Slow times at Nichu

(Note: This will be a lengthy post, because I had a total of zero classes today. The students were busy writing standardized tests. So, I spent the bulk of my day sitting at my desk while sipping coffee. Mahja - I'll sit down and write a proper blog of the fam's visit, soon! I have notes lying around somewhere of our itinerary).

Every week, my English team-teaching time table is neatly placed at the bottom left-hand corner of my desk. M-sensei invites me to join certain classes with the stroke of a yellow highlighter. At the bottom of each day's lineup, I’m also assigned to eat lunch with a different homeroom.

I usually have at least 17-20 classes per week. What does that mean? In 50-minute spots, I accompany my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) to their classes. I usually do the greetings: “Good morning, everybody! Good morning, Gemma-sensei. How are you today? I’m fine, thank you. And you? I’m fine, thanks. You may sit down.” With M-sensei, I usually spent the rest of the class just standing and looking pretty. Sometimes, I get to help distribute papers. At times, I get to do some model readings – that is, “Please repeat after me.” My forte is playing the Criss-Cross game – it’s the consistent responsibility of mine at the start of her classes.

With my other JTE, I do the opening and closing greetings as well. I’m also given the opportunity to do model readings every class. Plus, I get to choose the students who go up to the board. I used to be really good at names, so I could call on students with ease. There’s 278 kids at Nichu, so I was pretty proud of myself that I memorized 93.5% of their names in my first couple of months here.

This week, I was looking at one kid and kept calling him “Masahiko.” He didn’t reply, so I tried “Abe-kun!” Fortunately, that’s his last name. But the students giggled, because I don’t usually use the “-kun” suffix. (Japanese add “-kun” for boys’ names and “-chan” for girls’ names).

Anyways, the school year is coming to a close. The third-years are busy with high school interviews and entrance exams. Their graduation is scheduled for mid-March. With such hectic endeavours, that means the lone ALT doesn’t get to be the foreign mascot in various classes. So, I’ve had a lot of time to think at my desk in the staff room.

I've focused on the frustrations that I’ve faced here. People don’t tell me about changes to the school schedule – but I expected that. Everyone’s really nice to me in the teacher’s room, but I haven’t developed any bonds because I don’t speak Japanese.

I’ve also realized that appearances trump reality here. I have an “ALT test” tomorrow. My board of education bosses are coming to observe my teaching skills. I am NEVER the lead teacher, so this will be interesting when I get to run the entire 1-3 class tomorrow. We had a “practice” run teaching my 1-4 class yesterday. My JTEs said that the BoE isn’t really evaluating me, but it’s mostly to keep up appearances and make sure I’m sort of doing a job. (They invest a lot of money into ALTs).

But with all this boredom, little nuggets of greatness have helped enhance my school experience. My other JTE has realized that I can bang out decent worksheets in good time. I noticed that he’s letting me contribute with worksheets and original skits.

I’m also enjoying my time with the kids. The second-year girls are the most talkative. They like telling me about their secret boyfriends and crushes. It’s fun when I’m able to guess exactly who is it that they like. “What homeroom? What club activity does he play after school? How tall is he?.... OH!!! I know who it is.” With their limited English abilities, their questions are pretty funny. “What is your blood type?” (Apparently, all Japanese girls know theirs). “Do you love ~~-sensei? Do you love ~~-sensei? Do you love Mogi-kun?” Oh, silly girls.

They’re also super helpful. When I don’t know the schedule, I ask them. And I had one of the girls read out some class lists for me, and translate the kanji. Good times. Now, I know the names of all third-year students, because little Akane went through dozens of names with me.