Meet the Class!

Hi! Well seeing I am here to teach, I may as well show you that I do actually go to work!

This is my 1-7 class. They are the first year senior high students, so the equivalent to year 9 (14-15 years old). There are about 40 to 45 students in each class, but they are so easy to control. They are not posing for this photo, they actually work! Other English teachers in the area complain about how their students use hair straighteners, make phone calls and do their makeup in class... The only thing my students get told off for is for wearing too baggy socks.

My students are great. They go from being completely studious to crazy. I don't know what the dude in the top left corner is doing. Maybe the fun stuff was too much for him and he wanted me to set him more homework.... So more about my job... I teach 12 periods each week. The periods run for a standard 50 minutes each. I teach 8 first year classes and 4 second year classes.

I am basically a tape recorder for the first year classes, reading dialog and listening practice questions from a textbook. Lesson topics include things like Superstitions, Pets and Hobbies. I sometimes alter the lessons so they are slightly bearable for both the students and myself. Tomorrow one of my classes is acting out a play from the book, and the winning team will win a cool prize! Some of the classes have some crazy students. In a second year class, one boy wrote up a comic of Snoopy, calling him "Fooooooool!" and "Hard Gay" (Hard Gay is some popular character made up by the crazy Japanese people). I was going to read the story out to the class, but it ended up in a cat and mouse chase as he was embarrassed and ran after me to get it back.

This is my school. The first picture shows the little courtyard that the students sit at during the Summer and eat their lunch. The second photo is of the pool. It is covered now because it is getting really cold. The waterpolo team trains there everyday, morning and afternoon. So that means the students are at school from about 6.30am until 7pm or so. Poor things!!!!! The third photo is of some silo thing. It's a huge eyesore and it's getting all rusty. The last photo is of the teacher's building. My staffroom is on the second floor. Construction was going on at the time in order to prepare the building for an earthquake. Apparently Gifu is 20 years overdue for a huge earthquake or something, and the Japanese are a very prepared bunch!

Today a group of students from St. George's school had their first day at Ogaki Higashi HS as an exchange group. They're a cool bunch of people and they seemed extremely tired today. The first period we had an opening ceremony for them, and I translated for the MC. The following period we had a tour of the school. I even saw things that I had not yet seen in three months! Later in the afternoon we went to the City Hall and paid a visit to the Mayor. We were served green tea and listened to Kasai (my supervisor) interpret what the Mayor was saying. It was a lot of talking about landmarks and Japanese culture. The blonde girl in the middle is Silvia, she is an exchange student from Slovakia. She moved to Japan 7 months ago and has another 3 remaining. Her English and Japanese is amazing, and she is a really sweet girl. I will miss her when she leaves!