Because children are the future… February 16, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Student Moments.Tags: culture festival, Japan, Japanese, othello rap, The Child, The JTE, victory, winter term
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Which is to say The Child may be in MY immediate future if nothing else.
Unfortunately I don’t have time for a terribly substantial post today, but I did want to capture this memory because it just made me so happy. Just like that last firefly in summer that you don’t expect to see and capture in a mayonnaise jar (with a leaf and a stick to recreate what it’s used to) so it doesn’t get away, let’s discuss Tuesday’s English class with The Child.
Right now, my first year students and I are preparing for a rather intense speaking check. They’ll have 1 minute to answer 12 questions from me. The questions are all things they’ve studied to some degree before, but the time limit is the real key to this exercise. I told The JTE about it and she requested that I prepare it for the second year class as well.
Now, the theory behind this exercise is fairly solid. The students have an opportunity to practice writing, speaking, and listening. It’s a good opportunity to review different grammar points, and the time element gives me a lot of wiggle room to adjust the difficulty level of the speaking test so that I can keep it challenging for everyone. I felt confident that this activity would fly with about 99% of my students.
The Child, I wasn’t so sure.
He’s been remarkably good and productive recently. Class, as always, begins with him telling me he hates English, me, the world, what Angelina Jolie did over the weekend … but it’s more of a routine by this point and I haven’t had problems getting him to do his work. Still, The Epic Speaking Test is exactly the kind of activity that he has been known to refuse to do and it was anyone’s guess as to how he would react.
So, how did it go?
Initially, he told me that it was “mendokusai” (troublesome, boring, a pain in the ass) and said that I was free to help other students while he slept. This is pretty much his standard response to any kind of stimuli from the outside world, though, so it didn’t exactly faze me. A heartfelt admission about how smart he is and how much I’ve been looking forward to helping him with this activity, an oath that I would never lie to him, a pinky swear, and the confiscating of three erasers later and we had productivity!
Now here’s what made me really happy. During this exchange, and throughout our interactions until the end of class (and actually, the day), he kept asking me about the Othello rap. He wanted to know why I was bothering him about it, why did I think he could rap, was his pronunciation really that good, and by-the-way-just-so-you-know-he-will-never-ever-actually-perform-with-me.
I do believe I smell victory on the horizon.
Here’s my thinking. If he really, REALLY didn’t want to perform this with me, he wouldn’t say anything at all about it in the hopes that I would just drop the idea. Yet, he brought it up every time he saw me and only seemed to become more interested in the idea when I was somewhat noncommittal about the details of my scheme. I told him just to wait and think about it and I would get more information to him later on in the term – this is usually when he would inform me that he wouldn’t do it. In fact, the more that he tells me he won’t perform with me, the more I am inclined to believe that he wants to do just that.
I think that he’s just nervous, and he’s really not sure if he’s up to the challenge. But he’s definitely interested, and after the brief (and if I may say, ceremonial) display of resistance during the classroom activity, he worked harder than I’ve ever seen him. I don’t dare to suggest that he has been energized and inspired by my display of trust in his abilities … but I think that the potential for such a scenario exists.
It’s as though I planted a seed and I saw a tiny shoot pop out of the soil on Tuesday. The Child’s trust and willingness to work with me is a fragile thing – I have to be careful and very thoughtful about how I proceed with this project. This could very well make or break our relationship.
But I have hopes that my universe might be elegant afterall.
And who am I to know what I feel?
My Elegant Universe February 15, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Just Bizarre, Student Moments, Taking Initiative.Tags: clemente, culture festival, elegant universe, Japan, Japanese, othello rap, RSC, The Child, unnecessary references to physics
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It seems funny to me that I’ve been watching (and re-watching if you must know) the Nova special on Brian Greene’s book, The Elegant Universe. I find this funny because the premise of string theory is to reconcile quantum mechanics with Newtonian physics – to unite the forces of the universe into a single theory and (although this parallel is a little heavy-handed) I, too, feel as though I’m trying to unite two irreconcilable realities – U.S. Julie and Japan Julie.
