Thursday, April 16, 2009
Counting My Delicious Eggs (No Chickens Yet)
There's a Japanese song I like called 幸せのものさし (Shiawase no monosashi). It was the opening theme song to a TV show Mako got hooked on last year about three women around 40 years old who were all dealing with personal issues in their rather different lives. I don't understand most of the lyrics but the chorus is in English (kinda!) and I think it's a genuinely positive statement: "Count what you have now / Don't count what you don't have / Find out you have so much."
The fact that this song came up on my iPod this morning during random play (and while it was playing, a complete stranger approached me on the street and shook my hand) reminded me that things are going really well for me around here. Often, I feel overwhelmed when I "count what I don't have," and I'm not just talking about material crap like a new PC or more video games. I get nervous when I think about the baby because I don't have any experience with infants, I feel unimportant when I show up for work and there's nothing for me to do, and all week I've been anxious because I had no confidence in this semester's unusual teaching arrangements.
Throughout last year, we started each semester with a meeting of teachers from all the schools in Hana Town and talked about the English lesson plans. In theory, this was so the other teachers would be familiar enough with the plans to actually teach the classes, allowing me to assume my designated role as "assistant language teacher." Of course, no matter how many meetings we had and speeches were given, I always ended up teaching the classes myself at the other schools.
In this new school year, things have gotten off to a rather different start. No attempt to gather the teachers to discuss English has been made. Instead, the idea is that each school will develop their own plans (possibly using the new English textbooks the Japanese government has come up with) and thus empower the teachers to run the classes as they should be doing. For me, this meant showing up for work this week without any idea of what would be in store for me. I had no teaching materials or outlines, I simply had to show up and discover what each school had in mind for me.
Having been here for almost two years now, I looked at this plan with extreme skepticism. I have had issues with being an "assistant teacher" who is forced to drag homeroom teachers in front of their own students, but over time I got used to the burden of being in charge of the classroom. My anxiety about stepping up and trying to control 20-30 children at a time was offset by the fact that I had a grasp of the material and was familiar with the goals of the lesson. Under the new plan, I would be going in blind, forced to rely on others to provide me with direction.
As I have often lamented on this blog, the teachers I work with are not the most reliable people in the world. English classes in elementary school are far and away the lowest priority activity the children have on their busy schedules, (certainly ranked below keeping the school clean or even jumping rope) so I have become accustomed to canceled classes, surprise schedule overhauls and just all-around disinterest. Asking a coworker to prepare flash cards or give the children a homework assignment is a crap shoot; there's always a chance I'll come in the next week and find my request was forgotten (or ignored).
On Monday, I arrived at a very small school (19 students now, down from 27 last year) to learn that Yes, they wanted me to teach but No, they did not have lesson plans or materials prepared. I wish I could say I was surprised or even disappointed, but I can't. They did, at least, have a vague request that I help the children learn how to do the daily announcements in English. Using their extremely rough draft, I was able to spent most of our class time reviewing the days of the week and months of the year. We also included a generous portion of time to making new name tags, which was of great help in filling 45 minutes.
Tuesday I went to my largest school (over 300 students) and discovered a similarly irritating good news/bad news situation. They had a lesson plan in mind, some of which they showed me the week before, offering me an unheard-of level of preparedness. However, they had not heeded any of my requests for materials or information, so I was left hanging once again. Still, the teacher in charge of English planning for that school was surprisingly free, so between the two of us we were able to discuss ideas and get some of the stuff I wanted in time for class. The rest was left to me and my (ever-growing) talent for taking nothing and turning it into something. Those improv sessions at CTY just keep paying dividends in my adult life.
I knew I had classes to teach on Wednesday (62 students) but again I arrived at work without knowing what the school wanted me to do. As I could have guessed, they didn't know what they wanted yet. However, thanks to a marathon flash card session last summer I had an abundance of teaching materials at my disposal, so I simply adopted the plans of Tuesday's school to Wednesday's school and went to work. It all went pretty smoothly, especially since the classes are smaller and therefore less rowdy.
There was some real magic that took place yesterday when things didn't go so smoothly, something I never could have anticipated. Despite working with two different teachers to set up a laptop with a projector, I couldn't get any images on the big screen once class began. I tried to get it working again but after a few minutes (which felt like an eternity), the homeroom teacher leapt into action and proposed playing a game with the students instead. She came up with the game on her own, explained the rules to the students and set the entire thing into motion. All I had to do was agree and respond when the students talked to me. It was incredible.
Why was a teacher suddenly taking charge of English class for once? Because she had spent the previous year working at the good school, the one where they had been making the English plans for the entire district, more or less. She spent all of last year leading her own English class with the help of a native speaker to assist her, exactly the way this system is supposed to work. She had also never been a teacher prior to last year, which means her entire elementary school career was shaped by that experience. I had mistakenly assumed that once she left that school, she would fall in line with the other teachers and let me take charge. Instead, she all but shoved me aside to keep the class on track. I've never been so happy to be so wrong.
So here I sit at my Thursday school (151 students) with no classes at all, feeling pretty good about this week so far. Each day I came to work with only a vague notion of what might happen and while each school found ways to disappoint me, I still managed to teach all my classes anyway. Rather than add up all that went wrong, I'm happy to "count what I do have" and feel proud of what went right. Maybe their plan to put the burden of lesson creation on the individual schools was the right idea...or maybe it will all come crashing down next week. Either way I'm not going to worry about it anymore because yesterday's success and this morning's musical coincidence have put me in a good mood. That, and it's almost the weekend, and I hate worrying on weekends.
