tucked into a shopping mall - only in Japan. Our seats were up in the balcony, but as I suspected the theatre was the perfect size and our view was really incredible! I was so excited by how much of the show I actually understood (not just remembered from the last time)! I knew I was understanding because at certain times I really thought the translations could have been better at getting the true feeling of the scene across. The actors were quite good, but to be frank after seeing the original cast in New York - nothing will top Joel Grey and Leo Norbert Butz (and Kristen and Idina). As with every time I see a show (professional or just little community productions) I cannot wait to be back on stage performing for an audience of my own!
After the play, we discussed the content and I let my geekiness fly when I was explaining in painful detail the story and how it intertwined with the original Oz story. I embrace my obsessions. We went to a little British Pub and got some good dark beer, fish and chips, and Shepherd's pie. We talked more about our families, taxes, and cynicism vs. love (love wins every time - depending on who you ask). Naturally we did an hour of karaoke and went back to the hotel singing down the streets of Tokyo!
The next day, we all had to wake up and get back to our respective cities for other meetings and dates. I was meeting up with some people to do even more karaoke (big surprise at this point, I know). Notice the picture above of the billboard for the karaoke place. It's really an awful name, but they have pretty good machines. We ended up doing 5 and a half hours of karaoke and I was all sung out. No seriously, I was; but I got over it quickly...haha.
Now I am just back to my normal routine, teaching, reading, lounging. Hopefully more fun adventures to come soon! And thank you to everyone for playing Malarky with me! Maybe I throw in other trivia from time to time. If you have anything you want to post, do it! We all like playing!
Next we headed out to lunch and hit up a little Italian cafe with a great lunch special! It was great fun to sit and gab with a bunch of girls about nothing and everything at the same time. Even all the way over here in Japan, the little things are still the most important. We spent an hour and a half at lunch lounging and making new friends with our waiter. He was a fun Japanese guy who liked to try his hand at English while we were ordering in Japanese. He was showing us the display case full of dessert at the end of our meal and we couldn't see, so he said, "chotto sorry," which means, "little sorry." It was so funny that even the Japanese woman sitting at the table next to ours started laughing at the new Japanese/English expression.
We don't have many occasions to dress up here in Japan, so we decided to break out the fancy clothes to go to the theatre. After lunch we went back to the hotel to change and get ready for the show. The theatre was a little odd - it was a theatre tucked into a shopping mall - only in Japan. Our seats were up in the balcony, but as I suspected the theatre was the perfect size and our view was really incredible! I was so excited by how much of the show I actually understood (not just remembered from the last time)! I knew I was understanding because at certain times I really thought the translations could have been better at getting the true feeling of the scene across. The actors were quite good, but to be frank after seeing the original cast in New York - nothing will top Joel Grey and Leo Norbert Butz (and Kristen and Idina). As with every time I see a show (professional or just little community productions) I cannot wait to be back on stage performing for an audience of my own!
After the play, we discussed the content and I let my geekiness fly when I was explaining in painful detail the story and how it intertwined with the original Oz story. I embrace my obsessions. We went to a little British Pub and got some good dark beer, fish and chips, and Shepherd's pie. We talked more about our families, taxes, and cynicism vs. love (love wins every time - depending on who you ask). Naturally we did an hour of karaoke and went back to the hotel singing down the streets of Tokyo!
The next day, we all had to wake up and get back to our respective cities for other meetings and dates. I was meeting up with some people to do even more karaoke (big surprise at this point, I know). Notice the picture above of the billboard for the karaoke place. It's really an awful name, but they have pretty good machines. We ended up doing 5 and a half hours of karaoke and I was all sung out. No seriously, I was; but I got over it quickly...haha.Now I am just back to my normal routine, teaching, reading, lounging. Hopefully more fun adventures to come soon! And thank you to everyone for playing Malarky with me! Maybe I throw in other trivia from time to time. If you have anything you want to post, do it! We all like playing!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
If Malarky taught me anything...
...it would be that you can know everything, as long as you have a good enough imagination. Now Malarky is a really great board game that teaches you how to use the world around you to infer knowledge about things of an uncommon nature. I guess the bottom line is that it teaches you (a) how to BS really well or (b) how to sift through the BS others are trying to feed you. But from a less cynical perspective it really helps to expand your mind to figure out certain things without being taught first. For example, one of the questions in the game is, "On the instructions of the shampoo, it tells you to wash your hair and then repeat. When you repeat, why is it that the second time you wash your hair the lather has more volume?" (okay, so it might not be verbatim, but you get the idea) What do you think the answer is? If you think you know, answer in the comment section. Try to answer without looking it up online or running upstairs to the game box to read the answer on the card, Dad!
Trying to conjecture and figure out the reasons "why" for happenings in the world around us is a valuable skill that more people should acknowledge and practice. Having the ability to research is a skill, don't get me wrong, but being able to think and reason is an even greater skill in my opinion. The best way to practice is to be observant of everything around you. Simple day to day things can be extremely telling of a culture or a society's norms. Thinking through all the pieces of a problem in order to uncover the best solution takes patience but also prior knowledge or understanding of common things or basic science. For example, soap clings to dirt to wash it away. That's the only hint I'm giving.
PS, when I get home everyone who knows me better run and hide because I am going to subject all of those people who are not fast enough to endless board games and family time! Malarky, here I come.
PPS, my Dad is one of the best Malarky players I have ever seen. Does that mean he knows a lot of things, or has a good imagination or that he's just old? Thoughts?
Trying to conjecture and figure out the reasons "why" for happenings in the world around us is a valuable skill that more people should acknowledge and practice. Having the ability to research is a skill, don't get me wrong, but being able to think and reason is an even greater skill in my opinion. The best way to practice is to be observant of everything around you. Simple day to day things can be extremely telling of a culture or a society's norms. Thinking through all the pieces of a problem in order to uncover the best solution takes patience but also prior knowledge or understanding of common things or basic science. For example, soap clings to dirt to wash it away. That's the only hint I'm giving.
PS, when I get home everyone who knows me better run and hide because I am going to subject all of those people who are not fast enough to endless board games and family time! Malarky, here I come.
PPS, my Dad is one of the best Malarky players I have ever seen. Does that mean he knows a lot of things, or has a good imagination or that he's just old? Thoughts?
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