Today’s memory comes from an attempt to do just that. I’m not sure how successful I was.
I think I’ve mentioned recently that I’ve been sort of obsessing over The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Part of this play involves the following rap about Othello:
Pretty cool, right? I have it on several driving mixes and so it’s probably not surprising that I’ve had it memorized for the last couple of months. The more that I practice this, though, the more I want to perform this in front of an audience. Although I’ve managed to get one of my friends back home to agree to put on the entire production with me at some point, that future promise of Reduced Shakespearean Glory doesn’t help with my pangs now.
But today, on my way to work, I was struck with inspiration. It occurred to me that, with the right forces at work I might be able to persuade Clemente and The Child to perform this rap with me at the culture festival in November. The Child has a really great sense of rhythm – he’s quite fond of repeating random things that I say and turning them into his own little chant. Clemente has great pronunciation and he also has an unquestionable work ethic, so with our powers combined we might be able to keep The Child somewhat focused.
I probably should have given this entire scheme a little more thought, but when My Ideas call, I usually have to follow their whimsical demands. So, I asked Clemente and The Child to stop by the staff room during lunch so that I could show them the video and pitch them my idea.
To be honest, I’m not exactly sure what they thought of it. Clemente seemed interested to know when we would practice the rap, and he asked some questions about the English. The Child told me outright that he wouldn’t do it, but that doesn’t really mean that he won’t. He was actually quite funny because he made the claim that while he loves Shakespeare, Othello is the least favorite of his plays. He said that he can’t handle the tragedy and so he doesn’t want to do the rap.
Again, the use of sarcasm here is surprising since the Japanese are notoriously not sarcastic.
Still, at the end of the conversation, Clemente seemed thoughtful and The Child was grumbling about how I would probably force him into doing it against his will no matter what he said. I’m going to give them some time to think about things and get back to them before spring break with more information and more assurances that they won’t be overwhelmed or expected to do more than they feel they can.
So, how elegant is my universe?
Can I unite my love for classical English literature and my love for my work in Japan?
Well, I have high hopes. I figure that since I’m probably not going to have to resort to a particle accelerator to make this happen, things just might be in my favor.
Code monkey get up get coffee
Code monkey go to job
Two Words: ICE CREAM! February 1, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Dance Troupe, ice cream, Student Moments.Tags: culture festival, Dance Troupe, dancing, elementary students, hannah montana, hilarity, Jyona33, the first years, winter term, wisdom
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Where ICE CREAM = I Cant Exactly Choose (Raccoon!!) Enjoy All Moments!
Yes, just to show that there is always time for ICE CREAM (and thus, time for a post), I present to you in short, spastic bits, the contents of my weekend and Monday. It’s crude and inartistic at best, but in the interests of not progressing to a “Saturday-Sunday-Monday-Tuesday!!! Update!!!!”, it is quite necessary. I should be able to get back on a regular posting schedule as of Tuesday evening.
(Fun English Fact: It’s not “unartistic,” it’s “inartistic.” Fancy that.)
Onward!
~ Saturday, I cleaned. Cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. I also righted the balance of the universe with an epic conversation with Jyona33. I suppose I should be concerned with the degree to which this man has an influence over my daily affairs, but we all need a few people like this in our lives. Otherwise, who would tell me where I should go on vacation in Japan? Or how to subtly convey to my coworkers that I would rather they not ask me about how I lose weight? Or instruct me on how to improve in the centipede race?? These are heavy topics that require the most delicate and thoughtful of consultations.
~ Saturday, I also danced. Danced and danced and danced and danced. I danced in preparation for:
~ Sunday’s Culture Festival!
Actually, let’s take a break from our ICE CREAM and go into a little more of a prose style here, because the events of Sunday are worth slowing down for.
In short, it was chaotic. I don’t think I’ve ever been so busy at a culture festival, and this includes the years when I was co-running the music club at the middle school. Those years required a lot of preparation ahead of time, but after our performance at 9:30 in the morning I was free for the rest of the day. That was most definitely not the case last Sunday.
