Exchange Week

(A rather long blog to make up for a month of nothing)

Last week was exchange week. Every term (and there are 3 in each school year here) the BOE I work for has the ALT's who are able to, swap schools and therefore jobs for a week. It wasn't the first time I've done this, but it will be the last....and what a week it was.

By now we all kind of moan and groan when exchange week comes. It's not because it's not fun with the new kids in the new school, but because we have to talk about ourselves for the better part of an hour 4-6 times a day. I don't think I personally know a soul who wouldn't get tired of that after a couple of times. It's just tedious. The trick to exchange week however, is if you get a small school (similar to Shinji) you can get past the self-introductions in the first couple of days and then get to work with the other teachers and students on relevant material...not how tall luke is or the names of his family members.

The last several exchange weeks I've been assigned to schools all smaller than mine. And with Shinji's 280 students...thats really nice. Mihonoseki, Yakumo, Yatsuka are all schools I've visited. They are also very much like Shinji in that they're out beyond the city limits of Matsue, but still within the school district. The students who go to these schools usually have parents and grandparents who are working a blue collared job of some sort. In my personal opinion, these small town kids are more polite, kind and cause alot less trouble than those in the bigger cities. (but I am biased)

Sometimes, exchange week is almost like being in Japan for the first time again. The teachers and students are eager to get to know you. There's a hundred different questions about your likes, dislikes, relationaship status, political affiliations (asked mostly by principals and vice-principals), regional climate in your home state, et-cetera. The special needs students are almost always excited to see someone new, that's particularly refreshing and there are the kids ostracized for their interest in a foreign language who are always fun to talk to.

This time I was assigned to Kashima-chu where my good friend jenny has been for the past 3 years. And after a week in the school I can understand why she stayed as long as she did. Very similar to Shinji-chu its a but smaller. An added benefit of visiting Kashima this particular time is that the students and staff were moved to a newly constructed school building in April.....and it is nice. Shinji-chu is 50 some odd years old and apparently the old Kashima was a hair older than that. (I also learned that Shinji is in line for a new junior high within the next 5 years.)

In general building facades aren't are that well kept up in this part of the country. (I would dare say the country all together) Schools, offices, apartment buildings ...anything really. I remember it being one of the first the first things I noticed upon moving here. Everything looked much older than it was solely because of the rust stains, salt deposits, chipped paint or myriad of other factors that will mar a building's exterior. I wonder sometimes if they save all that much money on not keeping up the building's exterior or if American society (in the broadest generality) is just that concerned with outward appearances .

Speaking of building and buildings. I couldn't help to be reminded of my time in Richmond, Virginia last week. Newly constructed and finished structured have a smell. And that smell lingers. The paint, the wood and almost all the finishes contribute to that "smell". Especially the flooring. So if they're reading this blog, Hello Tom, Sheila, Beth and Sam. Yall are still in my thoughts.


Back to exchange week. Jenny gets to visit one of three elementary schools once a week just as I get to visit the kindergartens. This means that I got to spend last Thursday at Etomo-shogakko with a slew of 6-10 year olds...and that's a whole different ballgame. Since I don't regularly visit elementaries, I get a little nervous when asked to. And almost every time, in every class the time races by. There's just so much going on. Kids running around, asking questions. The lessons regularly involve some sort of physical action...like touching something, dancing, running around. Organized chaos, at least for me it seems as such.

I spent two consecutive periods and a lunch with the 5th graders, a happy bunch of kids who were pretty well behaved which I think is wholly due to the their teacher. A very nice lady. After my short self-intro with these students we spent the rest of time working on nine feelings and their meaning in english. To the best of my knowledge,phonics (therefore reading) and grammar aren't allowed to be taught in elementary schools. So until students reach junior high school, they identify pictures, colors, the alphabet and memorize simple sentences. It does seem a little backward to me and I could write a whole thesis on this subject alone, but the truth is I don't know all that much about it.

Common in the arsenal of an ALT when teaching vocabulary is BINGO. As you can see here we students picked the word that matched my spoken word and then mocked action. A third teacher showed up halfway through the second hour with this class and tried to do an activity which made little sense to me or the kids.....but that also happens. Anywho, after all that, I got to eat with the kids. In addition to trying to hide their chopsticks and playing "paper,rock,scissors" from across the room, I gave one of the girls my camera to take pictures. After assuring her it was ok, she went nuts and we spent the rest of lunch goofing around.


Then there was Ai. An eight year old girl with down syndrome. During a break between classes and giving a gaggle of youngsters high fives I saw Ai-chan and her teacher coming in from a walk. I don't know why...but I was immediately intrigued. So after lunch and all my assigned classes for the day I went looking for her class room. Like the schools in the states (or at least Lubbock when I was younger), the special needs students have their own class rooms. When I got there Ai was having her teeth brushed by her two teachers. She was looking into a small mirror as they slowly brushed around her slightly crooked teeth. Everything was slow about the process which makes me think maybe they were teaching her how to do this simple task.

After finishing and putting all the toothbrushing materials away, Ai went immediately to an X on the floor that was made of black electricians tape. She reached over her hand over her head and there, about two inches above her hand just out of reach was a tambourine tied to a string hanging from the ceiling. After instruction from her teachers she jumped, barely getting her feet off the ground and touched the tambourine to make it jingle a little. This simple exercise brought such a smile and pride to her face. My heart could only swell. She looked at me as if she just completed the most important task in her life. And then she did it 2-3 more times, with the same reaction to each jump.

Then, with a little coaxing from her teachers, she went and grabbed a box from a shelf in the room and we played a game together. The game itself was a plastic barrel with notches slit into the side. We took turns sticking small plastic pieces into those slots hoping not to trigger the spring that would pop out a small figurine. Each time she did so, she would spread out her arms just as if making a call at first base. "SAFE"
We played that a couple of times, then the bell rang and another class began for her.

I left and my time at that school was deemed enough for the day.

The time spent at Jenny's junior high was great. The students were good. The teachers she works with even better, but that single hour I spent with Ai at the elementary stands out over everything else that happeed that week.


I know what my mom is thinking at this very moment. We even talked about it when she was visiting back in April, and I have thought and continue thinking about possibly pursuing special education when I go back to school in a year+. I imagine working with special needs children would be an amazingly rewarding occupation. But I could also see it being just as frustrating and heart breaking. Right now I'm only working with these kids on the average of an hour a week. A full time job where I'd work with these type kids, day in and out is hard to imagine. The teachers I've met here who do live that life leave me speechless. It's utterly amazing how big their hearts are and how much patience they have. Completely Inspiring.