Okinawa & Beyond: First Day of School

Jessica & I in our apartment before leaving for the 1st day of school

Overall, the day was not bad at all, it was actually fun! I feel that I have been so prepared to teach that it really was not that big of a deal to do the "real thing" on my own. That is a nice feeling to have!

The students were able to work quietly for the most part

Sarah, my team teaching partner is great, I really like her, we work well together which makes a world of difference. I went in expecting things to go wrong so to me it wasn't a big deal when they did.

We have 24 students but three were absent and one refused to get in the picture (see paragraph below). With two teachers it sounds like a piece of cake, but it is truly exhausting! I would have went a little crazy if it was just me in the room!

I was very strict today because I want the students to know they need to follow the rules. The kids are all so cute, it was hard to be strict with some of them. We enforced the rules ALL day, our #1 rule being "You cannot speak Japanese anywhere on school campus." This is the school rule because we are an American, English speaking school. Parent's are paying for their children to be in an English speaking environment so we have to strictly enforce this rule. We had the entire class put their heads down for five minutes, three times today for students speaking Japanese.

These will be our rules all year

One student who is new to our school decided he wasn't going to listen to anything we asked him to do. I asked him several times to sit in his seat and not get up. He would just stare at us when we asked him to do something. I kept telling myself to not get frustrated because he might not know ANY English at all. I took his crayon and started coloring on his paper and said "this is what you need to be doing." I also pointed to the other students at his table and said "like them" Again he just stared at me. UGH. When it was time to line up for recess, he refused to get in the correct spot in line. Then he decided to try and run away during recess...not too far but still! There is a road in close proximity to where we were so it was not fun getting him to stay in one spot (thank God there were 2 of us teachers!). After 10 minutes he would still not come inside so I had to get the principal (not good on the FIRST day of school!). I didn't get to ask what happened to him yet but he never came back to class. I saw him after school and he looked at me and ran to a corner and hid, lol. Poor kid. His sister attends our school as well so I had her come get his backpack to take home.

One common theme among a handful of students is that you ask them to do something and they just stare at you. They all supposedly know English but it doesn't seem so. It's really frustrating having to walk over and literally take their hand to show them what you want them to do. Hopefully they will catch on sooner rather than later!

Students brought in their own school supplies based on a list the school sent out. We had an abundant amount of tissue boxes, hand soap and zip lock bags brought in!

Each day (starting next week) my students will leave the classroom for 45 minutes for either art, music or P.E., in addition they will leave everyday for Japanese class (half the class goes at a time). It will be very nice to have this prep time! However we have to stay with our students everyday during lunch and recess! When you are used to a lunch break away from kids and you don't have that anymore it's a big deal. I was looking forward to lunch all day and when it came I didn't get to relax.

Also, I might have mentioned a time or two how incredibility HUMID it is here. Today was around 88 degrees with 80% humidity!!! We have air conditioning in our classrooms but not in the rest of the school building. Lunch is inside but with no AC so it's not very comfy eating lunch.

My students seem very intelligent and they looked so cute eating rice and sushi with chop sticks during lunch! At the end of the day one of my students, a little girl ran up to me and gave me a huge hug. It was very sweet and something God knew I needed.

Letting out their silly faces