School in Japan

I've Finally started! After a month of sitting around the board of education and staring at the wall, I'm officially a teacher. My first week was last week. On monday I went to konan (ko as in kobe bryant and nan as in the indian bread) middle school where I sat through an opening ceremony and gave a short speech in English. "hello, my name is Arthur Winer. I am from America. I dont speak Japanese, so please speak to me in English." Now, the I don't speak Japanese part is a bold faced lie, but both my supervisor and my fellow teachers (mostly) agree that I should at least pretend to only speak english so that the students will make an effort to speak to me in English. I am sure that if they knew i spoke decent Japanese, I would never get a question in English again. After that I basically sat around and went home early, as they had no use for me.
The second day, tuesday, was my first day of teaching and to commerate that historic day, I went to Shojima elementary school. Located a 4 min walk from my house, Shojima elementary is small, with only about 200-230 students. However, when I arrived, I was tasked with giving my self introduction to 3rd, 4td, 5th, and 6th grades. Man was it difficult t change the scale of the lesson according to how much english the students knew. But somehow I managed, and after my self intro I had them practice feelings. It is also a tradition to eat school lunch with the students, and upon entering the 4th grade classroom where I was to eat, I was served a meal of a disgusting egg miso soup, and some pretty good curry. It was a tiring but fun day all and all. The kids especially liked the english version of rocks, scissors, paper. In Japan, its called Janken, and its used to solve just about any dispute in school.
Wednesday was my first day at Konon junior high to officially teach. I again gave my self introduction, this time to 9th graders. Depending on the class, it was a smashing success or a total bust. On average, it was somewhere inbetween. As I mentioned in an earlier post, harmony is one of the most important social qualities to be had in Japan. This manifests itself in junior and senior high school as the students staying as quiet as they can in class, never raising their hand to be singled out in giving an answer. Instead, teachers usually lecture to the kids, who take notes, and then are tested on those notes later. Conversation and spontaneity are not encouraged so much so when I walk into the class and expect them to respond enthusiastically, I may be deluding myself. I have brought a ball to class to try to stimulate the kids and force them to talk, which works to some extent but not always. The opposite of this is the fact that some other classes are noisy and almost out of control. Students frequently talk or sleep, and some bad students even get up and leave class in the middle of it. This has to do with the lack of discipline in Japanese schools. As students are expected to promote harmony in their classes, teachers rarely discipline students themselves and instead try and let other students keep their classmates in check. However, most students just stay silent, conforming to the other social trend, thereby letting the bad kids do whatever they want. There is no system of disciple a la detention, and therefore all the teachers can do is yell at the kids which does no good. I've been told about one student who is only in 8th grade and is only 13 but he's already fought a student, frequently leaves class, talks, is noisy, etc. When the teachers put him in a room by himself to punish him unsupervised, he broke everything in the room. Apparently, when he reaches the age of 14, he can be sent to reform school, but until then, the teachers can only sit back and watch. Outside of class however the kids are friendlier, and more willing to try to talk. I suppose there is less pressure to make a mistake.
Thursday and friday, I traveled more than 30 minutes, including bike, train, and walk time, to Miyanojin (ME-YAN-NO-JEAN) junior high, my only other junior high. Located in the next town (also called miyanojim), across the river from kurume, the school is in a bunch of rice fields which is a nice contrast to my city school. There, the students are better and more attentive though they can still be noisy when they want to. That school is currently practicing for its sports day, when the entire school gets together and competes in both sporting events and dancing/cultural events. The entire school is split into 3 blocks, red, yellow, and blue, and the teams compete against each other. It was interesting watching a bunch of 7th, 8th, and 9th graders dance to techno-pop music. Ill try and get a video on here sometime soon.

So all in all, my first days of teaching have been fun if a bit frustrating. I am pretending not to speak Japanese at all in middle school which can be difficult if the students ask me something in Japanese and I understand it, or insult me somehow (this is rare). Ill keep trying to only speak english with them for a while, then maybe later ill tell them i speak the language. More to come.