The morning started out responsibility-free. I showed up to work, and then went to the gym to entertain the third year students until the rest of the classes and their parents arrived. We then watched presentations from all the classes, most of which were musical ensembles of some sort. I have to say that the first and sixth grade classes stole the show.
Many of you are already aware of the deep affection I feel for The First Years. To say that they are my favorite class does not properly express the emotion I feel for them; it’s more substantial than that. They are, honestly, the most amazing group of children I think I’ve ever encountered. They’re sweet. They’re enthusiastic. They can dance. And most importantly, they are so fantastically innocent and earnest in their beliefs that they do the most ridiculous things.
Here’s an example: during the first month of school, The Mentor caught them running down the hallway. He’s the sixth grade teacher and so already quite an imposing figure to their first year minds. The Mentor can also be very intimidating, so 99.9% of the time his commands are followed. (And I have it on good authority that the one student sometime, somewhere, who didn’t do what The Mentor asked was never heard from again.)
Anyway, so The Mentor caught them running in the hallway and told them to stop. He explained that students are not supposed to run in the hallways at school and that it’s dangerous. The First Years were so taken with this notion and so altered by this encounter, however, that they took him to mean that they’re not allowed to run at school EVER. Their home room teacher was eventually able to convince them (after about a week) that they are allowed to run outside. Yet, to this day, if they ever see The Mentor watching them when they’re on the playground, they always slow down to a walk.
Now, how can you possibly not be enamored with these children??
So, given these emotional lenses that I had on while watching their performance (a recitation about their class and how much fun school is), it’s no surprise that it was my favorite. To be fair, the sixth grade play about traveling through time and bringing back noteworthy inventions from various historic eras was pretty sweet, too. I was impressed with how clear and loud their voices were; their public speaking has improved a lot over the last couple of years.
Okay, so the presentations ended at around eleven and then I lent a hand cleaning up the gym. This took awhile, though, and it only left me with about ten minutes for lunch, after which I went back to the gym to do my dance. I’d debated whether or not to leave my handsprings in the routine, but it was good that I did since I think that move was the crowd favorite. My dance was followed by the sixth grader’s final concert (they like to get dressed up, form bands, and sing to the school) and the afternoon activity corners.
As you will probably recall, my dance troupe lead one of the afternoon sessions, and that was also entertaining (if a bit busy). The kids did a really great job with memorizing the dance and I liked helping them out. The various five to ten minute breaks were also enjoyable as the children sought fit to drag me into a variety of games (most of them requiring me to chase the children around the gym). Some of my middle school students also stopped by, and so it was fun to chat with them when I had the time.
Okay, moving slightly back into ICE CREAM form now, let’s recap the specific memories we’re tagging here:
Saturday: Jyona33 provides timeless wisdom to aid me on my life’s journey
Sunday: I am a dancing fool and The First Years’ performance left me in such a state of beatitude that I hereby pledge my life (for the next year and three months) to giving them the best English lessons I can.
That leaves us with Monday!
Monday was quiet, and perhaps marked by numerous interactions with Hannah Montana and Aphrodite. The Savant and Mary Sunshine were at a high school orientation, and so my usual suspects weren’t around. This time of year is always interesting, because although the third year students haven’t graduated yet, they’re not around as much and I don’t do many things with them in class. It’s the time of year when I start to shift my attentions more to the first and second years, and I try to prepare to say goodbye. We only have about a month and a half left of the term, and it’s going to go by quickly.
Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen. A lot of interesting things are coming our way.
Teaching New Tricks January 28, 2010
Posted by Earthdragonette in Dance Troupe, Just Bizarre.Tags: culture festival, Dance Troupe, elementary school, Japanese, macchibo, The Mentor, winter term
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Okay, very, very quickly today because I really have to finish some preparations for Friday’s classes.
Thursday was noteworthy because of two separate situations that I found myself in.