The fact that this song came up on my iPod this morning during random play (and while it was playing, a complete stranger approached me on the street and shook my hand) reminded me that things are going really well for me around here. Often, I feel overwhelmed when I "count what I don't have," and I'm not just talking about material crap like a new PC or more video games. I get nervous when I think about the baby because I don't have any experience with infants, I feel unimportant when I show up for work and there's nothing for me to do, and all week I've been anxious because I had no confidence in this semester's unusual teaching arrangements.
Throughout last year, we started each semester with a meeting of teachers from all the schools in Hana Town and talked about the English lesson plans. In theory, this was so the other teachers would be familiar enough with the plans to actually teach the classes, allowing me to assume my designated role as "assistant language teacher." Of course, no matter how many meetings we had and speeches were given, I always ended up teaching the classes myself at the other schools.
In this new school year, things have gotten off to a rather different start. No attempt to gather the teachers to discuss English has been made. Instead, the idea is that each school will develop their own plans (possibly using the new English textbooks the Japanese government has come up with) and thus empower the teachers to run the classes as they should be doing. For me, this meant showing up for work this week without any idea of what would be in store for me. I had no teaching materials or outlines, I simply had to show up and discover what each school had in mind for me.
Having been here for almost two years now, I looked at this plan with extreme skepticism. I have had issues with being an "assistant teacher" who is forced to drag homeroom teachers in front of their own students, but over time I got used to the burden of being in charge of the classroom. My anxiety about stepping up and trying to control 20-30 children at a time was offset by the fact that I had a grasp of the material and was familiar with the goals of the lesson. Under the new plan, I would be going in blind, forced to rely on others to provide me with direction.
As I have often lamented on this blog, the teachers I work with are not the most reliable people in the world. English classes in elementary school are far and away the lowest priority activity the children have on their busy schedules, (certainly ranked below keeping the school clean or even jumping rope) so I have become accustomed to canceled classes, surprise schedule overhauls and just all-around disinterest. Asking a coworker to prepare flash cards or give the children a homework assignment is a crap shoot; there's always a chance I'll come in the next week and find my request was forgotten (or ignored).
On Monday, I arrived at a very small school (19 students now, down from 27 last year) to learn that Yes, they wanted me to teach but No, they did not have lesson plans or materials prepared. I wish I could say I was surprised or even disappointed, but I can't. They did, at least, have a vague request that I help the children learn how to do the daily announcements in English. Using their extremely rough draft, I was able to spent most of our class time reviewing the days of the week and months of the year. We also included a generous portion of time to making new name tags, which was of great help in filling 45 minutes.
Tuesday I went to my largest school (over 300 students) and discovered a similarly irritating good news/bad news situation. They had a lesson plan in mind, some of which they showed me the week before, offering me an unheard-of level of preparedness. However, they had not heeded any of my requests for materials or information, so I was left hanging once again. Still, the teacher in charge of English planning for that school was surprisingly free, so between the two of us we were able to discuss ideas and get some of the stuff I wanted in time for class. The rest was left to me and my (ever-growing) talent for taking nothing and turning it into something. Those improv sessions at CTY just keep paying dividends in my adult life.
I knew I had classes to teach on Wednesday (62 students) but again I arrived at work without knowing what the school wanted me to do. As I could have guessed, they didn't know what they wanted yet. However, thanks to a marathon flash card session last summer I had an abundance of teaching materials at my disposal, so I simply adopted the plans of Tuesday's school to Wednesday's school and went to work. It all went pretty smoothly, especially since the classes are smaller and therefore less rowdy.
There was some real magic that took place yesterday when things didn't go so smoothly, something I never could have anticipated. Despite working with two different teachers to set up a laptop with a projector, I couldn't get any images on the big screen once class began. I tried to get it working again but after a few minutes (which felt like an eternity), the homeroom teacher leapt into action and proposed playing a game with the students instead. She came up with the game on her own, explained the rules to the students and set the entire thing into motion. All I had to do was agree and respond when the students talked to me. It was incredible.
Why was a teacher suddenly taking charge of English class for once? Because she had spent the previous year working at the good school, the one where they had been making the English plans for the entire district, more or less. She spent all of last year leading her own English class with the help of a native speaker to assist her, exactly the way this system is supposed to work. She had also never been a teacher prior to last year, which means her entire elementary school career was shaped by that experience. I had mistakenly assumed that once she left that school, she would fall in line with the other teachers and let me take charge. Instead, she all but shoved me aside to keep the class on track. I've never been so happy to be so wrong.
So here I sit at my Thursday school (151 students) with no classes at all, feeling pretty good about this week so far. Each day I came to work with only a vague notion of what might happen and while each school found ways to disappoint me, I still managed to teach all my classes anyway. Rather than add up all that went wrong, I'm happy to "count what I do have" and feel proud of what went right. Maybe their plan to put the burden of lesson creation on the individual schools was the right idea...or maybe it will all come crashing down next week. Either way I'm not going to worry about it anymore because yesterday's success and this morning's musical coincidence have put me in a good mood. That, and it's almost the weekend, and I hate worrying on weekends.
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The start of the semester is the worst part. Once my routine is established with lessons plans, materials, and a regular schedule, I feel like a real teacher as opposed to someone who just hangs around elementary schools all day.
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