Niwano Elementary
Today’s adventure is teaching at a countryside elementary school. I have been assigned to conduct and English lesson with the 4th grade. I have only had teaching familiarity with high school students so this will be a new experience with me. I plan to keep the lesson as simple as possible, it seems that the more complicated you make the lesson; the more there is to go wrong. My lesson plan is barnyard animals and the noises that they make.
Suzuki sensei was kind enough to buy tons and tons of candy for the children, so I plan on using the candy as a reward for answering questions correctly. Suzuki sensei is actually from this area of Japan and a teacher from Suzuki sensei’s school days – Mr. Taniguchi- was so kind as to set up this exchange between us and the elementary school. Suzuki sensei assured us that Taniguchi sensei is a very nice person: “He never gets angry!” she said.
Before reaching the elementary school we stopped by a very large park. It was at this park that I was able to see some of the prettiest scenery I have ever seen in Japan. There was a large river and below that river was one of the largest walking bridges I have ever seen. We stopped to get our materials prepared and to get out thoughts together before presenting to the students. For most of the students on this trip, it is their first time teaching. With two of the students being business majors, one student majoring in chemistry, and the rest Asian studies majors, I don’t know if any of us would have ever imagined teaching as a part of our education. Despite the inexperience, everyone had the look of optimism on their face. In fact, Peter and Travis were pretty eager to get into the classroom and start teaching.
After collecting our materials and making the short drive over to the elementary school were prepared to be full-fledged teachers! As soon as we got out of the car there were children looking out the windows enthusiastically waiting for us to arrive. There were a few children who waved and screamed “hello!” from the top second floor. I wish I was able to get the look on everyone’s faces on tape at that one moment because you can see our faces melt.
The first thing we did was go directly to the principal’s office. This alone brought back memories of my childhood. (I spent a lot of time in the principal’s office.) The principal introduced himself and the schedule for the day. It was fun to just shoot the shandy with the principal. In my experience, I was usually getting scolded so it was a nice departure from the norm for me.
From the principals office we went to the second floor where the performance area and stage were located. All of the children were patiently waiting for us to arrive by sitting on the ground. It was amazing to see the entire school sitting in a room that could easily be compared to one of the smaller lecture halls at UVM. There are only around 100 students in this elementary school. This is pretty indicative of Japan in general because people are having so few children in Japan.
After the opening ceremony we were divided to each of our classrooms and our lessons began. It was a good thing that I decided to keep my lesson plan as simple as possible, it turns out that most of the students had no idea what noises the animals make in English. It was absurd of me to assume that they would anyway, but by planning my lesson on a very simple topic I inadvertently made a very challenging and fun lesson for the children. However, this does not explain the full story. One student was extraordinarily knowledgeable of English. It turns out that she has already starting taking English lessons after school. Most Japanese children don’t start taking extra classes until junior high school. So if you were to come into my classroom at any given moment during the lesson, you would immediately notice which student I am speaking of simply by noticing the amount of candy piled on her desk from answering each question correctly.
When it was all finished, I felt that my experience teaching was spectacular. I really didn’t know that I had that ability to teach so well. The principal even commended me for my lesson and said that he was impressed with how well I ran the classroom.