Open House

Last week, Ogimi Elementary had its 村学力向上実践報告会, which is the, uh...village academic improvement practice information session...thing. In America, we just call it 'Open House'. The big difference here is that the parents come to watch an actual class. On a Sunday!

It wasn't just parents who came, but teachers from other schools and important people from the school board. Because of this, the day became a 'big deal', and my teachers spent many hours trying to turn a normal class into a super class.

This year, I was asked to do an English lesson. I didn't think anything of it, because I assumed I would just be doing a normal class in front of an audience. But no, the two months leading up to this had me in meetings with the home room teacher going over every detail with a fine-tooth comb.

The class went off without a hitch, with the exception of my attire. When I am told, "Oh, it's just a normal school day.", I don't think to bring a suit. Yet, 5 minutes before class, the homeroom teacher comes up to me in her newly changed outfit, looks at my track suit, and asks me where my suit was.

Anyway, when the classes were finished, all the visitors headed towards the gym for some English songs the kids performed. After that, there was some 2 hour meeting (that I snuck out of), followed by dinner.

I did some killer piano arrangements for Bingo and If You're Happy and You Know It, and it turns out we made the Okinawa paper (me in casual attire)!

(I got a lot of comments of how 'small' the piano looks with me next to it)