Pumpkin Carving

When I planned out my lessons for the semester, I knew I was going to throw a Halloween party. I didn't know what it was going to be, but I figured I would do some small game with each class and give them candy. About a month ago, Elina told me that the last JET threw a school wide Halloween festival. She did bobbing for apples and stuff. Forget that. I would have done it for one school, but to gather all the materials for four different schools and be responsible for all those kids at once? No thanks.

I got the impression that the last JET chose to do this herself and that it wouldn't be expected by the school. Since we've been told that the JET experience is what you make it, I chose to play ignorant. Lazy? A little, but it's not a bad lazy since I'm doing something else that I think will be better. So I waited each week for some teacher to bring up the school festival. Nothing. I figured this was really good or really bad, if they decided to ask me the week before.

Well, last week, one school brought it up to me. I said I would do it, but I didn't know what games to do, besides bobbing for apples. I could think of a million class size games, but school sized activities? A little more difficult. So I asked what Gabrielle did last year. She couldn't remember. She asked other teachers. No one could remember.

So I said I had been planning a class party and she said I could do that instead. Awesome.

At this school, the vice-principal went on base and bought two big, orange pumpkins. They have pumpkins here in Japan that they eat, but they are small and green and, more importantly, not good for carving. I chose to have a carving class for 5th grade and one for 6th.

It was the first time they had seen a big, orange pumpkin before.

I remember in elementary school when a police officer would show up for some 'drugs are bad, mmkay?' speech. We would shout out, "Have you killed someone?" and "Can we see your gun?!" I expected the same reaction with my assortment of knives. I had one kitchen knife, a grapefruit knife, and two mini pumpkin saws. I had them wrapped in a towel, so when I displayed them, I felt like an evil surgeon. Everyone shrank back, "scary!" A little culture difference.

I took it upon myself to divert from the carving lesson and teach knife safety. I showed them how to carry a knife, how to hand it to someone, and how to cut away from yourself.

The carving went great. I did the main cutting. The students pulled out the seeds, wash the seeds, and then scraped the inside. I then cut out the face, but I let them cut a little with the mini pumpkin saws. Then they took all my knives and scrapers and washed them and threw away all the newspaper. Great experience for them, little work for me. Just how I like it.

Clicking on the pictures will take you to my Flickr account where I also have pictures of the undoukai that took place last month.

Earthquake

Experienced my first earthquake tonight.

I don't know if I heard it, or if there was a slight tremble that I was unaware of. Either way, I'm in the middle of a movie, and, like a dog, my ears perk up and I think, "Uh oh". I knew exactly what was coming.

You could hear a faint rumbling and then the building shook. About 10 seconds later, gone.

Nothing too special besides it being my first. Imagining a big earthquake now is scary though.

Can't find much info about it. Apparently it was a 5.3 off the east coast of Okinawa, but I don't know if that's what I felt.

Kindergartners

Monday is kindergarten day. For my regular elementary school kids, I usually do a little bit of review in the beginning, teach some new material, and then play one game. If the game goes bad, I'll play two games.

I applied the same plan today, and I went through three games. Meaning, everything fell flat.

I try to play English games only, because part of my job is to not only introduce the English language, but its culture too. But the trick comes in explaining how the games work. I guess I take for granted what has been drilled into my head and what I take to be common sense. I also think it is best to assume the way the kids acted today isn't how "Japanese kids" do it, but how my specific class behaves.

Game 1: Fruits Basket. Okay, I said I like to stick to English games, but since I was teaching fruits, this was an easy one to start with. Basically, you make a ring of chairs with one missing. A kid stands in the middle and calls out a fruit. Everyone holding a card with said fruit jumps up and changes seats. Actually, this game went okay with the exception of the fat kid refusing to get up out of his chair, along with little Sylvia Plath, who sits and cries every time I show up.

Game 2: Red Rover. Of course I wasn't going to teach 5 year olds the entire Red Rover song. I thought it would be easy to teach "Come here, please" instead. Well, the way the Japanese *cough*, I mean, the way my kids played the game was one team huddled up and took about 5 minutes to decide who they should call over. Then, after calling out the kid's name, the kid on the other side would freeze and say, "I don't want to." A few brave souls, bless them, actually made the run to the other side. One kid, when he was called, turned around and cried.

I swear, EVERYONE was crying today. I was playing a staring game with one girl, and she literally collapsed and fell smack on her face. For no reason! She cried, too.

