Being an ALT has quickly gone from sitting around with little (if anything) to do during summer vacation to being slammed, staying overtime, and taking work home. The prefectural speech competition for first year students is coming up, so I've been helping prepare for that. The students and teacher supervisors have been staying until seven every day practicing, and I've been with them (voluntarily) about three or four days a week. I also helped out with test grading, which took me about an hour per 40 student class because I'm a newb. In order to meet the deadline, I had to take the last 80 home with me. Then there was the junior high lesson prep, complete with a new powerpoint. Powerpoints, by the way, always take longer than you think. Always.
I also got my sudden schedule switch on Monday. At lunch I found a note on my desk saying that I would teach the new lesson to a class that had been moved up from later in the week, "surprise surprise!" (that "surprise surprise," incidentally, was probably the only remaining thread supporting my slightly overtaxed sense of humor). Luckily, I had made extra copies for that lesson just for the heck of it.
So, all that was before Wednesday. Wednesday, I gave my junior high lessons and made the grave mistake of rewarding correct answers on the "quiz time" slides with stamps. These students went crazy. Totally berserk. One class chanted answers in unison, and in order to end it I had to give all 30 students stamps--and these were classes I didn't even think were listening! It turned out they were just discussing the powerpoint with their neighbors in Japanese while I presented in English. Then there were students who would read the slides aloud to themselves. Madness.
Wednesday was another stay-until-seven sort of ESS practice, this time working on pronunciation and intonation. I am looking forward to the end of the speech contest for the student's sake at this point--after a 2-3 hour practice, they go straight to cram school until 10 at night. Anyway, I thought Wednesday would be hump day not only for the week's duration, but also for my workload, especially because one of Thursday classes had been moved to Monday.
Nope! When I came in to work today, I was greeted by another schedule change note: one of the classes I had taught on Tuesday was having their next lesson FIRST PERIOD, in ten minutes. I made copies of lesson two and raced up, and then realized that I had already taught this lesson to this class. I was expected to teach the handout-heavy lesson three, which the other ALT and I wouldn't originally have to do until later next week!
Surprise first period, no one likes you and your parents think you are a mistake.
So, standing with the sensei in front of this class, I had to make up lesson four--which we were going to plan together and include on the midterm. The assignment off the top of my head that will now be the template for all lesson 4s: write train/bus directions to your favorite place in Ishikawa, read them aloud in pairs, and then present them to the class.
It would have been better with more than one minute of planning time. I think the next classes will get things like maps and bus routes, although it was pretty awesome to hear directions to Kenrokuen given from memory. The students wrote some really informative compositions, and I'm taking notes on their places and directions to use over my upcoming six day weekend.
It's good to be busy, and good to have to think on my feet. It's exhausting, but I feel like I might be starting to earn my keep.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
IOU Part 1: Cultural Festival
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: There will be times when I describe totally awesome stuff that the students do, and you will wonder why there are no pictures of students doing said totally awesome stuff. This is because posting images of my students--even in the background--to a public blog is not only creepy, but illegal. It's a rule I agree with wholeheartedly, and in order to share school events with people back home, I will always take pictures of where the event took place or things the students made. /PSA
The Komatsu High School Cultural Festival took place on the second day of the school's anniversary party. KHS is 111 years old as of August 30. One of the students reading the banner over the stage before a performance read 111週 (111th) as 川週 (river-th). The Japanese language is tailor made for puns and malapropisms, intentional or no. At the assembly, Drama Club, two homerooms, and even the baseball team performed skits. These were all in Japanese, and all involved crossdressing, which meant that when I eventually had class with these homerooms, rambunctuous and terminally cool boys would introduce themselves as Cinderella.
The singing went suprisingly well. The day before, I had introduced myself in English and Japanese before the school at the opening assembly, so they knew who I was. My two beribboned interrogators, the ESS emcees, had so much genki that I thought they would explode. They also had Japanese emcee humor (one is ridiculous and the other the straight man) down pat. I'm not sure how attentively the students were listening to the interview, because there was a chorus of "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh?" when we all burst into song. There was also waving in time with the music. The students did beautifully singing in English--they practiced every day so that they could hit the higher notes in the key we sang in. They even were practicing right before we got on stage. And that was when I realized that I am dealing with a small flock of perfectionists.