~ I was at the Thursday elementary school today and during sixth period the students were busy setting up a variety of things for Sunday’s culture festival. I had a Mountain of Letters and so couldn’t join them. Normally this would have left me feeling somewhat bereft and left out, but it provided the ideal circumstances for some hilarity.
I was sitting in the teachers’ room and working on my letters, and along with me were the school’s secretary and the principal. The kids kept coming into the teachers’ room for different supplies (colored paper, colored pens, glue, etc.) and the principal got the brilliant idea to make the kids ask for what they wanted in English. It started out as kind of frivolous but then became this veritable mine of entertainment for almost an entire hour (especially when my vernacular for a particular object was different from what was written in his English/Japanese dictionary).
Good times there, good times.
~ The second memory from Thursday was good, but bizarre. On Sunday in the afternoon, all of the students are going to go to activity corners. Some will make wooden crafts, some will play with traditional Japanese toys, and (among others) there’s also a corner where my dance troupe will be teaching one of our recent DJ Ozma dances (Macchibo). This means that I’ll be dancing on two separate occasions on Sunday.
Anyway, as it turns out, The Mentor is the teacher responsible for overseeing this particular corner. To aid him in this task, he thought it would be best to learn the dance ahead of time, so he came to our practice last night. (Yes, normally we have practices on Wednesdays, but we had to move it to Thursday this week). To make a long story short, I somehow found myself teaching him the dance. Since he’s usually the one mentoring me, it was a very strange role reversal. He did a really good job – the dance isn’t easy, and he only had about an hour and a half to work on it. Looking back, I think I can say that the process was fun. It was just … kind of weird, too.
We’ll see how this all works out on Saturday.
It’s the same old song
But with a different feeling since you’ve been gone
In a parallel universe, I update my blog every day. Part II. November 15, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Apologies, Julie Gets Philosophical, Just Bizarre, Lessons Learned, Student Moments.Tags: Aunt Mia, culture festival, dancing, elementary students, fall term, fievel, Japan, Japanese, Jyona33, karaoke, late posts, meetings, mochi, my little monkey, old middle school, Rocko, The Mentor, thursday elementary school, Two Terrific Teachers
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I hope you took the opportunity to stretch your legs, get a beverage, grab a snack, let the dog (or cat) out during our break.
Now, back to my attempts to end Rampant Procrastination.
#11: I Guess I Like Attention?
I do write a blog (kind of…) after all. In fact, I think that liking attention is a requirement if one wants to be a teacher. Those who feel unnerved by many sets of curious eyes on their person, seeking wisdom, answers, and snark need not apply. That sort of thing.
So, given this personality quirk that I have, it makes sense that I would want to find a way to participate in the middle school culture festival, which I did by dancing during a very brief talent show segment. The schedule for the festival went thusly:
9:00: Opening Ceremony
~ Performance from the elective music classes (students performed on traditional Japanese instruments)
~ Speeches from 10 students about a variety of topics
~ Presentation from the student health committee on drug abuse
~ Presentation from each grade
~ First years: 20 second speeches about their first year in middle school
~ Second years: small play about an activity they’ll be doing this month (For two days, they’re going to go out and work in a variety of the town’s businesses. They’ll work in everything ranging from restaurants to hospitals to gas stations.)
~ Third years: presentation about their trip to Tokyo last April
~ Lunch break (At about 11:15)
~ Huge BINGO Game
~ 1:00: Talent show (which included my dance)
~ Afternoon chorus competition between the different classes
~ Special Guest: Traditional Japanese storyteller
~ 3:30: Closing Ceremony
And that was pretty much it. I wandered around for most of the day, taking pictures and talking to students and their families. My dance was something I’d put together myself, set to Chris Brown’s Forever. I think it went quite well – the kids certainly had fun with it.
