Fixed Link

I fixed the link, it should work now. See below.

The Miriam Times

I stole an idea from some other ALTs in my town and decided to publish a weekly "newspaper" for my students in English. Today was the second issue. In it, I include things like a World News section, an Entertainment section, Word of the Day, Did you know..., Weather, Travel section, crossword puzzle and trivia question. I told the students last week that whoever could answer the trivia question could come to me for a prize. The question was "What American city has the nickname 'the Big Apple'?" I figured most kids wouldn't bother to look for the answer, but a few kids figured it out, then they all told one another the answer. All day, I had students coming up to me going "Miriam, Miriam-New York!" I was worried that I would run out of the bigger prizes (pencils, stamps, baseball cards, foreign money) that I was saving for things like this, so this week I changed the rules, so only the first person from each grade to give me the answer gets a prize. For doing the crossword puzzle, the kids can get a sticker. 

Well, barely an hour after I put out the new edition today, guess who comes walking into the teachers' room with the answer? (the question was "what year did America declare its independence from England?"). TM, my favorite student, the boy from the speech contest. He got it right, and he looked so surprised, he was like "really?!" he looked really happy. He's so adorable!

I'm trying to link to an online PDF for the first time, so I hope it works. Here's a link to the first issue of The Miriam Times.

The Miriam Times, Issue 1

Calligraphy Class

Two weeks ago, I started taking a calligraphy class from a woman who I think might be the sister of my boss at the board of education, I'm not actually sure. Every Tuesday night, I will go to her calligraphy studio over the restaurant her son owns, and practice writing kanji. Right now I'm doing very simple, little kid stuff, because my kanji writing ability is atrocious. It's a lot harder than it looks, calligraphy. It's not just dragging the brush across the page. You have to have the right amount of ink, and hold the brush the right way (vertically, and kind of like you hold your first chopstick, as if you're holding an egg in the palm of your hand). The hardest part for me is sitting with my legs tucked under me for so long (in Japan it's called sitting in seiza, and it's very difficult for foreigners to do). But I'm really enjoying the class. The first day, I spent the whole two hours writing the character for "day" over and over. It looks like this: 日。Looks simple, right? Well, you have to pay attention to how you hold the brush, how much ink you have on the brush, where you bring the brush to a stop, versus just continuing the line, what angle the strokes make, and the proportions of the character. It's really hard! The whole time these elementary school students kept running by to show the teacher these complicated series of kanji they done perfectly. Like, ten year old kids. sigh...

Speech Contest

I have been preparing two third year students for the all-Shiso Junior High English Speech Contest since mid-September. The contest was Monday, and my kids placed first and second! I was so proud of them, they're amazing kids and they both worked so hard. The boy has a real natural ability and an ear for English, and the girl tries really hard, though her ability is not naturally as good. But actually in the judges' discussion room after the speech (I was one of the  judges) some of them were saying they thought her speech was actually better than his (the boy placed first, the girl second). The girl's speech was about a woman she met on a school trip to Okinawa, so she had to say the word "woman" a lot. She had a really hard time saying it, since there is no "wo" sound in Japanese, she kept saying "u-man." For weeks we worked on it, and then finally, last week, she got it, and could do it consistently. I was so happy, I actually almost started crying during speech practice. And she did it perfectly during the contest. 

Since it's pictures of my students, I've made a private album. But they're really good pictures, so please email or comment on this post with your email address and I'll send you the link. There are also some pictures of me with the third years during an English class in which we cooked Spanish custard. Worth checking out!

Hiroshima

This post has been a long time coming, sorry for the wait. 

A week and a half ago, I went to Hiroshima with a bunch of the ALTs (I've been referring to the JETs in my town as JETs, but technically we're all ALTs, Assistant Language Teachers. That's what we're called here) from Shiso. It was a long weekend, so we left earl Saturday morning and came back Monday night. It was a really interesting trip.

