Here is something I wrote 2 weeks ago while I was at school:
"It is 10:20am and we just finished "Marathon Time" here at Arihata Elementary School. Everyday students and teachers gather in the gym and run for 20 minutes straight. It's a bit odd, but fun, too. This is the only one of my schools that has a mandatory, school-wide, exercising activity.
Right now there are 5 teachers, including me, 2 secretaries, the principal, and the assistant principal sitting at our metal desks on our old, squeaky, metal chairs. A small stove at the front of the room is the sole source of heat for the small office. The hallways are always freezing cold, so I am wearing leggings and an an undershirt underneath my pants and shirt.
A man in a black uniform with glasses sits at the giant, polished picnic table in the middle of the room. His bangs are long, so he tends to tilt his head up to see through all of his hair. I don't know who he is, but he comes to all of my schools, sits with a notebook in his lap whilst drinking the tea that the secretary prepares him, and then leaves 15 minutes later. I think he is some kind of salesperson.
One of the secretaries just gave me おみやげ. Omiyage are gifts, almost always snacks or sweets, that one brings back for the whole office after traveling on the weekend. I think the people at this school were gypsies in another life, based on the number of おみやげ I get each week. This time it looks like some kind of apple cracker...
Yup, that's exactly what it is. And it is delicious. Tastes a little more like a cookie, though. It's really good. The bell rang so all of the teachers went to class and now it's just one of the secretaries and me. I really like teaching at this school because students are well-behaved and seem to enjoy the classes. I always dread coming here, though, because the faculty usually only give me one class to teach. That means I sit at my desk for 2, sometimes 3, hours without a computer and with nothing to do. Usually I end up studying Japanese or reading. Today I have 2 classes. It is the first time since October that I have had more than one class at this school. Usually I have 3 classes a day at my other schools, which is a great balance between teaching and lesson-planning.
This is what Arihata's teacher office looks like:
"It is 10:20am and we just finished "Marathon Time" here at Arihata Elementary School. Everyday students and teachers gather in the gym and run for 20 minutes straight. It's a bit odd, but fun, too. This is the only one of my schools that has a mandatory, school-wide, exercising activity.
Right now there are 5 teachers, including me, 2 secretaries, the principal, and the assistant principal sitting at our metal desks on our old, squeaky, metal chairs. A small stove at the front of the room is the sole source of heat for the small office. The hallways are always freezing cold, so I am wearing leggings and an an undershirt underneath my pants and shirt.
A man in a black uniform with glasses sits at the giant, polished picnic table in the middle of the room. His bangs are long, so he tends to tilt his head up to see through all of his hair. I don't know who he is, but he comes to all of my schools, sits with a notebook in his lap whilst drinking the tea that the secretary prepares him, and then leaves 15 minutes later. I think he is some kind of salesperson.
One of the secretaries just gave me おみやげ. Omiyage are gifts, almost always snacks or sweets, that one brings back for the whole office after traveling on the weekend. I think the people at this school were gypsies in another life, based on the number of おみやげ I get each week. This time it looks like some kind of apple cracker...
Yup, that's exactly what it is. And it is delicious. Tastes a little more like a cookie, though. It's really good. The bell rang so all of the teachers went to class and now it's just one of the secretaries and me. I really like teaching at this school because students are well-behaved and seem to enjoy the classes. I always dread coming here, though, because the faculty usually only give me one class to teach. That means I sit at my desk for 2, sometimes 3, hours without a computer and with nothing to do. Usually I end up studying Japanese or reading. Today I have 2 classes. It is the first time since October that I have had more than one class at this school. Usually I have 3 classes a day at my other schools, which is a great balance between teaching and lesson-planning.
This is what Arihata's teacher office looks like:
Now that I think about it, this looks quite different than my school office in elementary school. So countryside, much Japan.
It's time for my 6th grade lesson. Today we are filling out worksheets about which country we want to go to, what we want to eat and see there, and a sample itinerary. We're studying in the computer room so that the students can explore countries online, print off cool pictures, and paste them to their worksheets. The idea is to get them excited about traveling and therefore excited about English and just learning in general.
Ta-ta for now!
It's time for my 6th grade lesson. Today we are filling out worksheets about which country we want to go to, what we want to eat and see there, and a sample itinerary. We're studying in the computer room so that the students can explore countries online, print off cool pictures, and paste them to their worksheets. The idea is to get them excited about traveling and therefore excited about English and just learning in general.
Ta-ta for now!