Casting about for things to talk about today I will outline my day at school. Getting to school the first thing I had were both grade six classes (of about twenty students each) back to back. Both classes are very different but once everyone is broken up into smaller groups - a result of having six teachers per class - the students showed they were very capable with the material and didn't seem to mind being tricked into practicing English by playing snakes and ladders.
After recess, or "Asobi Jikan" (play time) as it more often called here, we had the grade fives. That class went extremely well but they are still at that age where they are impressed by teachers. That becomes more of a problem in later grades as teachers become distinctly less cool and more of an obstacle to slacking off (internationally speaking). We also had a fair amount of creativity built into the lesson as we were practicing "what I want to be when I grow up..." and the kids could pick anything they wanted. Teachers are sneaky eh.
Lastly, it was a combined class of forty-five grade ones. Normally this class is split - making everything more manageable - but with the time of year we are trying to make up classes. As a result, the casual observer would only see chaos. I actually looked forward to this class - especially as it was my last class of the day - because I didn't need to reserve any energy for the next class. Even with such fortitude I still felt exhausted by the end. I led the class in English chanting and then we sang a food vocabulary song. Asking the students to jump when we hit their favorite word, the teachers faced revolt over the fact that most kids had several favorites. A compromise was reached in that each could jump multiple times, whenever their favorite foods were called. The main activity was also interesting: Building on the preceeding food vocabulary, we played a chopstick relay where each student was asked to pick up certian foods without using their hands. The searching and scrambling for the right card was cute enough to even melt The Grinch's heart. A couple of times my grade ones would look over at me with a helpless look and it took great courage to send them back over to the pile to try again. This being Japan, the only using chopsticks to pick up paper was relatively easy. A truely diabolical teacher would make them use their left hands.
Leaving that class finished, a grade one asked me where I eat lunch, I told her I'm eating in the staff room today. She proceeded to beg me to eat with grade ones but I knew that was impossible. As I gently explained to her the reasons this isn't done, the homeroom teacher, overhearing this, invited me to eat lunch with them. Now was not the time to show exhaustion as conversation over school lunch ranged from bugs to wanting to eat curry rice everyday. Grade ones still don't have much of a recollection of the world at large. They listened enthralled - many pairs of bright eyes turned to me - as I explained that while I might live in Shikaoi, my parents live far far away, and yes, and my grandmas too. One of the smallest grade ones came close, a sort of perturbed look on his face, and tilting his head in a caring and thoughful way remarked that that must be lonely.
