End of the School Year

This past week was the last week of school before spring break and the start of the new school year in April. It’s been predictably free for me—ever since 3nensei students graduated on March 13 (leaving a gaping hole in the middle of my heart), I haven’t had much to do besides teach a few “fun” review classes for ichi and ninensei. So to fill up my time when I’m not looking up new recipes or planning my next trips, I’ve been going to other teachers’ classes to watch.

Today I went to an ichinensei Japanese class and a ninensei math class. Both of the teachers are fairly young and have adopted fun teaching practices that I haven’t seen much of in the older teachers. The Japanese teacher brought individual whiteboards and whiteboard markers for the students to use while we discussed grammar in groups, and the math teacher timed us to race to complete the math problems. We worked on dividing and multiplying fractions and doing 3-step problems with mixed numbers. For example:

1/2 + 3/4 ÷ (-2/3)

(It’s -5/8, by the way.)

I missed five out of 40 problem, which I guess isn’t too bad considering I haven’t studied this stuff in 15 years. I was also happy to hear the math teacher say two things I really didn’t expect: 1) It doesn’t matter how you solve the problem, as long as you get to the right answer; and 2) Math isn’t about memorizing; it’s about thinking. Somehow in my head I thought Japanese education was all about playing by the rules and going by the book, so it was pleasantly surprising to see how wrong I was. I still think Japanese teachers work too much – being at school from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. every day is just a little extreme – but it’s good to know that they’re still passionate about helping kids learn.

By the way, they’ve made the announcements for next year’s leaving and staying teachers. The three English teachers I work with now are all staying, but my favorite, the kind, helpful head of the English Department who has been here since I first started in August 2010, will leave. The librarian, a first-year math teacher, two of the disciplinarian heads, and the sexy gym teacher who just started last year, are also all leaving. I wonder who will come take their places . . . even though, in the long run, these changes don’t affect me too much personally, although they do affect the ALT who will come after me. After turning 30 on August 2^nd, I’ll be returning to the U.S. for good to start all over again.

Or at least until another traveling bug hits me.