beats teaching
About this time of the year all the schools are having their annual school festival. Yesterday I attended Seibu Elementary's (the one in the mountains). The first part of the festival was musical performances by all the students in the gym. The whole school (all 27 of them) started with a song and a odd but cool vocal rhythm piece.
Then each grade did their own song- 1st/2nd sang "Old McDonald Had a Farm" in Japanese, and the other grades performed Studio Ghibili songs on the recorder and piano. Pieces included the ending theme from "Spirited Away" and the main theme from "Princess Mononoke."
For some reason I had to sit at the VIP table with a bunch of old guys in business suits. I would've rathered sat on the floor with the families and teachers but they had prepared special spots for us with boxed omiyage and programs :
The 5th and 6th gd boys from the sports club performed a few stunts before we were let loose to explore the fair. The 2nd floor of the school had displays of artwork and other projects the students (and a few staff members) had made. Here are a couple of my favorites:
i'm not even sure what the medium is...
paper totoros
They also had a sorta magic room where the kids demonstrated math and science related tricks. One of the more popular stations being "make-your-own-slime" (by the end of the fair the whole room was covered in it) I made purple slime :)
After filling up on takoyaki and tempura udon we all went back to the gym to watch the second half of shows. This time all the grades performed their own plays. They were fun to watch even though I was only able to follow maybe half of what they were saying. My junior high school has their school festival the weekend of Halloween.
Last Thursday while I was planning a lesson at my desk, my JTE approaches me and says that for the last two periods of the day we would be attending a play in Inami instead, and that the bus would be leaving shortly... they keep me so well informed here.
So the whole school crammed into 5 charter buses and drove to the next town over. The play was about the life of a famous woodblock artist who lived in Fukumitsu for a time during WWII. Entertaining, but hard to follow. I slept through maybe an eigth of it. The students seemed to be following it just as well as me- during the play a bunch of my 3rd year boys were taking bets on how long my hair was and the boy next to me was snoring really loudly. I woke him up and asked how he was enjoying the play. He yawned and replied sleepily that he'd rather be in class :P I prefer the former personally...
Then each grade did their own song- 1st/2nd sang "Old McDonald Had a Farm" in Japanese, and the other grades performed Studio Ghibili songs on the recorder and piano. Pieces included the ending theme from "Spirited Away" and the main theme from "Princess Mononoke."
For some reason I had to sit at the VIP table with a bunch of old guys in business suits. I would've rathered sat on the floor with the families and teachers but they had prepared special spots for us with boxed omiyage and programs :
The 5th and 6th gd boys from the sports club performed a few stunts before we were let loose to explore the fair. The 2nd floor of the school had displays of artwork and other projects the students (and a few staff members) had made. Here are a couple of my favorites:
i'm not even sure what the medium is...
paper totoros
They also had a sorta magic room where the kids demonstrated math and science related tricks. One of the more popular stations being "make-your-own-slime" (by the end of the fair the whole room was covered in it) I made purple slime :)
After filling up on takoyaki and tempura udon we all went back to the gym to watch the second half of shows. This time all the grades performed their own plays. They were fun to watch even though I was only able to follow maybe half of what they were saying. My junior high school has their school festival the weekend of Halloween.
Last Thursday while I was planning a lesson at my desk, my JTE approaches me and says that for the last two periods of the day we would be attending a play in Inami instead, and that the bus would be leaving shortly... they keep me so well informed here.
So the whole school crammed into 5 charter buses and drove to the next town over. The play was about the life of a famous woodblock artist who lived in Fukumitsu for a time during WWII. Entertaining, but hard to follow. I slept through maybe an eigth of it. The students seemed to be following it just as well as me- during the play a bunch of my 3rd year boys were taking bets on how long my hair was and the boy next to me was snoring really loudly. I woke him up and asked how he was enjoying the play. He yawned and replied sleepily that he'd rather be in class :P I prefer the former personally...
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