Another First Day....

Five o'clock this morning, my bed calling me back pretty convincingly, I sleepily got ready to talk to my sister, Bambie.  It ended up being a really good conversation, and while I still felt really tired, I was more awake when the skype call ended than I had been when it started.  I took a deep breath, and began getting ready for school.

I left by seven-fifteen, this elementary school being the furthest away, and ended up arriving before seven forty-five, giving me a few minutes to talk to Nikki before she went in to work as well.  I glanced up at the school, appreciative that I had "preparation" time during the first two periods, not to mention my extreme earliness.  I walked into the building and saw a group of students standing in the entryway and said good morning (in Japanese, of course).  Later, a teacher told me that the kids said I was beautiful.

For second period, I took a tour of the school with the first and second graders.  The looked at me curiously but were very shy.  In the regular recess break between second and third period, I was introduced to the whole school.  The vice principal gave an introduction before me, and included a lot of my hobbies and other things that when I stood up, I really was not sure what I was suppose to say without looking silly for repeating what he had just said about me.  Apparently this school is very thorough.  

For fourth period, the three fifth year students came and got me from the teacher's room, one of them holding my hand the whole way up to the classroom.  I introduced myself to both the fifth and sixth years (there are so few of them that combined they only make twelve students).    After doing a little comparison between Japan and America, I had them all stand up so we could play a game.  We threw my little tiger around, as it was caught, the catcher said "my name is (____)" and as it was thrown he or she asked the next person "what's your name?"  It ended up being a lot of fun, and one of the teachers involved (the fifth grade sensei) told me that the lesson was fun =)

I ate lunch with the same class, and tried to ask and answer questions.  It was hard given how shy the students were.  Still, that did not stop from them engaging me after school.  Fifth period was spent with the sixth graders, and I only assisted for that class.  Sensei had the students each come up and ask me how I was doing, then had us all sit down and draw things that we like. After each student presented me with their pictures, telling me what they had drawn and asking me if I liked something (pineapple, cats, etc.), sensei bound them together and gave me it as a gift.  He kept the one I drew and hung it on the chalkboard.

Three o'clock, my quitting time, came and went.  I waited around for one of the English teachers to show back up so I could get my sheet signed, and so we could talk about next weeks lessons.  I was surprised this morning to discover that the one teacher who can speak English really well is the second grade teacher, not one of the English teachers.  Everyone at this school was super nice and I really enjoyed working with them.  It is going to be a fun year =)

I received an e-mail asking me to be in attendance at a meeting between Interac and the schools of Higashimatsushima.  All three of the other ALTs in my area were also asked to be there.  I guess Interac wants to talk to the schools about the scheduling and some other things.  I also received my schedule for tomorrow and discovered that I am suppose to be teaching for all six periods.  I have not been to this school yet (except the initial meeting of the staff) and it is the biggest school on my list.  If I remember right, it is something like two hundred sixty students, which is going to make it probably a little over, or right around, forty students per class since they are combining the classes into one for me (each grade is originally split into two classes).  Lots of firsts for tomorrow.  We shall see how it goes.

For now though, I am going to get ready for bed.  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.