Some more things even

I have finished my class work for the day so it is back to killing time until the final bell. I am also hoping to talk with a couple of teachers about lesson plans for tomorrow ... some of the teachers seem to prepare at the last minute, which I must say is more my style, but when I am put on the spot in an unfamiliar situation I like to have some idea of what will be happening.

No English Club today (they actually call it the English Speaking Society, or ESS), so Sam and I are visiting the akido and kendo clubs. I forgot to bring athletic wear so I think I will just be watching today, but I think Sam may actually be aiming to participate. There are a lot of clubs at Yamasho, and not clubs as you imagine them back home. Baseball is a club; so is word processing. Baseball competes (nationally this year) and I assume word processing competes as well. I have not yet made contact yet but I am interested in visiting the photography club and the broadcast club -- perhaps visiting once in a while in those cases. We really can only visit non-ESS clubs on Tuesday and Thursday, so our options are kind of limited.

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SOME DIFFERENCES IN SCHOOL

-Did you know that in Japan the students clean the school? In the U.S. we are used to a janitorial staff keeping the school up to par. But in Japan, every day after 3 p.m., the relative quiet is broken by the thunderous roar of shifting desks in classrooms above the teachers room. Students fan out across the school grounds, under the supervision of teachers, and sweep or mop or pick up trash. You could hardly imagine kids in the U.S. going for a plan like this, but it is just a part of life here.

-In the states teachers generally work out of their own classroom, where they keep a desk and allowed out decorate as they see fit and store various materials. In Japan teachers keep desks in a teachers room. At Yamasho there are a few different teachers rooms. I work in the main one across from the administrative offices. In the states, the teachers room is considered a no-students area, a hiding place for secret soda machines and much more, at least in the imagination of creative students. In Japan, students pour into the teachers room between classes to check in with teachers, deliver messages and turn in work. After school students stay late to study for special exams or prepare for university entrance. Every morning at 8:30, the day begins in the teachers room with a staff meeting. The vice principal, who holds court over the room with a desk in the corner, moves through agenda items. It is all in Japanese of course, and I only pick up little bits of it. We have to operate under the assumption that if there is anything important for us to know, somebody will tell us. So far, no problems.

More later, perhaps.