2 October 2011
Settling In
Posted by Roland under: JET .
I guess you could put a full month of school work in the books now. October is here and with it has come some cooler temperatures. It’s been a gradual descent into fall. There was a week of chilly temperatures (I had to pull out the futon blankets) but things have leveled off into cooler than super hot summer, but not quite jacket time winter. I’m still waiting for the real fall to come (the leaves haven’t even changed color yet), although there are newly sprouted flowers in the area that I’ve heard only come out in the first week of fall.
I’m getting into a happy little rut with the work schedule. While still getting used to the bouncing from elementary to middle four days out of the week, it’s not as tiring as it was in the first few weeks. It is quite a shame I don’t get to play with the kids during recess, especially since some of them have apparently gathered enough courage to ask me to play with them. This is mainly because I have to get back to the middle school in time for their recess so I can help the kids there with the English speech contest (although to my dismay, they don’t always show up). Once the contest is over though, I’ll make an effort to stay a bit longer at the elementary schools (and try not to turn into a sweaty mess for when I do get to the middle school).
For the middle school classes and my 5th/6th grade classes at the elementary schools, I pretty much follow what the books prescribe, which make lesson planning quite a breeze (that is to say, there is almost nothing on my part I have to prepare). If anything, I’ve taken to noting down what I’ve worked with the kids at each elementary (each elementary has a notebook just for them) so I know what to expect at each school. But that’s a difficulty just in having so many schools to work with, not with any actual planning.
Some of the elementary schools have wanted me to start working with the 1st-4th graders. English is not required for them by the Japanese educational system so there’s no set plan for them. Also to make things a bit more difficult, the class sessions are usually 10-15 minutes, so I can’t go ahead with a fully fledged lesson plan. I have to make up my own plans, but in reality, they’re just English games if anything. Not that I expected to go in head first with the younger kids and teach them English grammar, but the shortened class period adds another wrinkle to my plans. If anything, this will be the most troublesome part of the next few months (although maybe the most fun, as the younger kids all have infectious energy).
Outside of school, I’m slowly making a name for myself in the neighborhood. They’ve asked me to participate in the neighborhood festival (which my predecessor did) so that can only increase my neighborhood fame. There’s nothing I’m participating on a set basis so far in terms of activities, but I’m still shopping around and trying to meet as many people as I can. There’s a difficulty in that in that I don’t live in the “big” city of Hondo. My area of Ariake is all families that disappear to home after hours, so there’s little chance for me to just run into people or observe something interesting going on. I could always drive over to Hondo, but most days I find myself just relaxing at home and trying (usually failing) to get to bed early. I believe there are fun opportunities to be had, but I just need the proper introductions. I guess just like consulting, it’s all about network. Use the people I do know to get my name out there and see what happens.