A typical day at Kawawada Shogakko

Kawawada Elementary is my main school where I go 3 and a half days out of the week. So this school actually claims me as their official AET. Just like all other schools, the schedule is different everyday so my M, T, F are all different.

Special things about Japanese schools:

• They have 2 recesses. One short one in the morning and then one after lunch.
• None of the schools have a janitorial staff so the kids have cleaning duties everyday. It is quite funny because the school looks more dirty after cleaning time then before but the kids have fun with it.
• Everyone eats school lunch. You will always have a meat of some kind, a salad/veggie type thing, a soup and milk. Sometimes you will have dessert. (I will write a whole post on lunch!)

M- I have the 5th and 6th graders. There are 2 classes of each so I have 4 classes, all in the morning. I eat lunch with in a classroom. Recess and cleaning are after lunch and then I have my whole afternoon to do an assortment of things. I don't leave until 4:40pm so I will work on decorations for my English room, study Japanese, or just act like I'm busy. The kids will leave sporadically from 2-4 and I like to be outside and say goodbye to them so that eats up a lot of my time.

Tuesday- I have class ALL day. I start 1st and 2nd period with 2nd grade, then 2 1st grade classes. This morning is pretty crazy because most of the time I am teaching the kids a BRAND new thing that they have NEVER heard before so sometimes it's a challenge. After lunch, cleaning and recess I have 2 3rd grade classes. By the time I say goodbye to everyone I'm exhausted but it's normally pretty close to leaving time by then.

Friday- I only have 2 4th grade classes. Friday is a day that I normally just wander around and look for things to do. Last week I was making all different flags to hang up in my room and I broke the laminator so I spent most of my day making flags, breaking the laminator and ruining my flags back to making them again. The Japanese put a lot of emphasis in LOOKING busy. If you look busy then you are doing what you are suppose to so I'm perfecting that!

Wednesday I'm at Akatsuka Elementary for just the one day. I don't normally plan any lessons just follow along with what the teachers have planned. I have been teaching 5th and 6th grade but I am now moving to 1st and 2nd. There is another AET splitting his time at Akatsuka so this school gets 2 of us.

Thursday I have at nursery schools. I have 2 different ones and I will alternate between them. In the afternoon I'll return to Kawawada. I haven't been to one of these yet but I'm excited to see what it's like. I never thought I would enjoy teaching but so far it has been fun. The best is when it finally clicks in the kid's heads at what they keep repeating. The kids are super cute too! I'll post pictures of the kids and my English room soon! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!