I've made a few posts over the months complaining about how horrid the kids at a certain school can be. Well, they haven't improved, but I feel that in the interests of fairness, I have to write a little about how wonderful the kids at other schools can be.
I have three schools where all classes are are consistently good to excellent, one school that has one class out of 6 that is difficult/out-of-control, with the others being good to excellent, and of course, one school that has three out of five classes being difficult/out-of-control.
I admit unashamedly that I have my favourite classes. I have some consistently excellent classes at most schools, and today I had a lesson with what would be my altogether favourite class.
If I get them to sing, they will raise the roof. If I get them to dance, I will end up exhausted from keeping up with them. In team games, they really get behind each other, and cheer each other on. There's a girl with Down's Syndrome in the class; she's incredibly happy and friendly, and she has several friends always around to look after her, play with her, and make sure she doesn't touch anything she shouldn't. The girls who look after her seem to really enjoy being around her, it's not a chore. They are always happy to see me arrive, and make me feel welcome. On days when I've been at the school but they didn't get an English lesson, they constantly pestered their teacher as to why. I've had an open lesson for parents with this class, and it went like a dream, and Mum and Dave also sat in on a lesson with this class (a deliberate choice of class). I could go on, but I hope you get the idea, the kids are incredible.
Today one of the activities that we did was to draw up a poster with three things they like, which they will use to do a simple self-introduction presentation next lesson. I was wandering around, looking at how they were going, ready to help them with the necessary English if they needed one of their favourite things translated, when I saw a girl with a picture of chocolate. My "demo" poster also had a picture of chocolate. Ayano's picture had I bite taken out of it, so I said (in English), that she was eating my chocolate. She told me, no, it was hers. I asked if I could have some, and she said no. I cried (melodramatically) a bit, she still said no, and I walked of sniffling to much amusement.
A few minutes later, Ayano called me back over, and showed me another picture she had drawn. It showed two girls, one with straight hair and labelled Ayano, holding chocolate, another, with curly hair and labelled Lucy, had a crossed out chocolate. Just in case I had trouble understanding, Ayano explained that it meant that she gets chocolate, and I don't. I cried some more, and went to the classroom teacher for a reassuring hug. By this time, half the class was in stitches.
At the end of every lesson, the children fill out an evaluation form (furikaeri), basically asking a) if it was fun (indicated by circling a face), b) if they listened to the teacher and their peers, and were able to express themselves well and participate (also done by circling a face) , and c) describe something they learnt, or provide a comment. Today's furikaeri for that class were incredible. Every single one was rated at least Excellent. By that, I mean that there are 3 options, Excellent, Good or Poor, but two children had drawn in smiley faces way to the left of Excellent. I've had kids in that class do that before, but never at any other school (well, I have, but that was on the other side of poor...). Also, in the comment field on a certain girl's sheet was Lucy no choco o Ayano ga tabeta - Ayayo ate Lucy's chocolate.
So yes, I love those kids. I love the fact that I can relax and have fun with them, without any risk of them getting out of control. (Kudos to an excellent homeroom teacher too who manages to run the classroom on what seems to be mostly love, as I've never seen her cross, but she always has control, despite the kids being really energetic. However, I believe these kids would still be good with a less talented teacher). Also, because we have so much fun in our classes, they learn really well. For them, English is a treat to be looked forward to, and with a little bit of repeating, and a lot of directed games and activities, they pick up words and phrases without putting much/any conscious effort into it.
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