Japan

In response to Janie’s question, except for calligraphy, the students use mechanical pencils to write with for the most part.  I took a picture of the contents of someone’s pencil case.

As you can see, they use pretty much the same things our students use.  However, our students like to use the erasers on the top of the pencils.  The Japanese students use a large eraser which does a better job of erasing.

The Japanese write right to left and top to bottom for paragraphs but do math left to right as we do.  Math has always been considered a universal language.   I could totally understand what was being taught in math class even if the teacher was speaking Japanese.

These are bullets.  Notice the dots at the top of the line.  This class was taking notes written on the chalkboard.

The principal (kojo-sensei) of Hiroshima Municipal Yasunishi Elementary School reminds me so much of my own principal, Mrs. Stokes.  Kojo-sensei greeted every child as they entered the school grounds.  She knows them by name.  She made her rounds through the school visiting classrooms and looking at student work.  No one was anxious or nervous at this since it is part of the regular routine.  It was obvious from the hugs she gave and received that she cares about these children and they greet her warmly.  Since principals and teachers alike are only at a school for a maximum of 10 years, they might not know their students from kindergarten on and must work quickly to establish that type of rapport.  Kojo-sensei rolled out the red carpet for us and had the teachers do special things.  We are all carrying back to the United States a very favorable view of this school and the education system.  I know that Mrs. Stokes would do something similar if we had traveling dignitaries visit our school.  It has been a great honor to be a JFMF teacher participant.  We are the last group of teachers to go through with this program.  It was also a great honor to be selected to come to Hiroshima.  What a fabulous city.

I love autumn.  Am so glad I was able to come during this season.  The leaves are beginning to change and soon it will be gorgeous.  I hope my host family takes me somewhere outside which is photogenic.  Am looking forward to that visit but don’t want to wish my time away.  It is flying past me.  If you want to know more about autumn colors, visit http://www.maine.gov/doc/foliage/kids/index.html.  Be sure to watch the animated video.  I love this site.  My students may send me a comment.  First one to correctly tell me what xanthophyll, carotene, and anthocyanin are, and the chemical/physical process involved, will get a gift from Japan.  Janie already has earned one for solving the math problems.

There are two skills teachers in Japan must have, in addition to being able to teach just about any subject.  They need to play the piano and swim.  Each school has a pool and it is the teacher’s responsibility to teach the kids to swim.  They also teach them music.  We participated in music class in first grade.  The teacher played the piano the whole time.  She played a specific song to get them to sit down so she could explain the next activity.  It reminded me of my teachers when I was a kid.  They all played the piano.  We had music in our classrooms all the time.  I’m grateful that we have any at all, but feel we need more music in our schools.  The principal even plays songs on the loudspeaker during recess.  Of course, the whole school is out on the playground at the same time.  It’s a huge playground.  Lots of equipment.

Teachers cannot leave before 5:10 pm.  They have team meetings on Friday to share lesson plans.  Each day after school they help out with a club such as science, sports, music, culture.  They are very busy.  Many of our teachers work as late as this, or later.  However, we can take our work home with us if necessary.  At least I can do laundry while working at the computer.

They do not have computers in the classrooms.  I find this amazing since Japan is so high tech.  Never saw anyone with a cell phone, but I know they all have them–teachers and students alike.

Teachers in Japan are just like American teachers.  We want our students to learn and grow to be productive citizens in society.  We might use different equipment and different types of textbooks, but in the end we want the same things for our students.

It costs $9 to wash a shirt through the hotel.  I shudder to think what it would cost to do all my laundry.  So, it’s handwash time.   I brought my handwash soap with me that I bought in Europe.  Needed to do laundry there and the town we stayed in had four washing machines.  We were gone most of the time and the laundrymat was always full.  So, we washed it all in the sink.  There were more places to hang things.  Cotton socks take the longest.  I have to plan on three days drying time.  The best stuff for traveling is by far my Travelsmith clothes.  It washes out easily and doesn’t wrinkle when dry.  I washed my skirt last night at 7 pm and it’s already dry–that’s just 10 hours later.  Shirts are the same although I haven’t tried washing the newest one I bought.  Guess I’ll do that one this morning.   All my stuff has to be dry by 9 am tomorrow since I am leaving to live with my host family.  Then, we stay at a Ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn.  There will be 4 of us in a room together.  Not easy for everyone to do laundry.

Tip time:  We have all shared how to wash things in the sink.  One of the best ideas I heard was to roll things up in a towel to get excess water out.  Doesn’t work at my current hotel unless I askfor more towels.  I only have one:)

The Japanese are masters of recycling.  Oh, do we need to learn from their example.  The milk cartons are washed out and flattened to go to the recycler.  They separate everthing into burnable, metal, and plastic.  The Europeans do this too.  Our society is soooo wasteful.  We just throw everything in the trash and burn it or take it to the landfill.  What a waste.  Sometimes I had to stop and think what my garbage was made of so I could put it in the correct bin.  They even collected the straws from lunch and recycled those.  We put our names on our cups and used them all day.  Amazing.

I love school lunches.  These are prepared either downtown or in the school kitchen if they have one.  A cart is sent to each room with the bowls, trays, chopsticks, and food.  The kids serve lunch.  They take turns being responsible for this.  I had fish, rice, soup, and a tangerine one day.  All very healthy.  The next day we had beef curried noodles, rice, a salad, and milk.  Delicious (oeshi).   They then clean up.  The rest of the group gets recess.

Of course, I eat with chopsticks.  Once you’re used to it, it isn’t too difficult.  Practice makes perfect.

I was so impressed with how the schools are cleaned.  It’s true, not an urban legend, that the kids clean up.  There were kids on their hands and knees washing the floor, sweeping, cleaning up the bathroom, etc.  They do not have custodians as far as I can see.   Parents volunteer quarterly to come and do heavy cleaning in the rooms and bathrooms and halls.

There are sinks in the hallways.  These are used for art, to clean up after lunch, to wash hands, you name it.  What a useful idea.  There are four or five spigots at each sink.  Oh, the kids clean their teeth too.  They each have toothbrushes and use them after lunch. 

I am so impressed with the teaching of leadership in the Japanese schools.  Students take the responsibility for leading their classes at the beginning and end of each class.  This begins in elementary school.  The lead student for the day brings the class to order, they stand, and bow to the sensei (teacher).  The leader instructs them to sit and tells the teacher they are ready.

Students run everything.  I didn’t really see the teacher do much other than climb a ladder to close curtains in the gym, help the kids hook up equipment when it was too big, and do some teaching.  Once the lessons were taught, the kids were responsible for the learning.  It was fabulous.  The students even organize cleaning committees to do the toilets, halls, lunch plates and chopsticks, and anything else that needs done.  They take turns in teams doing these chores.  I’d like to see us do more of this.  Sometimes I feel I don’t let my students do things for themselves enough.  I’ll have to think on this some to see how to implement it.

We got to do a little teaching today and enjoy some fabulous music.  The middle school’s 8th grade was practicing for their parent open house scheduled for this weekend and we were their authentic dress rehearsal audience.  Each home room sang a song and it might even be a competition.  One class wrote their own song and performed it, some were upbeat, others were poignant.  However, one class performed the Hallelujah Chorus.  Of course, when the music started, we teachers all stood up to enjoy their singing.  The pianists for all these numbers were students, as were the choir directors.  Our spokesperson at the end explained that it is traditional in the West to stand for the Hallelujah Chorus by Handel.  Historians are unsure if  the king of England, George II, was actually the one to start the tradition, but many feel this explains this tradition.  The students did a fabulous job.