#12: Reasons that I love karaoke
I’m not the best of singers, but I do like to do it. Unfortunately, I’ve found more often than not that karaoke in the States is a very public, very embarrassing, and often very unpleasant experience. The Japanese karaoke experience is totally different, especially if you go to a karaoke establishment. You get your own room, your own television/stereo equipment, and you can use a phone in the room to order a variety of refreshments. Jyona33 and I probably owe the success of our friendship to Disney duets and Bonnie Tyler.
Recently, I went out with Rocko, and I’ll go ahead and let you know that the boy has game. He can rap. Seriously. I will admit to my superiority on Sir Mix-A-Lot’s Baby Got Back, but that’s about it. For the real deal, you need to hook up with 50cent, Eminem, and Rocko.
#13: The growing dichotomy that is my life
This isn’t a specific moment exactly, but rather a growing feeling I’ve had over the last month. Put very simply: I go to work and immerse myself in whatever school I happen to be in. I play around with my students, discuss a variety of topics with the teachers, go to planning meetings and training seminars, have dinner with friends on weekends, dance my heart out on Wednesdays and Sundays, and sometimes speak coherent and intelligent Japanese.
I also spend hours talking to friends on Skype, read Anna Karenina, memorize Shakespeare (because everybody should), stalk Jay Sean’s new singles, and have dreams of somehow marrying Stephen Colbert.
Sometimes, I’m not exactly sure which country I’m living in, or which world for that matter.
#14: Visiting old friends… my second culture festival
I’ve talked on occasion about The Middle School That Closed. Earlier this month, my town’s new middle school (the one that resulted from the merger of the three that closed) had their first culture festival. I wanted to see my old students, so I decided to attend. I didn’t stay for very long – just long enough to see their morning speeches and performances. They also had their chorus competition in the morning, and that was very cute. Aunt Mia was present, and she and I had the chance to talk a little before she had to run off. I still predict that she is somehow going to end up godmother to my children.
#15: And The Flu shall have no dominion (over me)…
Although it’s everywhere. My schools have been cancelling classes left and right and it’s been weeks since all of the grades have been present at the same time. Two weeks ago all of my third year JHS students were sent home for the week (14 had the flu) and then last week my second years were shut out (10 cases there). It’s the second time this year that my second years have had this happen to them. The teachers are really stressed because everyone is behind in their lessons, but the students are obviously enjoying all of this vacation time.
So far, by some miracle, I’ve managed to stay healthy. I had a scare two weeks ago, because I started to feel out of sorts. I’m not exactly sure what it was, but it passed by without making too much of a fuss, and I’ve remained well enough to venture into the wild and germy frontier. I still predict that I’m going to get Swine Flu.
#16: Fievel VS The Monkey, Part 2
I think it was on the 5th of November that I saw Fievel make an actual claim on me in front of The Monkey. It really stands out in my memory, though, because it just showed how feisty my previously silent one is becoming.
The students had to leave school early because of a big meeting that the teachers were preparing for. I had my work more or less under control, and so I spent some time with the kids while they were waiting for the last bus of the day. Fievel decided to assert his newfound power over me and asked me to give him a piggyback ride. The Monkey saw this, got jealous, and tried to interrupt the whole process.
I kid you not – as soon as The Monkey tried to block Fievel and climb on my back, Fievel looked at him and said (quite clearly and without any hesitation whatsoever): “NO. MONKEY DOWN!”
Success! English has been acquired!!!
#17: Playing With The Big Kids
On November 6th, my Thursday elementary school had a huge meeting that most of the teachers in my district were invited to attend. All of the teachers were required to have open lessons, which were then followed by a lecture from the 5th and 6th grade teachers. After a small break, everyone broke up into smaller groups to ask the home room teachers questions about their lessons.
Although I don’t always understand everything that’s said at these functions, I like to go because, well, it’s an opportunity to learn more about teaching theory (which is where I am admittedly pretty weak). For the open lesson and small meeting portions, I stuck close to The Mentor, since I find his lessons to be consistently well planned and executed.
