three down, many more to go

After three weeks of teaching here I feel like I've been adequately exposed to the general routine of the teachers and students at my four schools. Although every school is different, some things are similar throughout my experiences up until now. One thing that I am noticing in particular is how teachers react to/deal with discipline issues. I was clued in to the behavior of my students by my predecessor and was not surprised to come across some apathetic classes but I was a bit thrown off by how the JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English) handle frequent classroom disruptions. Basically, most don't have a handle on these types of problems. It seems that in the classes with the "bad" kids, the teachers have almost totally given up on any kind of formal instruction during class. As I was walking with a JTE to my last class of the day, she told me, among other things of the sort, "I really hope they don't hate you."

Well, I didn't get to teach my lesson from start to finish in this class but my interactions with the students made our time together a success. I walked in and a few students asked me questions right off the bat and conversation continued until the end of the period. They had a genuine interest in knowing some things about me and I focused a few of the topics on what I had already planned to say as well. I could imagine that some teachers would hate having to deal with these guys all the time but my JTE and I took it all with a laugh. I was told that a sense of humor would be important with this job and I think that will hold true as long as I am teaching here. (side note: I think it's funny that these kids are the 'toughguys' but then you ask them what their favorite bands are and they say Backstreet Boys or Beyonce. And they're not being sarcastic.)

Each class is an adventure for they are all so very different. But I would guess that's true for teaching in general, not just in Japan. So far I'm very happy with the progress that I've made with the High School kids at Naruto Tech. Every day will not be easy but it's anything but dull.