It was my first time leaving Hyogo prefecture since I came to Japan. Hiroshima is about an hour from Himeji by bullet train, so we took the bus one hour to Himeji, and then got the shinkansen to Hiroshima, which was really expensive, even for the non-reserved seating. The way it works is, you can buy a reserved seat, or, for less money, you can get a non-reserved seat. There are about three cars on the train that are open seating. The problem is, there are maybe 200 seats and 400 people with non-reserved tickets, so we ended up, not just standing, but standing squished up against the wall in the hall of the train by the door. Luckily it was only an hour. 

We were staying at a cheap hotel by the station, which turned out to be really nice, considering it cost the same as a hostel. Saturday afternoon there was a sake festival in Saijo, a town about half an hour from downtown Hiroshima, so everyone headed out there. I didn't want to spend the entire afternoon drinking sake, so I went by myself to the Museum of Contemporary Art and then met up with the group in the evening. The museum was up on a hill in this big park, so there were some really pretty views of the city. The museum itself was pretty unremarkable though.

When I was looking out at the city from up on the hill, it was impossible (really, the entire weekend it was impossible) to forget that I was looking at the city that had the first atomic bomb dropped on it during the war. But at the same time it was impossible to forget, it was impossible to imagine the devastation that the city underwent. Hiroshima is beautiful, much more harming than the other cities I've seen. There are trees and the huge peace park in the middle of the city. Hiroshima means "wide island," and the city is basically a series of "islands" set into the mainland, with rivers cutting it into segments. There are lots of bridges, and one in particular was the intended target of the bomb (it actually exploded several hundred meters away).

Saturday night Lana, Lee and I hung out in Saijo and then went back to the hotel. We had planned to meet up with everyone and go out, but it turned out out hotel had a midnight curfew, so we just hung out in the hotel. 

Sunday morning we split up again. Lara, Heke, Margaret and her friends (Margaret is a friend of Lara's and mine from Wash U, who is also JET and lives in Kyoto) went to Miyajima, an island near Hiroshima, and Lana, Lee and I went to the Peace Park. We spent the day wandering slowly through the park, looking at the monuments like the atomic bomb dome and the children's memorial, with the paper cranes, and the peace museum, which was fascinating but thoroughly depressing. It was all about the bombing, but the displays also dealt with the broader scope of the event, they had artifacts and documents, before and after dioramas. The thing that moved me the most was a wristwatch they had in a glass case, that had stopped at exactly 8:15 am when the bomb was dropped. Something about this image really struck me, the idea that the bomb was so powerful that it actually stopped time, and here we are, 60 years later, and that watch is still stuck in that moment. One second there was a city, the next second, there wasn't one. It really was like time stopped. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the visual image.

Sunday night we were all pretty bummed out, so we went out for karaoke to cheer ourselves up. Then on Monday, Lana, Lee and I went to Miyajima. It's one of the most famous tourist sights in Japan, we took a ferry there from Hiroshima. Miyajima is famous for Itsukushima shrine, the location of the famous floating torii gates. The island is beautiful, there are wild deer that wander around freely, and will literally come right up to you and eat the map out of your hand. The tide was out when we got there, so Lana and I were able to walk out under the torii gate, which is usually surrounded by water. We spent the entire day at Miyajima, and climbed the mountain (well, I took the cable car) to see the amazing views from the top. Again, I was struck by the inability to forget what happened in Hiroshima. I think being an American there, there's an overwhelming sense of guilt mixed in with the sadness and disbelief. It was very unsettling.

We got back to Hiroshima late and took the train to Himeji, where we caught the last bus back to Yamasaki, and arrived at 10:30 pm. It was exhausting, but it was a good trip. 

Hiroshima Pictures

International Festival

This weekend was the Shiso International Festival in Haga. The ALTs all helped out running an American booth selling hot dogs and puppy chow (snack food made of cereal coated in peanut butter, chocolate and sugar... yummy). Satomi, the teacher at the English school Lana and I worked at last month, helped us prepare all the ingredients and run the booth. We all drove to Haga at 8 am on Sunday (way too early for a weekend) and helped set up. There were performances from I think the Haga middle school band, and others. 