Game 3: Orange, orange, apple. AKA Duck, duck, goose. Again, when a few kids were picked, they didn't want to get up and run. One kid, after being unable to catch up with the kid and having his seat taken, walked up to him and kicked him in the FACE! If that doesn't signal instant beating, I don't know what does. The kid who got kicked just ignored him. Didn't cry, didn't yell, just sat there looking off. The teachers looked stunned, and I was waiting for hardcore discipline. What happened? They ignored it! They cried out with a "Kenji!", and that was that. I've been told that elementary school kids are not disciplined, because kids should be kids. The switch, as I understand, is turned on in Junior High.

Afterwards, I learned they enjoyed "Jump on Cliff-Teacher", "Climb on Cliff-Teacher", and "Pick Me Up So I Can Touch the Ceiling". They obviously do not care about "Cliff-Teacher's" back. This is where there were more crying kids. No, I didn't fall on any this time. It was from kids shoving other kids out of the way so they could be picked up. The shoving was usually little Japanese boy asserting male-dominance over little Japanese girl.

Honestly, with the amount of drilling they give kids in respect to those of higher rank, they should give equal time in teaching manners to those on the same or lower level. But I guess they are only 5. *sigh*

In all, it actually was a fun day, because I didn't take anything personally. I just stopped the game and moved on. When I left, I had a group of five walk me to my car and wave goodbye till I was out of site. But I also walked out knowing that they hadn't learned a single thing today.

Next week: group games only.

Pain Bringer

Today I experienced that childhood feeling of accidently hurting someone while playing and feeling incredibly guilty. Except this time I'm 23 and the kid is 7.

We were playing kickball inside the gym and I was guarding 2nd. Someone kicked the ball, and the kid on first ran by me. I had the ball, went to tag him, slipped, and fell on him. *crack* I either popped his foot or broke it. I quickly got off him and he started laughing. But a second later, after he realized I had crushed his foot, he started bawling. Nothing like being the teacher supervising a bunch of 1st and 2nd graders in the gym, and you cause the pain.

He gets up crying and limps away. All the kids are saying "It's okay, don't worry". I figured I should let a teacher know first instead of taking advice from the kids. So I go to the teachers room to tell them what happened.

Teachers: "You fell on him?!"
Me: *shamefully* "yea..."
Teachers: "Is he crying?"
Me: "yea..."
Teachers: "Oh, he's fine. Don't worry"
Me: "I'm a 6'3" barbarian. I'm three times his height and weight, and you haven't even seen him yet."

They almost seemed to think it was funny. So I grab one of my Tootsie Rolls off of the break table (one of the gifts from America the teachers never ate) and run to the room where he was. All the kids are at their desks waiting for class to start, and Hurt-Kid has his head down STILL crying. So I give him the Tootsie Roll and leave.

Later in the day I saw him walking around, so I know he's fine. I figured all I did was twist his foot, but still. I was honestly more worried of him hating me and having a fear of foreigners for the rest of his life.

Sports Day

I've spent almost every weekend this month attending some kind of undoukai (oon-doh-kai), or sports day. A few weeks ago, there was the Junior High one, then there was the village one, then this past weekend was the elementary school one. There are four elementary schools in Ogimi, and they all have their undoukai on the same day. Meaning I traveled to one school, show my face to the kids and teachers, then leave an hour later and go to the next. Next weekend is the kindergarten one.

Undoukais are like our field days...except it's on the weekend and parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents show up. There are relays, organized dance, tug of war, and other little things. The kids and teachers spent all last week putting on the final touches, so all the English classes were cancelled. But I was still required to show up and sit in the teachers room until 4.

I would like to touch on something I've mentioned in a previous post. The kids do EVERYTHING here. There are no groundskeepers at the schools. In the morning they can be seen moving dirt with a wheelbarrow, planting plants, and sweeping leaves. Because this was undoukai week, they were measuring and making lane lines on the track field.

I remember being told to pick up sticks as a kid and I would complain before I was even out the door. The teachers must beat the kids who get out of line with baseball bats.

Another thing that is different is there are no cafeterias. Lunch is eaten in the classroom with the teacher. The kids put on these cute white aprons and hats, and then do rock-paper-scissors to see who dishes out the food. Afterwards, they bring the dirty dishes to a wash room.

Where do they find the time to teach the kids if they are laboring all day? Easy, they stay till 5. I get to work at 8:15 everyday. Kids are already there. I leave at 4:15. The kids are still there. There is actually a lot of free time, where the kids run off (unsupervised) and do kid stuff.

So I would like to see American elementary schools bulldoze the cafeteria and fire all the janitors and lunch ladies. And instead of having kids leave at 2:00 and making parents who work spend money on after school daycare, use the extra three hours for child labor. It will save money AND build character.