Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Solo teaching day two - Makami

Today was Makami school.

Different school, different teachers, slightly different approach to teaching. I taught 6 periods today (i.e. every period). They gave me a schedule. I will be teaching every period when I am at Makami, except on days when school finishes early for what I think are something like parent-teacher interviews, of which there are about 5. It was full on. 6 lessons in a day is tiring! Year 6, I ran pretty much the same lesson plan as yesterday, except I was asked to get the students to introduce themselves to me, with a "My name is ... I like ..." This went well for the most part, although one girl was in tears before we even got to her.

Year 5 was a completely different show. The English Leader had the lesson all planned out, so I just had to run with it, with some minor adaptations as we went.

Now when I close my eyes, I see Japanese children dancing, jumping and shouting. In the past two days, I would have taught something like 30 x 11 = 330 different children. They are, for the most part, super enthusiastic, and, unfortunately seem to expect me to remember them!

Teaching a class as a Westerner in Japan is quite something. I imagine it's a little like a rock star. They are so excited to see me, they all run up and want to touch me. Many of them came up to me and told me their names, and wanted to shake hands (before class). At one point, a girl came up behind me and was playing with my hair. After class, they say good-bye, and then as I leave, they keep shouting good-bye after me, and other various things that I mostly don't understand. Exhausting, but it feels kinda special.

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