High School Life

The second semester of high school and subsequently my job began on September 1.  I have now been teaching for a little over 2 months.  Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday I teach at Miki High School.  It is a really beautiful school with nice gardens.

The day begins with a 15 minute bike ride from my apartment down the mountain to the school.  I am usually following a pack of high school students on their bicycles.  I found in the first few weeks that if you stick with them they will lead you to all of the short cuts.

I park my bike and put on my "indoor shoes" which happen to be a pair of black glittery Tom's.  Outdoor shoes are not allowed to be worn in the building, so my sneakers go into a shoe locker.

The students have a place where they can put their shoes, but this is separate from the teacher's shoe locker area.

Student Shoe Locker Area

I try to be at school at least 10 minutes early, especially to have time to cool off before the morning staff meeting.  The staff room reminds me of a police bull pen.  It is always buzzing.  There are always teachers making copies and grading papers and talking with each other.  But, before the day begins, there is always a message from the principal (the morning staff meeting) and everyone greeting one another with "ohayou gozaimas".

At Miki High School I teach with another ALT named Matt.  He is from Australia.  We almost never teach together, but we have the same lesson plans we follow because we split the English classes of 40 into 20 and 20. 

I teach all of my classes alongside a JTE (Japanese Teacher of English), and most of them in the LL classroom.  The students practice using conversational phrases like "What did you watch on TV last night?"  You know?  The important things in life!  I model how vocabulary should be pronounced and try to encourage the students to practice and enjoy English through games and activities.  Japanese students are notoriously quiet.  It is always good when you can successfully get them to speak up in class.

LL Classroom

I spend lunch time in the cafeteria with the students.  The food is amazing and cheap.  The students usually don't talk to me much because they are shy, but sometimes a few brave students will sit and practice English at lunch.

Outside the Cafeteria

Using the bathroom at school is interesting.  The teacher's bathrooms are right outside the staff room.  There is one western toilet in the ladies' room, but the rest are the squat style toilets.  You must take off your indoor shoes and put on a pair of rubber toilet shoes to use the toilet.  Most women push a button that makes a sound like flushing so that you cannot hear what is going on in their stall.  They really need to install these in the States.  I can't think of how many times women at DEQ would just avoid using the bathroom with someone else in the room.  It's genius.  Another important fact about the bathroom is that there are no paper towels to wipe your hands on at the sink.  This is common in Japan, so it is smart to always have a towel in your bag at all times.

After school the students go to their club activities.  Club activities range from flower arranging to baseball to martial arts to mountaineering.  There are all kinds of club activities students can participate in and different levels of commitment come with each.  Many of the sports clubs meet every day of the week and on the weekends.  Some of the more academic clubs meet once a week.  At Miki I am not involved in any of the clubs, but at Miki Kita I am in charge of ESS (English Speaking Society).

So, when the day is done, I pedal home up the mountainside to my apartment, to my husband, to my shower.  And that is my work day in Miki, Japan.