The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Wow, that's two days on the trot, check me out! If nobody else is going to big you up, don't be shy about bigging yourself up, that's my motto. Today was a spilt school day. I was at Ogata JHS until midday and then went to Kakizaki ES in the afternoon. Ogata was good. I'm new to the school and the kids only see me once a week, so they are quite shy, but they are coming around slowly. Two of my three classes are great and they really try, but the other class has a couple of bad apples in it, so that affects the other apples / students in the class. I'm working on it though. If I can find a bit of common ground with the rebels in the class then at least they might shut up when I tell them to, well that there's the theory...
Today's classes were about the "present progressive," or "...ing words," as I called them until last week. "What are you doing?" "I'm cooking / playing video games / listening to music," etc. Lots of miming and jumping about like an idiot a la elementary school, but it got the point across - even the bad apples learnt the grammar point, so maybe they aren't all that bad.
Lunch was udon noodles in a meat sauce, which I wolfed down. It was certainly one of the few Japanese meals that I've had where I could positively identify 100% of what I was putting in my mouth. A day to remember, I think you'll agree. Post lunch is always a bit of a circus, as ten minutes of manic teeth brushing ensues. Kids and teachers alike brush their teeth next to long trough-like sinks in the corridors. Watching people trying to talk to eachother during this is hilarious, as they resort to grunting and gesturing.
I have been replying to some letters that my JHS 2nd graders wrote to me last week. It's great practice for them as they can write about whatever they like and not just the grammar that we're trying to teach them. The letters are really sweet and the students seem to have taken a long time writing them, pictures and all.
On to Kakizaki for English Challenge Club. These kids are really good for their age. We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar today. Thanks to the Japanese katakana syllabary the kids can sound out English words, even if they can't understand what they are saying. The star of the class has to be little Moto. I was handing out the books at the start of the class and while the other students all said "thank you" as I handed them the book, Moto pipes up with "Japanese okaki!!" which is what they call the rice workers. He shouts that out at least ten times in each class. I'd love to know what happens to him as he gets older - there's no doubt he is switched on, but he's just completely mental.
Well, no rest for the wicked - I'm off to teach my adult conversation class.
Best,
Colin.

Elementary my dear Wat-san.

Happy new year. I've figured that little and often is the game, so rather than writing a review of the last 5 months, which I'm sure you would only read this first two paragraphs of, I will tell you about what I did today. What a novel concept that is!
So, today was an elementary school day. I go to three elementary schools in total. One day a week I go to either Hari or Miyajima (they alternate week by week) and I also teach the "English Challenge Club" at Kakizaki elementary school. Hari and Miyajima are right on my door step, but Kakizaki is about 40 minutes away, right next to the sea. The difference in weather is incredible. Hari has about 2.5m of snow, but Kakizaki barely has more than a few centimetres. While we're on the subject of schools, my base school is Itakura Junior High School, which I visit 3 or 4 days a week, and I also teach once a week at Ogata Junior High School, but only until April, which is the end of the school year.
Well, that paragraph told you nothing about what I did today except that I was at Hari ES. Sorry. I'll move onto the meat of this yarn now. At ES I generally teach 3 or 4 classes per day, either 1st grade to 3rd grade or 4th grade to 6th grade depending on the week. First graders are about 5 or 6 years old and 5th graders are about 10 or 11. I had the little'uns today. If you're in the right frame of mind, ES can be the most fun you'll have all week. The wee ones are genuinely excited to see you, and it's just a case of maintaining that excitement and not boring them with flashcards of fruit names. If you can do that, it's great, you leave school at 4pm thinking that you're rock star! The ES classroom is the place where you can forget that you are a grown-up. There is no room for inhibitions. You really have to get down to their level and mess about and be a kid. English-speaking kids that are 5 and 6 will lose interest in you in 10 seconds if you are boring; with kids who don't speak English I reckon you have about 3 or 4 seconds on a good day! Yes, jumping around like an idiot is how I spend my time at Elementary School... The kids are completely adorable, and you can't leave the class without 10 of them trying to climb on you or pull you in different directions.
Anyway, today... After 10 minutes reviewing the vocabulary that they have learnt over the last few weeks, I taught them how to tell the time and how to say "what time is it?" This, natuarally, was conveyed through the meduim of "what's the time Mr Colin?" more commonly known as "what's the time Mr Wolf?" Imagine how afraid/excited you would be if you're 5 years old and the biggest person you've ever seen in your life is chasing after you shouting "dinner time!!" in a language you don't understand. The game went down a storm, so much so that at lunch time I played it with all three classes together in the gym hall, much to the bemusement of the other teachers!
I have some of my best Japanese conversations with my ES kids. The teachers prefer us to only speak English at JHS, but that's not an option at ES. However, the ES kids assume you understand Japanese, as they've never met someone who doesn't. They rattle away at you at 100mph and then tilt their heads to one side when you look back at them blankly.
Monday and Tuesday this week involved the Niigata JET midyear conference up in Niigata City. The Monday morning drive to Kasagayama station in Joetsu had the most hazardous driving conditions I have ever seen. With the snow being blown off the ricefields and across the road, we had zero visibility in parts and just had to stop the car and wait for it to pass. Anyway, the conference... All the English teachers from across the prefecture get together to bang there heads together about various teaching-related topics. It was pretty useful all in all, and it was nice to get up to the big city for a couple of days.
Well, that's all for now. I'm going to do some prep for my visit to Ogata JHS tomorrow.
Best,
Colin.