A Morning at Nishi Nakano Elementary School
I signed up for the Outreach Program organized by the ICC to go to Nishi Nakano Elementary School to teach the students about where I’m from. The ICC paired the foreign students up with Japanese students and we started making a lesson plan and preparing a month ago. Today we finally went!
We met up at the ICC at 9:30 and headed to the elementary school by train but we were late so when we got there, we pretty much had to get straight to teaching once we changed into the school slippers and put down our stuff.
My partner and I were teaching a class of first graders. They were so cute! And crazy energetic. They also knew a lot more than we thought they would - I was really surprised! We taught them things, showed them pictures, and played a game :D We wanted to give them time to make Christmas cards too but we ran out of time D: We started teaching at around 10:45? And I think I it was lunch time at 12:15. Time went by so quickly! We had to cut quite a lot out of our teaching plan.
Before lunch, we washed our hands at one of those long sink things that I see in Japanese movies and dramas. And then a group of the kids put on white aprons and little chef hats and started serving the food. Everyone was so disciplined (not just now but throughout the whole class! They bowed at the beginning and end of class, said thank you all the time, stood up when answering questions and the like). After lunch, the first graders got to go home so they all got their things and put on their yellow hats. They shared their thoughts on their day and listened to the class presidents(?) and teacher talk about what they were doing tomorrow and what they should bring. Then we shook hands/waved with all of them and said our goodbyes : (
Shoe shelves
Flags in the room where we put down our stuff
The pictures the students drew for our animal game! They are good artists!
The students serving lunch and waiting for lunch!
School lunch! It was really good and really healthy! It was weird how there was J-pop playing on their announcement thing while we were eating though xD
The children with their yellow hats and neon backpacks listening to the teacher
A little present from the school
Overall, it was a great experience. Making a lesson plan and preparing the materials for the class were all new to me. And I got to interact with young Japanese children and also learnt a bit about elementary school life in Japan :) I’m so glad I had my partner with me! I forgot a lot of the stuff I had to say (it was parents day or something so the students’ parents were there for a bit which made me nervous which didn’t help my Japanese >0<) so I’m really grateful that she was there so that when I forgot or didn’t know how to say stuff in Japanese I could just tell her in English so she could say it for me. I hope my Japanese will get better so that if I get another chance to take part in a program like this I’ll be able to talk more! I had a lot of fun and I hope the students did too!