Speaking of perfectionism, the assembly included two movies by the broadcasting club. The first was made of vignettes of school life from the past year, with footage from sports events, concerts, classes, and practice sessions for the sports festival. It was set to music perfectly--it looked like each of the students filmed was doing whatever they were doing to the song played. At the end, they stopped the pop music suddenly and transitioned to the school song (which is, unlike my high school song, actually pretty) played with old pictures of students from 100 years ago. Honestly, if I were a graduating senior or a teacher about to retire or transfer, I would have cried.
The second video they played was a medley of commercials from each homeroom. During a Japanese cultural festival, each grade level has a theme--this year, first years did activities and the second years made food. Each room decided what theme they would have. For example, one room was a かきごり(shaved ice) stand with a bar theme, so all the students manning it wore slacks, white shirts, and ties and the room was lit by candles. Each homeroom worked with the broadcasting club to make a commercial for their activity or mini restaurant. Most of the commercials prominently featured the class clowns using very manly Japanese. Some of them had fight scenes or directly parodied commercials or scenes from dramas. All of them were hilarious. It ended with an outtakes reel of kids flubbing their lines, cracking up, or crashing into walls. In addition to all this, the broadcasting club made a miniature movie about the ghost of a girl who had been bullied. Their preview was something I would expect to see on TV. Komatsu Broadcasting Club is serious business, folks.
After the assembly, I managed to get my hands on a program for the cultural festival. Each group doing something for the festival had made a little picture advertising what they would do. They ranged from adorable (bunnies playing instruments for Brass Band) to intricate (a Chinese dragon for a fried rice stand). Expect these photographed and posted for your viewing pleasure soon!
The festival itself was fantastic. In addition to the homeroom events, each club did an event as well. I had my first tea ceremony with the Tea Ceremony Club and saw a display made by the Ikebana Club. ESS also did a "quiz rally," in which identifying the correct spelling of my name was a question you could answer for a prize. (The kids thought of that one on their own.) You had to buy tickets in advance for each kind of food you wanted, so there was often a ticket exchange as people changed their mind. I had curry flavored popcorn at an American-themed homeroom (pop music, Tom and Jerry, American flags, and a Statue of Liberty created this ambiance), visited the shaved ice bar, had bubble tea, and gazed longingly at the curry and naan stand, for which I had no ticket. There were pictures involved at almost every booth, at least on part of the students. Photos of me looking baffled and terrified now occupy the memory discs of many a KHS camera. I also tried my hand at fishing for rubber balls with a paper paddle, shooting candy with rubber bands, and not getting caught by a student who chased people through his homeroom's maze.
All in all, cultural festival was awesome.
The Komatsu High School Cultural Festival took place on the second day of the school's anniversary party. KHS is 111 years old as of August 30. One of the students reading the banner over the stage before a performance read 111週 (111th) as 川週 (river-th). The Japanese language is tailor made for puns and malapropisms, intentional or no. At the assembly, Drama Club, two homerooms, and even the baseball team performed skits. These were all in Japanese, and all involved crossdressing, which meant that when I eventually had class with these homerooms, rambunctuous and terminally cool boys would introduce themselves as Cinderella.
The singing went suprisingly well. The day before, I had introduced myself in English and Japanese before the school at the opening assembly, so they knew who I was. My two beribboned interrogators, the ESS emcees, had so much genki that I thought they would explode. They also had Japanese emcee humor (one is ridiculous and the other the straight man) down pat. I'm not sure how attentively the students were listening to the interview, because there was a chorus of "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh?" when we all burst into song. There was also waving in time with the music. The students did beautifully singing in English--they practiced every day so that they could hit the higher notes in the key we sang in. They even were practicing right before we got on stage. And that was when I realized that I am dealing with a small flock of perfectionists.
Speaking of perfectionism, the assembly included two movies by the broadcasting club. The first was made of vignettes of school life from the past year, with footage from sports events, concerts, classes, and practice sessions for the sports festival. It was set to music perfectly--it looked like each of the students filmed was doing whatever they were doing to the song played. At the end, they stopped the pop music suddenly and transitioned to the school song (which is, unlike my high school song, actually pretty) played with old pictures of students from 100 years ago. Honestly, if I were a graduating senior or a teacher about to retire or transfer, I would have cried.
