Bittersweet Farewell

Last Tuesday was my last day at Kita Ibaraki High School. There are 60 seniors at this school and during the month of February they will not come to school、but will graduate on March 1^st. After graduation the school will close because of low enrollment and be turned into a hospital. My last day was filled with many emotions- frustration, relief, joy and sadness. My JTE wanted to help students review for exams, so we did some review activities and games. I always try to do some kind of speaking warm-up at the beginning of class and the question I asked that day was, “What will you do after graduation?” Sometimes this response is the only English some students will say the entire day. I walked around and tried to ask each student this question.

The responses I received depended on the type of student. There were students that were willing to respond in English once they understand it in Japanese, there were students I know understood the question, but refused to respond in English, there were students that went about their own business and ignored me and there were the sleeping students that could not be bothered with learning English. I tried to wake one of the sleeping students and was pretty much told in Japanese to leave her alone. I’ve learned to not take it personally, but it really frustrates me when they are not even willing to try, especially when I stand there and spell out the English for them. But, having one student in a class of 28 that responds in English is quite an accomplishment at this school. On a more positive note the review game I planned went surprisingly well and more students participated than I had anticipated.

In the oral communication class there are only 14 students. For the last class I planned a handout and game about future jobs. The handout was painful to get through, but necessary to learn the vocabulary. The game was an interactive version of tic-tac-toe and the students really enjoyed it. There is a group of four girls that never pay attention and I didn’t force them to participate, hoping watching the game would peak their interest. Sure enough, about five minutes into the game they were curious and wanted to see what all the excitement was about. One of the girls jumped right in, while the three others watched, but at least they were watching the game!

The JTEs that I teach with are very patient, but I can tell when they don’t have the energy to discipline the students or get them to focus. I’ve enjoyed working with both of them and wish we had more opportunities to team teach together. I also really like the principal at this school because he did a lot for the students this last year. The hallway to from the main office to teacher’s room is filled with pictures of school activities ranging from concerts at the school, community projects and special trips. He is also involved with an international exchange program and has invited me to several events over the past six months. He will be transferred to another school at the end of March, but might be the new Kocho Sensei at Takahagi since the current one is retiring!

Loving Life as a Jet

Last week I also signed my re-contracting papers, so it’s official I am staying another year! I knew that I would be staying two years in Japan, so it wasn’t a difficult decision to make. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been in Japan for sixth months now, it seems like it was only yesterday that I arrived. I’ve been able to experience a lot over the past six months, but there is still so much more I want to do and see while I’m here.

At our ALT meeting on Friday our supervisor gave us an update on the budget situation in Ibaraki. The prefecture only had to cut one position and it was the ALT that works primarily at the elementary and special education schools. Because of this many of the high school ALTs, including myself may be required to make visits to special needs school in our area. No cuts were made to high school positions, but I think they will be cutting back on the number of junior high ALTs they hire in the upcoming year. We were told that 34 Jet positions were cut in Gifu, so I’m thankful that my prefecture is safe for now.

One of the activities during our meeting was to choose a topic to discuss in small groups. My group chose, “making sense of the Ibaraki experience”. We talked about our life in Japan so far including the ups and the downs. Two ALTs in my group were quite disappointed with their placements and were not having the experience they had hoped for. They both live out to the west in poorer areas that are not very scenic. Both are also teachers like me, so they often find themselves very frustrated at their schools. I was able to relate because it is difficult since we’ve had experience with managing a classroom, discipline and teaching students of differing ability levels. Despite their frustrations they are both re-contracting for another year. Listening to their situations made me very thankful for my placement in Takahagi. I am surrounded by beautiful mountains and ocean and live close to a major train line. In my group I shared that what’s really made my experience are the friendships I’ve formed with my teachers, students, eikaiwa classes, other ALTs and Japanese people. It’s taken sixth months to solidify some of these friendships, but I know many of these will have a lasting effect on my life.