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.