Overall, I really enjoyed the meeting. I also enjoyed the Celebrity Effect, because a lot of people were not expecting me to be there, and I got to see my presence distract them from their own lives (if only momentarily). I found the overall theme of the meeting to be extremely interesting. It focused on a teaching model by which students are encouraged to approach problems individually, and then through their own efforts and discussion with their classmates, broaden and deepen their knowledge of the given subject. The open lessons were supposed to be examples of this model in action, and then the last meetings of the days were opportunities for other educators to respond to the model and to the way that the school is trying to implement it.
It’s a little frustrating for me, because there are so many things that I wish I could ask or discuss with my fellow teachers, but that kind of Japanese is still out of my reach. Still, I think that I benefitted from attending the meeting. I particularly enjoyed sitting next to one of the Two Terrific Teachers and being his comment partner through the last meeting. Do not be fooled – Japanese people are polite, but snark exists in this culture and it is alive and well. ^o^
#18: If you haven’t ever made sweet potato, tofu, and coconut milk curry…
…then you should, because it is delicious. It is so delicious that it actually qualifies as a memory from this fall season. I make it once a week, eat it for two or three days, and enjoy a slice of nirvana. When I look back on Autumn of 2009, I will most assuredly recall sweet potato and coconut milk curry.
#19: It’s Sunday – let’s go to a festival!
My third festival of the year was at my Friday elementary school. The schedule for this festival was a little different from the one that my middle school had:
~9:00, opening ceremony
~ Fun Corner (1 hour)
~ Mochi Making Event
~ Lunch and Recess
~ Fun Corner #2 (40 minutes)
~ Closing ceremony (at about 2:00)
The Fun Corners were a series of stations set up around the school that the students went to. There was a jump rope station, a juggling station, a station for playing with traditional Japanese toys (kendama and spinning tops), a station for origami, and one for wood crafting. I spent a lot of my time with the origami corner, where my superior motor skills were invaluable to the first and second year students. I had a very odd moment where I looked around and realized that I (the American) was actually leading Japanese school children through the origami process. I suppose that sometimes, authority figures are authority figures regardless of nationality.
(Also, just to squeeze this in here: mochi is a rice cake that’s made by pounding down a special kind of cooked rice. By itself it doesn’t have much of a taste, but it’s often eaten with special soy powder, fruit, or red bean paste. Fresh mochi is a gift from the gods, and I’m so happy that I have an elementary school where they make it once a year.)
#20: Did I say this before? Sometimes I am not very smart.
I’ve asked my Thursday elementary school if I can dance at their culture festival. I’ve yet to hear back from them, but I hope that they’re willing to indulge me as I really want to contribute something to the day. Besides, it gives me an excuse to make up a new dance routine.
In a parallel universe, I update my blog every day. Part I. November 15, 2009
Posted by Earthdragonette in Apologies, Dance Troupe, Just Bizarre, Student Moments, Taking Initiative.Tags: culture festival, d.j. ozma, d.j. ozma jr., dance practice, Dance Troupe, elementary students, fall term, fievel, ice cream, Japan, Japanese, michael jackson, my little monkey, Rocko, thriller
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Unfortunately, that universe is so close to me, and yet so far away. Following Brian Greene / Elegant Universe - esque jargon, that universe and my universe are slices of cosmic bread on the cutting board of reality. Unfortunately, those slices are completely oblivious to each other, except in a vague way that occasionally inspires the bittersweet and humbling taste of guilt.
It’s sort of what I feel whenever I forget to answer e-mail (also one of my well-known vices…)
Ahem.
So, welcome back! How are you today?
Things have been quite busy, as usual. Let’s skip the chitchat and get down to business. I have 26 memories that need to be announced and elaborated on. To break it up a bit, and keep things from getting too long winded (too late…), I’ve got ten listed here, another ten listed in Part II, and the last six (AS WELL AS AN ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING ANNOUNCEMENT) in Part III.
Apologies as usual for the “Lists and Lists Galore” method of blogging that I seem to be embracing. ^_^;;
Here we go!
