no excuses
This post has already been deleted by blogger twice now, and I'm feeling pretty discouraged... so I apologize if it seems rushed or incomplete.
there's too many things going on to get into detail so I've decided to just focus on the big events. I've been pretty good about keeping my flickr gallery updated though, so check that for the current stuff.
Recently I've been pretty stressed out about work. My first few weeks I had a lot of extra lessons to plan at my JHS on top of my weekly elementary school classes, and other English-related activities to plan as well. If that wasn't enough, my base school was chosen to host the annual English Teacher's Demonstration this year- and lucky me, my JTE and I got to be this year's star attraction.
-skip this part if you're familiar with the JET program-
Let me explain the role of the JTE and ALT, since it seems a lot of the readers of this blog aren't clear on what that is- Every junior high school and high school has one to three English teachers. The JET program has labeled them the "JTE" or "Japanese Teacher of English." We participants of the JET program are called "ALTs" or "Assistant Language Teachers." Each ALT has 1-3 JTEs that they work with. I teach with three. Our JTEs also act as a sorta middle-man between us and the Board of Education or whoever is our actual employer, since they're usually the only English speaker at the school. so yea, savvy?
Anyway, at the demonstration every junior high JTE and ALT in the Tonami region came to watch a 55 minute class period (totaling at just over 60 people!), and then spent 2 hours talking about it afterwards. My JTE and I spent several overtime hours planning it (even though my role was minor he wanted to make sure I knew exactly what to expect/do at every moment of the demo) That week all the staff were under a lot of stress cleaning and preparing for the demo, so while I initially wasn't really worried about it the frantic atmosphere at work made me pretty nervous. My students were freaking out the few minutes they had to practice before the guests started filing into the classroom. They rehearsed perfectly but then once they had 60 people they didn't know (all of which spoke English and a quarter of them gaijin) starring at them they sorta choked. Not to mention we held the 60-person demonstration in our normal English classroom, so the teachers were all standing right up against the student's desks. That had to be a little intimidating. I did a lot of pep talking before the demo and overall I think they did a really good job :)
So that was yesterday. It's over... thank god. Now I can't get back to worrying about other things.
Field Trip
Last Thurs my school had their annual fall field trip in which each grade spends the whole school day walking to a nearby town and visiting some place. I thought it was a little odd at first, imagining massive groups of students walking down the narrow residential roads, but it was surprisingly well-organized. I was assigned to walk with the 2nd yr class and help lead class 2-2. We spent the first 21/2 hours walking to Fukuno where they played organized games at a park for a couple hours before eating lunch.
students playing capture the flag
picture with some of my girl students
After lunch we got to play on the playground for 30 min. I spent most of the time on this awesome (and prolly dangerous) bridge.
On the way back we stopped at a cool shrine for 45 min, and then we took our final break at a local golf course parking lot. I really enjoyed chatting with my students on the way. It's too bad there's only one of these a year, since my usual conversations with my students don't get any deeper than "how was your weekend."
Kokuriko Dance
I only have enough energy to write about one more thing, so I think that should prolly be our dance performance at the "Friendly International Exchange" festival in Toyama City. As I mentioned earlier, Danielle, Ivy, Amanda and I have been attending dance rehersals for the past couple of months in Kamitaira (only actually met 3 times though). These rehersals were spent mostly chatting with elderly Japanese women over tea and sweets, since the actual dance only takes maybe 30 min to learn.
The big day came last Sunday when we had to be up at 7am (with maybe 3 hrs of sleep at best) to be picked up by one of the ladies. The festival was held at the capital of Toyama Prefecture in some building. It wasn't so much a festival, as much as an opportunity for Japanese people to show off their culture to local gaijin (foreigners) in the area. The four of us spent a bit of the morning in the dance studio teaching anyone who walked in the Kokuriko dance in our Happi coats.
Afterwards we were herded to the changing rooms where 11 old Japanese ladies got to work dressing us in our kimonos. There was a whole lotta unecessary fussing and what seemed like an excessive number of ties around our midrift, but it was an interesting experience.
getting my obi tied
as soon as I think I've gotten away one old lady decides she's not done with me yet.
Once we were taught how to walk in a "cute" manner we were pushed back outside into the dining hall to make our first appearance. As we shuffled our way up to our assigned table flashes went off and everyone we passed had to stop us and say how wonderful we looked :P
making our debue
After seating ourselves (in places carefully labeled "gaikokujin no hou") there were a few speeches followed by a kanpai. Everyone was given preset bento lunches. I was starving at that point, and as much as I would've loved to stuff myself my tightly wrapped obi prevented me from doing so :(
When our time came to perform we went back stage to prep. Our group consisted of 2 singers, 4 musicians, 7 lady dancers and two male. For the first part of the dance the four of us stood at the side and waited for our part to enter. As soon as we entered the dance all the news cameras turned on and the whole audience ooohed and ahhhed at the gaijin. We were only on stage for maybe a total of 3 min, but all that following week I was approached by coworkers, students, and random strangers commenting on my appearance on TV and in the newspapers. (apparently they did a closeup on my face too :\)
picture taken by Erin, an ALT seated near the front :)
Once we finished we were herded back out onto the dining floor where we had to mingle with everyone and get our picture taken a million times with people we don't know, one of those being the Govenor of Toyama City:
I didn't know who he was at the time, but he looked important...
