Early back to the office

I have arrived early back to the office today from a meeting out at Urimaku Jr. High School. I met my two new teachers there. Actually, there are a lot of new faces at that school. The Board of Education received funding to continue their extensive English progam in the town. Two English teachers at a school of only 47 students is amazing. The younger teacher has been assigned teaching grade ten and the older teacher is teaching grades eleven and twelve. Both came from larger schools in Obihiro and commented with surprise that all students seemed to be very capiable English speakers. I think this is because in classes of fifteen or sixteen, even if a student wanted nothing at all to do with English, there is no place to hid and thus they learn, abet, reluctantly. They were surprised that I thought the students at Urimaku Chu Gakko seemed shy. Again, I think this is a fact of the small small class sizes. By this age a "coolness factor" starts to taint the students and it can be like pulling teeth somedays. (And they never want to silly English dances anymore either.) Still, the fresh grade sevens at this point still love English because elementary Enlgish is geared toward games, having fun, yelling, and in my class, chaos. I didn't actually get into the class room today because the Jr. High School is still in it's first week of school mode and I am sure has lots of house keeping type stuff to do. Hence back at the office early. A Shikaoi-soba lunch is in order!

Tomorrow; Urimaku Sho Gakko with rain.