#1: October 21st: Dance Practice Hilarity
This was a dance practice that we held before a pretty substantial festival that we went to the following weekend. We all already knew the dance that we were going to do (D.J. Ozma’s Macchibo), and so we spent two hours sitting around, talking, and occasionally practicing the dance. At one point, we decided to work on our timing, and so we did the dance while standing in a circle. This was hard for me, though, because seeing everyone else dancing mirror-image fashion really confused me. I pointed this out, and one of the troupe members turned around and did the dance with his back to me, thus prompting a flurry of comments about his backside and me complaining just so that he’d turn around and give me a chance to look at it.
-__-;;;
There are times when I wish I didn’t understand Japanese. Although the whole thing was, admittedly, pretty hilarious.
#2: Fievel VS My Little Monkey Saga: Part I
As I pointed out in an earlier post, Fievel is becoming bolder, and I began to wonder at one point he and My Little Monkey would run into conflict with each other. I was right to expect some overlap, but surprised that Fievel is turning out to be the winner in the Epic Battle for Julie’s Love and Attention. The thing about My Little Monkey is that, while he is a persistent little monkey, he is also easily distracted, and if I don’t respond to his demands/requests/questions/comments/concerns RIGHT WHEN HE HAS THEM, then there is a chance (however slim) that he will lose interest in me and go off somewhere else.
Fievel, however, is constant, and never, EVER loses interest. Every possible break that exists in the school’s schedule, he darts to my side, English sticker card in hand. And he doesn’t leave. Come rain or hail or sleet or snow, the child simply refuses to go.
(Sorry about that.)
Seriously, though, he is, at present, the victor in the Fievel VS Monkey battle, if only because he just never gets up and eagerly seizes on any spare moments of attention that My Little Monkey’s absence allows. Also, he gets bonus points for being infinitely lighter than the Monkey, so I’m more willing to entertain his requests to be carried around.
You know, there are some days where I wonder if I mightn’t be a jungle gym.
#3: Disturbing Yet Heartfelt Movies are Disturbing Yet Heartfelt
I’ve been hanging out a lot with Rocko lately, and so he took the opportunity a few weeks ago to show me some of his favorite movies. One of them, It’s All Gone Pete Tong, was one of those movies that I started out kind of disliking, but then fell in love with. It’s, more or less, about a drugged out D.J. that loses his hearing and eventually finds a path to a redemption of sorts. It was extremely interesting, but one of those films that stayed with me for a while. Rocko felt the need to show me Children of Men the day after we watched It’s All Gone Pete Tong, and so by the time I went home that weekend, I was kind of in a state where I questioned my existence and the value of reality.
Because, you know, that’s what you do sometimes.
#4: A Significant Way That The Universe Wins: Baskin Robins Is In Japan
And not only that, but I was able to get Halloween flavors. Although, to be honest, I like their regular chocolate flavors better.
That’s pretty much it. I just like ice cream.
#5: Serious Bonding With the Dance Troupe
October 25th, the troupe all piled into a couple of cars and we drove down to Owase to celebrate the seventh annual Kumano Kodo festival. It wasn’t all that large, but there were a really large number of dance troupes there, so I was able to see a lot of different dancing styles throughout the day. There were some that were obviously influenced by Chinese dance styles, and then one group did a pretty respectable version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller (I was particularly fond of that one).
The day was really, really cold and rainy, though, and so when we weren’t dancing (we had a three-hour break at one point), we all huddled inside one of the buildings, ate festival food, talked, and occasionally napped. It was really relaxed and reminded me a lot of the trips that I went on when I was in band in high school. I also spent some time with D.J. Ozma Jr. – we played cards and, at one point, played catch with a ball that was in the shape of Doraemon’s head.
#6: Culture Festival Preparations Are Fun
The culture festival for my middle school was on Halloween, and so the week up to it we were all busy trying to clean and decorate the school, finish art projects, put the final touches on musical performances, and occasionally sleep. Every year that I’ve been in Japan, I’ve done a performance with the music club, but since the club doesn’t really exist anymore, I haven’t been doing anything this year. This left me with a little (a very little) free time, and so I was able to spend my afternoons wandering around and helping various student committees.
