Arao City, Daiichi Elementary School
In Japanese, daiichi means number one (ichi is one).
It is amazing to me, to be reminded of how much the staff of a school, universally, determines the feel of the environment. At the elementary school, we saw the students coming into school. They had time to play together...many of them were riding unicycles, some on stilts, some checking on the chickens and turtle the school keeps in a coop.
The day was spent with time observing in classrooms (we were given the freedom to roam and stop into any classroom we chose), meeting with teachers and administrators, watching a student performance prepared especially for us, eating lunch with a class of students, attending short 'workshops' prepared by students for our visitation, and finally attending a question and answer session with teachers.
Some accumulated facts:
the school teaches 1-6th grade; most lessons are taught as a combination of lecture and practice; lecture is the traditional teaching method, but there is a statement in the school that it is not always effecting, so sometimes students are taken out of the classroom; students are taken camping in various places, students go on field trips (6th graders will be going overnight to to Nagasaki); it is also notable that the math class I saw students were using origami to demonstrate mastery of types of triangles, the calligraphy class was very hands-on with students practicing in writing kanji characters and then gluing them to a board (a really excellent demonstration of student work).
There is a time-frame they call 'integrated study' - and what does that mean? Thanks Ken, for the great question. Answer wasn't entirely clear...what I do know is that starting in 3rd grade students get 105 hours per year of integrated study. The topic for integrated study, as well as textbooks and materials to be used, are at the discretion of the school.
Some students may bring into school issues from their home lives that make it difficult for them to learn...how is this addressed at Daiichi elementary school? There are school counselors...but it sounds like they only work at the middle school level. Homeroom teachers will also talk together about how to help kids, and go further up the food chain as necessary.
Ohayo gozaimas! Final thoughts from the day, prepared the next morning: many things are universal, like teacher jokes about time we spend, amount we're paid, how we're respected, and how kids are. Doesn't matter which side of the planet, some things are exactly the same. Kids have a generally really great attitude; I think the happiness that (most) kids carry has the ability to overcome whatever kinds of pressure to assume a bad mood may exerted by educators. Teachers here seemed to honestly enjoy working with their students.
And at the end of the day, I was absolutely wiped out. Had dinner last night at an Italian place; it was deemed as 'not selling out' because the menu was all in Japanese, and we had to work really hard to get what we wanted. And the food was pretty good.
Today, Friday, is in a middle school. Last school we visit; tomorrow we go to our homestay. Tonight we're getting to the internet cafe so send off a ton of stuff...
Peace,
Kippu
It is amazing to me, to be reminded of how much the staff of a school, universally, determines the feel of the environment. At the elementary school, we saw the students coming into school. They had time to play together...many of them were riding unicycles, some on stilts, some checking on the chickens and turtle the school keeps in a coop.
The day was spent with time observing in classrooms (we were given the freedom to roam and stop into any classroom we chose), meeting with teachers and administrators, watching a student performance prepared especially for us, eating lunch with a class of students, attending short 'workshops' prepared by students for our visitation, and finally attending a question and answer session with teachers.
Some accumulated facts:
the school teaches 1-6th grade; most lessons are taught as a combination of lecture and practice; lecture is the traditional teaching method, but there is a statement in the school that it is not always effecting, so sometimes students are taken out of the classroom; students are taken camping in various places, students go on field trips (6th graders will be going overnight to to Nagasaki); it is also notable that the math class I saw students were using origami to demonstrate mastery of types of triangles, the calligraphy class was very hands-on with students practicing in writing kanji characters and then gluing them to a board (a really excellent demonstration of student work).
There is a time-frame they call 'integrated study' - and what does that mean? Thanks Ken, for the great question. Answer wasn't entirely clear...what I do know is that starting in 3rd grade students get 105 hours per year of integrated study. The topic for integrated study, as well as textbooks and materials to be used, are at the discretion of the school.
Some students may bring into school issues from their home lives that make it difficult for them to learn...how is this addressed at Daiichi elementary school? There are school counselors...but it sounds like they only work at the middle school level. Homeroom teachers will also talk together about how to help kids, and go further up the food chain as necessary.
Ohayo gozaimas! Final thoughts from the day, prepared the next morning: many things are universal, like teacher jokes about time we spend, amount we're paid, how we're respected, and how kids are. Doesn't matter which side of the planet, some things are exactly the same. Kids have a generally really great attitude; I think the happiness that (most) kids carry has the ability to overcome whatever kinds of pressure to assume a bad mood may exerted by educators. Teachers here seemed to honestly enjoy working with their students.
And at the end of the day, I was absolutely wiped out. Had dinner last night at an Italian place; it was deemed as 'not selling out' because the menu was all in Japanese, and we had to work really hard to get what we wanted. And the food was pretty good.
Today, Friday, is in a middle school. Last school we visit; tomorrow we go to our homestay. Tonight we're getting to the internet cafe so send off a ton of stuff...
Peace,
Kippu
posted by kip at 17:56
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home