The second video they played was a medley of commercials from each homeroom. During a Japanese cultural festival, each grade level has a theme--this year, first years did activities and the second years made food. Each room decided what theme they would have. For example, one room was a かきごり(shaved ice) stand with a bar theme, so all the students manning it wore slacks, white shirts, and ties and the room was lit by candles. Each homeroom worked with the broadcasting club to make a commercial for their activity or mini restaurant. Most of the commercials prominently featured the class clowns using very manly Japanese. Some of them had fight scenes or directly parodied commercials or scenes from dramas. All of them were hilarious. It ended with an outtakes reel of kids flubbing their lines, cracking up, or crashing into walls. In addition to all this, the broadcasting club made a miniature movie about the ghost of a girl who had been bullied. Their preview was something I would expect to see on TV. Komatsu Broadcasting Club is serious business, folks.
After the assembly, I managed to get my hands on a program for the cultural festival. Each group doing something for the festival had made a little picture advertising what they would do. They ranged from adorable (bunnies playing instruments for Brass Band) to intricate (a Chinese dragon for a fried rice stand). Expect these photographed and posted for your viewing pleasure soon!
The festival itself was fantastic. In addition to the homeroom events, each club did an event as well. I had my first tea ceremony with the Tea Ceremony Club and saw a display made by the Ikebana Club. ESS also did a "quiz rally," in which identifying the correct spelling of my name was a question you could answer for a prize. (The kids thought of that one on their own.) You had to buy tickets in advance for each kind of food you wanted, so there was often a ticket exchange as people changed their mind. I had curry flavored popcorn at an American-themed homeroom (pop music, Tom and Jerry, American flags, and a Statue of Liberty created this ambiance), visited the shaved ice bar, had bubble tea, and gazed longingly at the curry and naan stand, for which I had no ticket. There were pictures involved at almost every booth, at least on part of the students. Photos of me looking baffled and terrified now occupy the memory discs of many a KHS camera. I also tried my hand at fishing for rubber balls with a paper paddle, shooting candy with rubber bands, and not getting caught by a student who chased people through his homeroom's maze.
All in all, cultural festival was awesome.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
rainy day raincheck?
Where to even begin? I have to cover the Cultural Festival, Sports Day, and my first teaching, hijinks included. It's an undertaking that will require more energy than I have right now, because I definitely just stayed at school until 7pm working with the first years in ESS on their English speeches for an upcoming competition.
I haven't forgotten about you, I promise.
So, I would promise not to fall into the blog hole but in previous blogging experience, doing so is a one way ticket into said blog hole.
In the meantime, a taste of life in Ishikawa in September.
Late summer is typhoon season. It sounds scary, like hurricane season, and I'm sure in most of Japan, it means howling winds and torrential downpours. This had lead to national paranoia and exaggerated weather forecasts. At a teacher's meeting this morning, the principal was talking about whether or not school should be canceled due to the coming typhoon. I had heard whispers of it the day before, so I did the American thing last night and stocked up on food and batteries, surprised that no one else was doing the same. Hearing of a potential school closing made me all excited. Wind and rain! Power outages! Life at an eerily beautiful standstill!
Well, the typhoon hit in the afternoon. There was some rain and it was a little unpleasant out. The students didn't even notice because they were taking exams.
In Ishikawa, the default weather is rain. Rainfall here is triple the amount of rainfall in Seattle. Something about the Noto Peninsula soaks up typhoons like a sponge and evenly distributes the rain over the course of the year. There was no awesome storm.
On the bright side, I now have another kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) which will feed me for a week.
I haven't forgotten about you, I promise.
So, I would promise not to fall into the blog hole but in previous blogging experience, doing so is a one way ticket into said blog hole.
In the meantime, a taste of life in Ishikawa in September.
Late summer is typhoon season. It sounds scary, like hurricane season, and I'm sure in most of Japan, it means howling winds and torrential downpours. This had lead to national paranoia and exaggerated weather forecasts. At a teacher's meeting this morning, the principal was talking about whether or not school should be canceled due to the coming typhoon. I had heard whispers of it the day before, so I did the American thing last night and stocked up on food and batteries, surprised that no one else was doing the same. Hearing of a potential school closing made me all excited. Wind and rain! Power outages! Life at an eerily beautiful standstill!
Well, the typhoon hit in the afternoon. There was some rain and it was a little unpleasant out. The students didn't even notice because they were taking exams.
In Ishikawa, the default weather is rain. Rainfall here is triple the amount of rainfall in Seattle. Something about the Noto Peninsula soaks up typhoons like a sponge and evenly distributes the rain over the course of the year. There was no awesome storm.
On the bright side, I now have another kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) which will feed me for a week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)