My first day of school

Well, today was my first day of work! I got up at just after 7, got dressed, made sure i had all of my stuff with me, and then took off work work. Because it was going to be warm and humid, i opted to walk instead of taking my bike. I got to work, and had my offical introduction to the staff. Then, it was off to my self introduction to the entire school. Holy cow, talk about nerve-wracking.

So I'm walking down this tunnel, sloping down, and i can see the students sitting down in extremely organized rows and columns. i walk in at the back with two others, and the gymnasium we walk into is about the size of the one at WHS, except full of students on the court. Then then stand up, and I walk in along the side, the vice-principle gives them orders to stand at attention, and i have to tell you, it scared me half to death to see 600 tweens go to military attention simotaneously. I then walked up onto stage, was introduced by the vice-principle, and was met by a chorus of "Ohayo Gozaimasu x 600". Then I was to give my introduction, in Japanese. Holding a mic. thats a dead giveaway that there's lots of people there. Ayiyi. I was jerky and nervous as all hell, but I got through it, gave a bow, and walked off stage.

Also, it's a big deal that I studied at Kansai Gaidai for some reason.

It's an even bigger deal that I'm left-handed. Eating or writing always elicits "Waaaa!! murmer murmer hidari (left) murmer murmer"


Then it was off to my first class. It was a `grade 2` (there are three grades for jr. high instead of doing the k-12 thing here). The students were pretty good and particularly Genki (energetic) for a Monday morning. I then went to a class with Kasuga-sensei, the head male teacher here. This 2nd class was for students who weren't quite as fast learners, but were not terrible by any means.

I still haven't gotten used to saying [hello] or [ohayo gozaimasu] or [konnichiwa] to every single person in the school that I pass, but being a big, white person in a colorful shirt will do that. :-p. My 3rd class was an optional one with Kasuga's exceptionally gifted @ english students, and it was really enjoyable. The class was just a free-speak class, but the students were remarkably engaging and Kasuga did a good job of asking questions to keep themn talking.

Next I went to a class with kawai-sensei, a 3rd level class. Kawai-sensei wants me to be doing a good amount of the teaching eventually, so today was pretty boring, as they had a ton of time to make up skits and present them.

Then it was lunchtime, and I got to eat with a class, a note i maybe didn't mention earlier, Japanese lunches are served by the students in homerooms, an interesting change from America.

I had a fun time relaxing and talking with the students at lunch, and got caught off guard as they thanked me for eating with them when I had a mouth-full of veggies. Blah.

I then attended a 2nd level class for some slow learning students, which was fairly interesting. I'm not sure if they're just misbehaved or have learning disabilities, but Omori-sensei did a magnificent job of keeping her patience and not wringing necks.

Then it was cleaning time, which was pretty darn interesting, as everyone, and i mean everyone, put on bandanna and got to work. And lemme tell you, these kids leave no stone unturned. Although it was a hoot seeing the older guys put on theirs, and resume working on their lesson plans as if nothing had changed.

I then spent the last couple of hours at school / after school reading one of my handbooks for Team-teaching on JET before heading off with Kasuga-sensei to city hall, as detailed in the next post.