My favorite afternoon was the one that I spent with the student government. Every year, the school puts together a huge mural of 105 individual sheets of paper that, together, make a large and elaborate design (the art teacher likes me, and so I always get to do a piece of the mural, too). Anyway, the student government is responsible for assembling this to some extent, and I decided to help them out. It took us a couple of hours to tape everything together and get it ready to transport to the gym, but we had a really great time together. They’re all intelligent, somewhat quiet second year boys, but they were super lively when we worked together. We spent a lot of time joking around in English and Japanese. (They really surprised me with how much English they wanted to use around me).
It was an unexpected and lovely afternoon.
#7: No, Really, I Enjoy This
I must, because the week before the middle school culture festival, I averaged about 3.5 hours of sleep per night. This was due to trying to get my part of the mural finished, to practicing a dance that I performed for the students, to staying on top of my work, and also to doing some extra special Halloween-related preparations for my elementary schools.
God, I love coffee. And my students.
#8: Darkness falls across the land…
So, every year, I show my first year JHS students Michael Jackson’s Thriller. It’s short, sweet, and relatively easy to understand even if the students don’t have a Japanese translation in front of them (which I did provide them with this year, but still).
This year, though, my first year students have a very special, very intense love for the King of Pop. I think that knowing about him before his death made that unfortunate event more meaningful. It seems to me that they hold him as some kind of symbol of the English world and the link that they have to it. He’s their favorite artist to watch, and every time they see the projector set up for class, they hope that they’re going to see another one of his songs.
Anyway, given this interest, I decided that this year, I wanted to make the Thriller lesson a little more extensive and interesting. So, after we watched the music video, I gave them a copy of the spoken section (the part where Vincent Price scares everybody … ever). You know the part:
Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y’alls neighborhood…
I told the students that they had to memorize four lines of it and recite it to me for a speaking check. The bonus for them was that for every extra line that they memorized, they would receive two extra credit points. At first, the students were skeptical – although I made the worksheet in such a way that they could read the English words, they didn’t understand a lot of them, and I think that the idea of a recital really made them nervous.
But, they pulled through, and quite well! The activity turned out to be surprisingly popular – especially because they got to chant about blood, death, and zombies (which are all subjects that teenagers enjoy to some degree). (One student did manage to memorize the whole thing…)
I was vastly entertained whenever I heard them practicing in the hallways during cleaning time. It was particularly funny because as soon as one student would start, others would join in. I’m only half-joking when I say that at one point I began to have serious concerns about my students inadvertently raising the dead.
Luckily, though, that does not seem to have happened.
#9: I Turned My Kids into Animals
Halloween really is a great time of year for English lessons. As you saw earlier, it gives me an opportunity to be slightly wackier and more creative than usual.
This year, I switched my curriculum around so that my first and second year elementary students would be studying animals during the month of October. This was the perfect backdrop to, well, dressing up like a witch, turning on some Disney Parade music (which all of my students identified before the first measure had finished), and “casting a spell” that turned them into a variety of animals. It was something that my music teacher did when I was in first and second grade, and I thought that my students would like it, too.
I turned out to be right, although I’m still fending off questions as to why I drive to school when I claim to be able to fly on a broom. Children are such curious little beings, aren’t they? They also don’t forget anything.
#10: I Also Wore a Gypsy Costume
This was part of my strategy for the activity described in #9. With a few modifications, it easily doubled as a witch’s costume. I was really nervous about wearing it to school, though, because it looked pretty ridiculous to me and I thought that my schools might object to it on the grounds of it looking unprofessional.
Imagine my shock, however, upon discovering that all of my co-workers loved this dress. I guess they thought it was really cute, and they told me that it was the kind of outfit I should feel free to wear every day. I walked around for two days feeling like a small, vulnerable puppy dog that everybody wanted to take home with them. It was surreal, and just goes to show how this country can still surprise me – even after almost three and a half years.