Even though I got kinda tired of being put on display, pushed about, and dragged around by the wrist, I think it was overall a positive experience. The women we danced with were really generous and motherly to us. And it probably didn't help that I was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion all day, which I did... as soon as I got home.
there's too many things going on to get into detail so I've decided to just focus on the big events. I've been pretty good about keeping my flickr gallery updated though, so check that for the current stuff.
Recently I've been pretty stressed out about work. My first few weeks I had a lot of extra lessons to plan at my JHS on top of my weekly elementary school classes, and other English-related activities to plan as well. If that wasn't enough, my base school was chosen to host the annual English Teacher's Demonstration this year- and lucky me, my JTE and I got to be this year's star attraction.
-skip this part if you're familiar with the JET program-
Let me explain the role of the JTE and ALT, since it seems a lot of the readers of this blog aren't clear on what that is- Every junior high school and high school has one to three English teachers. The JET program has labeled them the "JTE" or "Japanese Teacher of English." We participants of the JET program are called "ALTs" or "Assistant Language Teachers." Each ALT has 1-3 JTEs that they work with. I teach with three. Our JTEs also act as a sorta middle-man between us and the Board of Education or whoever is our actual employer, since they're usually the only English speaker at the school. so yea, savvy?
Anyway, at the demonstration every junior high JTE and ALT in the Tonami region came to watch a 55 minute class period (totaling at just over 60 people!), and then spent 2 hours talking about it afterwards. My JTE and I spent several overtime hours planning it (even though my role was minor he wanted to make sure I knew exactly what to expect/do at every moment of the demo) That week all the staff were under a lot of stress cleaning and preparing for the demo, so while I initially wasn't really worried about it the frantic atmosphere at work made me pretty nervous. My students were freaking out the few minutes they had to practice before the guests started filing into the classroom. They rehearsed perfectly but then once they had 60 people they didn't know (all of which spoke English and a quarter of them gaijin) starring at them they sorta choked. Not to mention we held the 60-person demonstration in our normal English classroom, so the teachers were all standing right up against the student's desks. That had to be a little intimidating. I did a lot of pep talking before the demo and overall I think they did a really good job :)
So that was yesterday. It's over... thank god. Now I can't get back to worrying about other things.
Last Thurs my school had their annual fall field trip in which each grade spends the whole school day walking to a nearby town and visiting some place. I thought it was a little odd at first, imagining massive groups of students walking down the narrow residential roads, but it was surprisingly well-organized. I was assigned to walk with the 2nd yr class and help lead class 2-2. We spent the first 21/2 hours walking to Fukuno where they played organized games at a park for a couple hours before eating lunch.
students playing capture the flag
picture with some of my girl students
After lunch we got to play on the playground for 30 min. I spent most of the time on this awesome (and prolly dangerous) bridge.
On the way back we stopped at a cool shrine for 45 min, and then we took our final break at a local golf course parking lot. I really enjoyed chatting with my students on the way. It's too bad there's only one of these a year, since my usual conversations with my students don't get any deeper than "how was your weekend."
I only have enough energy to write about one more thing, so I think that should prolly be our dance performance at the "Friendly International Exchange" festival in Toyama City. As I mentioned earlier, Danielle, Ivy, Amanda and I have been attending dance rehersals for the past couple of months in Kamitaira (only actually met 3 times though). These rehersals were spent mostly chatting with elderly Japanese women over tea and sweets, since the actual dance only takes maybe 30 min to learn.
The big day came last Sunday when we had to be up at 7am (with maybe 3 hrs of sleep at best) to be picked up by one of the ladies. The festival was held at the capital of Toyama Prefecture in some building. It wasn't so much a festival, as much as an opportunity for Japanese people to show off their culture to local gaijin (foreigners) in the area. The four of us spent a bit of the morning in the dance studio teaching anyone who walked in the Kokuriko dance in our Happi coats.
Afterwards we were herded to the changing rooms where 11 old Japanese ladies got to work dressing us in our kimonos. There was a whole lotta unecessary fussing and what seemed like an excessive number of ties around our midrift, but it was an interesting experience.
getting my obi tied
as soon as I think I've gotten away one old lady decides she's not done with me yet.
Once we were taught how to walk in a "cute" manner we were pushed back outside into the dining hall to make our first appearance. As we shuffled our way up to our assigned table flashes went off and everyone we passed had to stop us and say how wonderful we looked :P
making our debue
After seating ourselves (in places carefully labeled "gaikokujin no hou") there were a few speeches followed by a kanpai. Everyone was given preset bento lunches. I was starving at that point, and as much as I would've loved to stuff myself my tightly wrapped obi prevented me from doing so :(
When our time came to perform we went back stage to prep. Our group consisted of 2 singers, 4 musicians, 7 lady dancers and two male. For the first part of the dance the four of us stood at the side and waited for our part to enter. As soon as we entered the dance all the news cameras turned on and the whole audience ooohed and ahhhed at the gaijin. We were only on stage for maybe a total of 3 min, but all that following week I was approached by coworkers, students, and random strangers commenting on my appearance on TV and in the newspapers. (apparently they did a closeup on my face too :\)
picture taken by Erin, an ALT seated near the front :)
Once we finished we were herded back out onto the dining floor where we had to mingle with everyone and get our picture taken a million times with people we don't know, one of those being the Govenor of Toyama City:
I didn't know who he was at the time, but he looked important...
Even though I got kinda tired of being put on display, pushed about, and dragged around by the wrist, I think it was overall a positive experience. The women we danced with were really generous and motherly to us. And it probably didn't help that I was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion all day, which I did... as soon as I got home.
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