1st day of Junior High School 2011

Welcome letters and cards waiting on my desk when I came in for my first day of work.

I just finished my first week of school in the new year. It was coming off a rather eventful six week vacation and moving to a new city so the reintroduction to waking up at 6 a.m. was a bit annoying but the week went by well. In the past I've taught at up to five different schools in a single semester. I've also taught both Elementary and Junior High with my favorite between the two discussed here. My last job was in Okayama City at Elementary and Junior High School. Working at more than one school can be a pain in regards to commuting and carrying lesson materials, but if you only work at one school and its a troublesome place then it's nice to not have to be in that one school everyday and having a chance of atmosphere can be nice because maybe of of your other schools is a better place to be. Luckily my one school appears to be good thus far.

The first thing I notice is how friendly so many of the students are. In the past I've worked at Junior Highs that while there were friendly students the majority seem to be distant or plain out miss behaved. Junior High has a reputation in many countries as being the least easy/enjoyable grade to teach. So far so good. I was actually surprised at how friendly and comfortable many of the student have already become. These students even seek out to say hello to me when I at first don't notice them which isn't normal in Japan in my experience. My students in my new Junior High remind me a lot of my past Elementary students in that they seem to still have retained that joy that strict society tries and sucks away from them later as they move up from Elementary to High School. My first years particularly still look and act like they are in Elementary School which is actually a good thing. They still have energy in class and excitement for me the ALT. (Assistant Language Teacher) The rest of the school staff all seem to be rather friendly as well which is a refresher from my previous position. The first week consisted mostly of my introduction followed by question time from the students. One of the most popular questions was a request from the students to hear me rap. I told them during the introduction before that one of my hobbies was rapping and showed them a picture of me on stage performing in San Francisco. In almost every class someone asked me to rap so I had them all make a beat using their desks in unison and I rapped for them. They loved it,haha. Anyway, God willing the year will continue on positive.