It was brutally hot, which is ridiculous considering it's almost November. We were racing around like crazy selling hot dogs at lunch time, we sold out of 300 hot dogs in about 15 minutes. Satomi, Lana and I had a little assembly line going, we were grabbing hot dogs and throwing them into buns. But overall it was a fun day.

That night, I went to dinner with Lara and my English teacher, Yanagita-sensei, and her husband and their two sons, ages 4 and 9. It turns out her husband is a teacher at Lara's school; I had no idea. Their family was hosting one of the teachers from Sequim, so they invited me and Lara along, probably as buffers. We went to this really nice restaurant owned by Mr. Yanagita's sister, and had a nice meal. There should be some pictures of that in the album (link below).

One of the coolest things, at the International Festival they had a room inside where you could try on a kimono, then they took your picture. Lara, Lana and I all tried them on. They're really heavy, and we weren't even wearing all the under-robes and things. It was pretty cool though, the kimono were really beautiful.

Pictures

Hiroshima Pictures

Hiroshima pictures are up! Sorry I'm too tired to write about it tonight, but I'll try to do it tomorrow. If you have specific questions, comment and I'll answer them in the post!

Hiroshima and Miyajima

Tsuta Elementary School

On Tuesday I had my first day teaching at an elementary school. I went to three classes, the 2nd, 4th and 6th grades. Its a very small school, and the biggest grade is 12 students. So it was perfect for an English class. I've found I prefer the smaller classes (and the younger kids) because they're much more conducive to interactive learning (and elementary students haven't grown an attitude yet). Not to hate on my Junior High students. I like most of them. It's just so much fun working with the little kids. I showed them pictures from my travels in Europe, and when they saw London's Tower Bridge, their jaws dropped and they were all chattering with a million questions, "wow, can cars really drive on that bridge?" "what happens when a boat goes by?" "REALLY!? The bridge goes UP!?" They're so enthusiastic, it was great.

I had heard from the other JETs that teaching in the elementary schools is different, because you're not teaching as an assistant to a Japanese English teacher, you actually plan and run the class. So I made lesson plans for all three grades, including games and vocab review and showing pictures to introduce myself. But when I got to the school, they handed me an already prepared lesson plan. Tsuta Elementary is one of the few elementary schools that actually has an English program in place, so they actually have a syllabus. So I was able to do a little of what I had planned (reading a book about the zoo to the 2nd graders), but not much else.  On the one had it made things easier for me. On the other hand, I'd have liked to try out some games and run a lesson on my own. Though I know I'm still learning how to do that. I'm going to be going to three elementary schools eventually, so at the others I think I'll have more freedom. 

Ponder this

There are a lot of bugs in the countryside. A LOT. And not normal bugs, weird bugs; big bugs, creepy bugs, bugs with seven legs. 

You know how when you drive, bugs hit your windshield? I don't have a car. I ride a bike, so my windshield is my face. Ponder that the next time you commute to work. 

Photo Gallery link

Now you can link directly to my photo page! I've added a link (look to the right of this post) so you can peruse my Picasa photo albums at your leisure. Enjoy!

More Miscellany

I added some pictures to my miscellany album. Check it out!

Miscellany

Miscellany

Here are some miscellaneous pictures that I stole from other people. Enjoy!

Miscellany

Somebody stop the crazy train

The second years are at it again (or still). ADHD boy, R, had a meltdown today. I was sitting in the teachers room when I heard him yelling in the hall, and then I saw the other teachers leading him into the teachers room. It took four male teachers to literally drag him into the room. He was really upset, he was hitting the teachers and yelling and kicking at things as they dragged him in. One of the teachers was holding his arms behind him, and the others were kind of surrounding him keeping him from lashing out. Apparently he was upset because he got in trouble for eating candy in class, but the girls do it all the time and get away with it. He doesn't seem to get the concept of using up all your strikes, because his behavior is always bad. Anyway, he was really acting up. They dragged him off down the hall after that, and I was kind of worried. I heard someone say something about a doctor and I had seen some guy in a white coat, so I was like, "woah, did they call someone to sedate him?" But I guess he was here to give the kids vaccinations of something, and it was just a coincidence.

