Today is Monday, but I've got the day off in exchange for working the school's culture festival on Saturday. My school is unusual in that it actually had three separate days of activities because the 7th, 8th, and 9th graders are kept separated at all times to avoid behavior problems. On all three days though, there was an opening ceremony, followed by a class chorus competition (Each class sings two songs, one of which is the same for all classes, and one of their choice; they are judged upon their performances--my YouTube channel has a clip of students singing "Country Roads".) In the afternoon, a few students read essays or put on a short play. Then the teachers perform a comedy skit for the students, after which the bass brand plays and the closing ceremony takes place. Then, we teachers go out in the evening to eat and drink in celebration of having pulled it all off without having had to strangle anyone!
Now that the culture festival is finished and the sports day is a month past, things are supposed to settle into a more routine schedule. Hopefully, this means I'll have a predictable pattern of classes and will get to know the students a bit better...
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
A Busy Weekend
This weekend was fairly busy and mostly entertaining. Hiro, a former exchange student came to visit us on Friday evening, and we spent all day Saturday at a small festival celebrating the bloom of thousands of Cosmos flowers on a hillside at a nearby park. There was a bit of food and entertainment provided--you can see a couple of the Japanese Taiko drumming performances on my YouTube channel--rodgottula.
On Sunday, we went to an Indian festival and ate loads of good curry, nan and tandoori chicken. There was Indian music and dancing, and a huge flea market surrounding the park as well. Because East Indian culture is not very well known in Montana, it was a great opportunity for the kids to see some stuff they'd never seen.
Finally, Monday was a national holiday here, so we went to a little festival put on by the design university just up the hill located behind our apartment complex. They, too, had tons of food booths and lots of arts and crafts activities for the kids as well as live music and a Power Rangers skit to entertain the kids. We spent about three hours there before going to Harborland to meet some relatives, who happened to be in town, for dinner. So, all in all, a pretty busy weekend.
On Sunday, we went to an Indian festival and ate loads of good curry, nan and tandoori chicken. There was Indian music and dancing, and a huge flea market surrounding the park as well. Because East Indian culture is not very well known in Montana, it was a great opportunity for the kids to see some stuff they'd never seen.
Finally, Monday was a national holiday here, so we went to a little festival put on by the design university just up the hill located behind our apartment complex. They, too, had tons of food booths and lots of arts and crafts activities for the kids as well as live music and a Power Rangers skit to entertain the kids. We spent about three hours there before going to Harborland to meet some relatives, who happened to be in town, for dinner. So, all in all, a pretty busy weekend.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
A Good Sports Festival
Finally--a good sports festival day! The weather was beautiful: sunny, about 75 degrees with a slight breeze. My son's elementary school had everything well organized, from reserving sections for parents behind each grade level (so they could easily watch their child interact) to ensuring that no group of kids was sitting for more than about 45 minutes. They had lots of different activities for the kids, like camel fights, various sorts of silly races, and human pyramids--all designed to maximize cooperation between students within, and across, grade levels. They also opened up a small gate between the athletic grounds and the park adjacent to them, so that students and their parents could enjoy picnic lunches on the grassy hillside. They even had the parents involved, competing against each other in a tug of war, after lunch. For me, personally, it was nice to witness and participate in a fun, well organized event that was actually focused more on "enjoyment" than on one's ability to endure extreme weather or long periods of boredom. And, finally, the dog days of summer are over, which makes everything a bit easier to appreciate and enjoy...
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Back from the Noto
Well, it's Wednesday morning here and I'm back from my trip to the Noto Peninsula. It was nice to visit rural Japan again and see old friends. The trip did me good in that it helped me to remember that Kobe isn't all there is to Japan, thank god. Monday was tough, though.
Despite catching an earlier than usual subway, we were still packed in like sardines--and because it wasn't particularly hot, the air con was on very low, if at all. I can't imagine spending 20 or 30 years of my life traveling to and from work this way. At any rate, school was okay, but I feel under utilized in most class settings. It's not uncommon for 90% of a class to be taught in Japanese or for half of the students in class to be sleeping. In the after-lunch class on Monday, it was actually more like 3/4 of the students with their heads down. Having lived in Japan before and taught at an agricultural high school, I wasn't under the naive impression that all Japanese students diligently study in a well disciplined, highly rigorous setting, but I wasn't quite prepared for this either. It's still early for me, though, and perhaps things will improve in the classroom, or perhaps I'll play a more integral role, but like I said in an earlier post--I'm the assistant, and they've never had one of us stay for more than a year, so it's hard to create buy in. But I'll keep trying.
