My CIP, teaching at a middle school, was quite enjoyable. \u00a0I happened to be lucky: out of the three who taught at the middle school, I had the least amount of canceled classes, so I got to see the students more. I taught 9th grade mostly, as 8th grade was cancelled almost all the time. \u00a0I recently switched to a different 9th grade class, which made me a bit sad (I was almost finished remembering their names!!), but I really like my new class as well. I also got to teach the third 9th grade class, so I’ve seen them all at this point. \u00a0I’ve never taught in an officially before; I was always the girl who you’d ask for help on home work in high school. But, I always enjoyed that, and I’ve enjoyed this as well.<\/p>\n
One of the many interesting aspects about teaching at a Japanese middle school was that I got to see how English is taught as a second language in a language I am trying to learn.\u00a0 For example, we just learned the grammar pattern for \u201clanguage I am trying to learn,\u201d or \u201cnoun modifying sentence that comes directly after.\u201d\u00a0 In Japanese, it is the opposite, but from the student\u2019s perspective the English phrase is written the other way around.\u00a0 (I couldn\u2019t begin to count the number of times I said \u53cd\u5bfe while I helping them.) \u00a0They would often rearrange phrases to make a grammatically correct sentence (something I personally never did while learning a language).\u00a0 For example, this past week a question would have \u201cI like,\u201d \u201cthe season,\u201d \u201csummer,\u201d and \u201cis\u201d and they would have to put it in the right order.\u00a0 (This is harder than it seems. As I was walking around helping them, I noticed that almost every student put \u201cSummer I like is the season.\u201d) \u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s also nice that I can explain some in Japanese as well, which usually earns me a \u300c\u65e5\u672c\u8a9e\u3046\u307e\u3044\u306d\u300d or some variation.<\/p>\n
Another thing that they do is using games as part of the learning process.\u00a0 I never thought I would play \u201crock, paper, scissors\u201d against a class of middle school students.\u00a0 If they won, they could ask me a question and get a point for their team.\u00a0 I discovered that I am \u300c\u3058\u3083\u3093\u3051\u3093\u3001\u5f37\u3044\uff01\u300d that day.\u00a0 They did things like that all the time.\u00a0 It was interesting and a bit strange to be able to understand the teacher in Japanese explaining English grammar.\u00a0 I could really sympathize with the students, being in a similar, though reversed, situation.<\/p>\n
I found it really interesting seeing a Japanese middle school from the inside.\u00a0 I have heard many scary things about the intensity of the Japanese school system.\u00a0 This one was surprisingly laid back.\u00a0 The students all talked through class, for example, or even slept on occasion with no one bothering to wake them up.\u00a0 They were also very rowdy and talked rather casually with the teachers.\u00a0 They also use some kind of reward system.\u00a0 A winning team or the first ten people to finish a crossword would get to make another step on their world map.\u00a0 I only got gold stars and the like until about 4th<\/sup> grade or earlier, but they still do things like that in 9th<\/sup> grade.\u00a0 Another difference was that the teachers moved from room to room instead of the students.\u00a0 This nicely avoided \u201ctraffic jams,\u201d but the teacher did forget his marker on occasion.\u00a0 They also ate lunch in the classrooms where it was brought to them and changed in them after gym. (I walked in twice by accident, and twice a boy was just wearing underwear in the back. And no, I have no idea what that was about, but he got clothed quickly while the teacher ignored him.) \u00a0They cleaned the school themselves. There were always a few students with brooms around that would say “Hello” to me or bow.<\/p>\n It was much less formal and less strict than I thought it would be.\u00a0 They are really friendly students, always making jokes. \u00a0I somehow developed a joke with the boy who is always changing in the back. \u00a0It’s a nice example of how laid-back they classes can be. (It’s all in English except the first two lines)<\/p>\n N: “Who do we like in Fahrenheit?”<\/p>\n Together: (while pointing fingers at each other) “JIRO!”<\/p>\n Mr. Ueno: “So, you like a man?”<\/p>\n N: “Yes, I like a man.”<\/p>\n Mr. Ueno: “You like men?”<\/p>\n N: “No no no, I like women!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Once they know that I can speak Japanese and if I speak informally with them, they respond in kind, which was nice for talking to them. \u00a0I have some great memories from this experience: playing janken with everyone, the “Jiro” joke, and the time I did a Kamehameha wave with them to name a few. \u00a0It makes me happy that I can keep on observing all this and that I can teach again next semester! \u00a0I believe I’ll have another school next semester, my host brother’s. \u00a0I kind of hope I get his class!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My CIP, teaching at a middle school, was quite enjoyable. \u00a0I happened to be lucky: out of the three who taught … \u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080