This kid kind of rules the school. Every day fifty times a day I hear his name being mentioned by teachers, and he runs with this group of second year boys who are like the badasses of the school. But it's not like people look up to him and he's really popular (though I don't think he's unpopular), its just that the impact of his behavior (and the inability of his parents, and thus the school) to do anything about it, has a rippling effect through the entire school. Plus, he's violent, so he intimidates people.

AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Oh my god, I am at my wits end. There is no discipline in this school. It's like watching an episode of the dog whisperer, where Cesar Milan comes in and tells the owner that they have to impose regulations on the dog's behavior, because a misbehaving dog is an unhappy dog who lacks direction. The kids here have temper tantrums. TEMPER TANTRUMS. They're fourteen years old. It's exactly like the dogs acting out because they are given no direction for their energies. I went back to the second year classes today, after being kept away from them for nearly two weeks, because they were just to unruly. The school brought in a specialist, a judo instructor from another school, to work with the second years on discipline, so he was in our class yesterday and while we taught he disciplined, sort of. I think he was mostly getting a feel for the class. The were a little better behaved, at least for the first half of class. Then at some point, a boy from the other class was parading by on the balcony outside wearing a girls' uniform blazer and necktie, and of course no one could concentrate after that. I had to chase one girl out onto the balcony twice and bring her back to class, and physically restrain another boy (ADHD boy--I'll call him R) from leaving the room.

I'm fed up with the attitude of the second years, and I'm starting to develop a method for dealing with it, and disciplining them, at least in my classes. The problem is, there's no system of punishment in place at my school. To use the Dog Whisperer analogy again, its as if a dog does nine bad things, and then on the tenth bad thing the owner finally yells at it. The dog feels guilty for a bit, but doesn't understand the broader implications.  Then the dog does an eleventh bad thing, and the owner ignores it, and doesn't react again until the 20th thing. It's completely arbitrary, and there's no consistency. Of course the kids act up in class, they know they won't be punished for it. I know we're not allowed to send the kids out of the room. But I've been trying to test the waters on the idea of giving them detention. I've been reading up on classroom management online, and one of the suggestions was to have clearly outlined classroom rules, and if the kids break them, there is a swift, decisive and consistent punishment, and you make it clear to the kid it was their choice, because they knew what the rules were. I want to keep them for detentions when they're supposed to be in sports practice, the point being that they miss something they like, and their teammates are angry at them, thereby creating a disincentive to misbehave in class. But I have a feeling this idea won't fly with the administration. The kids probably have a right to be at practice. With so many rights taking precedence, it kind of makes me wonder where the right to a regulated and productive classroom education falls in the hierarchy. It seems to me, not very high. 

I know they told us not to take on the system and try and change things. But I feel like at least in my classes, I should be able to run things in the way that will best enable me to do my job, and teach the kids what I was hired, at great expense to my town, to teach them. Partly, too, its due to my complete inability to tolerate chaos. I can't work in that kind of environment, and I know the kids are not learning well that way. 

I've noticed a change in my attitude these last few days. Before, I felt like I was the inexperienced one, who had no idea what to do, and I was in awe of all the teachers who knew what they were doing. It's not that I feel like I'm more experienced now; I still have no idea how to teach. But now, looking at the other teachers, I feel a kind of incredulous anger. I know it comes from a culturally judgmental place, so I'm trying to keep it in check. But it just pisses me off so much how they refuse to discipline the students. I keep thinking "In America, this would never be allowed." Granted the American school system is far from perfect. But the students here have emotional issues that are much more immature, I feel, than the average American middle schooler, and because they are locked up in this school all day with no discipline, their immaturity and angst just kind of explode. Someone needs to check it, and NO ONE IS. Fine, if that's how the school wants to raise its students, I can live with that. But I want to be able to create the atmosphere in MY classes that I want, or else I can't do my job.