Despite catching an earlier than usual subway, we were still packed in like sardines--and because it wasn't particularly hot, the air con was on very low, if at all. I can't imagine spending 20 or 30 years of my life traveling to and from work this way. At any rate, school was okay, but I feel under utilized in most class settings. It's not uncommon for 90% of a class to be taught in Japanese or for half of the students in class to be sleeping. In the after-lunch class on Monday, it was actually more like 3/4 of the students with their heads down. Having lived in Japan before and taught at an agricultural high school, I wasn't under the naive impression that all Japanese students diligently study in a well disciplined, highly rigorous setting, but I wasn't quite prepared for this either. It's still early for me, though, and perhaps things will improve in the classroom, or perhaps I'll play a more integral role, but like I said in an earlier post--I'm the assistant, and they've never had one of us stay for more than a year, so it's hard to create buy in. But I'll keep trying.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Sports Day
Well, yesterday was my junior high's sports day, and the students did well. They really came together when it counted and gave their best effort to form their human pyramids and dance routines. Unfortunately, there was a huge downpour that cancelled the last half of the afternoon session and left me and the other teachers slugging around it mud puddles and wet sand trying to get everything back in order.
My daughter's preschool sports day was today, and the weather cooperated, but as I said before, so much about Japan has to do with enduring monotony. We stood around for four hours to watch her participate in about 10-15 minutes worth of activities. Worse, still, the poor kids sat still in their chairs waiting for their turn. I suppose it's a bit like a track meet or wrestling meet--lots of sitting and little action. At any rate, it's done and over with, so I should stop complaining now...
My daughter's preschool sports day was today, and the weather cooperated, but as I said before, so much about Japan has to do with enduring monotony. We stood around for four hours to watch her participate in about 10-15 minutes worth of activities. Worse, still, the poor kids sat still in their chairs waiting for their turn. I suppose it's a bit like a track meet or wrestling meet--lots of sitting and little action. At any rate, it's done and over with, so I should stop complaining now...
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Sports Day Preparations
So, like I said yesterday, the Sports Festival is at least as much misery as fun. Today, I spent the first four and a half hours of the day with students sitting under the hot sun while small groups of various students were called out and lead through the routine of how things would go once the big day actually arrives. I wore sunscreen and a hat, but the students weren't even allowed to use their towels to cover their heads or laps to protect from sunburn, which most of them were quite obviously getting as time wore on. Again, the whole event is meant to teach camaraderie and endurance, so they were cheerfully encouraged and sometimes scolded, but for "the second worst school" in the city, I thought they did a pretty good job of taking it all in stride. As for me, I stayed inside after lunch and read my book.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Hot & Muggy Sports Festivals
Despite the fact that we're midway through September, the weather here continues to be hot and muggy. Some days it seems like living here is nothing more than some kind of an endurance test in redundancy and discomfort, and that I'm really just some unassuming foreign schmuck on a low-budget reality TV show called "Let's Gaman Together".
My school and thousands of others across the country are preparing for their Sports Festivals. In fact, it wouldn't be considered very festive in many places on Earth, but given the daily drudgery that kids here have to endure, it seems like a nice tangent, I suppose. Some of the activities seem more like rudimentary military training than fun. For example, the boys have to strip down to their gym shorts, get on their hands and knees, and form pyramids in the dirt (no grass fields for schools here). It's meant to build camaraderie and endurance, and maybe it does, since people flock to watch them do it. Personally, it seems more like an ongoing form of hazing from one generation to the next. Hopefully, the day of the actual festival will be more enjoyable than training for it.
My school and thousands of others across the country are preparing for their Sports Festivals. In fact, it wouldn't be considered very festive in many places on Earth, but given the daily drudgery that kids here have to endure, it seems like a nice tangent, I suppose. Some of the activities seem more like rudimentary military training than fun. For example, the boys have to strip down to their gym shorts, get on their hands and knees, and form pyramids in the dirt (no grass fields for schools here). It's meant to build camaraderie and endurance, and maybe it does, since people flock to watch them do it. Personally, it seems more like an ongoing form of hazing from one generation to the next. Hopefully, the day of the actual festival will be more enjoyable than training for it.
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