The Best Day Ever!!

I’m going to skip a few things now so that I can get to the elementary school visit. I’ll summarize briefly, but now that I’m finally spending time in schools I’d rather spend time blogging about that than other touristy things or less interesting parts of the trip. Sorry if you don’t get all the details, but believe me when I say that it will make for a much more interesting blog this way! I am working on an errors and omissions page that will include a lot of impressions, thoughts and photos I’ve left out along the way, and I’ll probably publish that when I get back to Florida. Things I’m skipping for the sake of the blog (and to get caught up):

• Visit to Sake Brewery (quit complaining, that doesn’t belong on an elementary school blog anyway)


• 
  Visit to Hariko Handicraft Studio


• 
  Meeting with representatives of PTAs from the three schools we’ll be visiting (which was interesting in a talk around the issues sort of way)


• 
  Visit to Chiba botanical garden


• 
  Visit to Inoh Tadataka museum


• 
  Visit to Katori Shrine
  

Other interesting notes about the JFMF trip outside of Katori… the Miyagi group is still being affected by the aftershocks of the big earthquake in their prefecture… the Yokkiaichi group made it on TV… one of our participants had to go home early because of major forest fire damage to his neighborhood and property (we’re thinking about you, Andy.) No other news from the other groups.

June 18

We had a super early morning today, leaving the hotel before 7am. We wanted to get to Shinshima Elementary School in time to watch the two basketball teams practice and watch the children come to school. We were greeted by the assistant principal and a member of the school board. Kids started coming in before 8am, and they saw us lined up on both sides to greet them and would run away into the school! I guess we were just too scary for them. I tried to take pictures of them, but they were too quick and all I got were backpacks. I went into the gym and watched the girls and boys basketball teams practice on opposite ends of the court. These kids were excellent shooters and defenders. They constantly encouraged each other as well, saying “Nice In!” if the shot went in, and “Don’t Mind!” if the shot didn’t make it. Many of them greeted me as I came in, so I stepped off to the side to be less distracting.

We went into the school, where we had to remove out shoes and put the slippers on. This is a very interesting custom. The soles of the outdoor shoes are not allowed to touch the raised part of the entrance, and must be placed into a shoe cabinet, and you walk around the inside of the school in the clean slippers. I think it has something to do with respect for the school as much as it does cleanliness. At 7:55 I was called over by the principal and AP (assistant principal) to deliver the speech to the entire school. They wanted me to speak through the public address system, so Mikiko-san (our translator) and I got ready for our big moment. A fourth grader and a sixth grader were running the show in the broadcast booth, and they started the morning announcements with a gentle tune which they followed with the reading of a prepared sheet of announcements. Then I was on! I read my speech two sentences at a time with Mikiko-san translating into Japanese during my breaks. Here’s what I said to the school:

Good Morning. My name is Scott Ralph, and I teach fifth grade at Apopka
Elementary School near Orlando, Florida. I am just one member of a group
of teachers from across the United States that is happy and excited to be
visiting Shinshima Elementary School today.

To the school administration and teachers, I would like to say it is truly a pleasure to
observe and make connections with you, our fellow educators. We have had many
opportunities to learn about the government, economics, and culture of Japan,
but today is the day we have been looking forward to the most, the day that we
finally get to spend time in your classrooms to see how you cultivate the young
minds of the future leaders of this beautiful country.

To the students, I would like to say that we are so excited to be able to learn from
you as we watch you solve math problems, create art projects, and conduct
science experiments. Today will be a time for the teachers of American children
to become students also, and we can’t wait to see what you have to teach us.

Thank you all very much for making time for us to spend the day learning and growing with you. We are very humbled by your kindness, and expect that we will all leave this building today as great friends.

As we were walking back to the waiting area, Mikiko-san told me that she was glad that I addressed the children in my speech. I was really happy as well, because as I went to different classrooms, kids that read my nametag knew who I was. That was pretty cool. When I got back to the waiting room, the rest of the teachers clapped for me and told me that they liked what I said. It was very humbling to be complimented by teachers who are at the top of their game like those I’ve been working with these last two weeks.

We were given a brief orientation by the principal and AP of the school, and we learned about the administrative policies and about the history and demographics of the school itself. Shinshima has a staff of 17, with 101 pupils from grades first through sixth. There is only one learning disabled student in what’s called the Dandelion class. At first the teachers were beside themselves over the learning disabled student being referred to as a weed, until the Mikiko explained that when she hears the word “Tampopo” (Japanese for Dandelion) that she thinks of something small and fragile that must be protected. She said that they love Dandelions in Japan, and she was genuinely surprised to hear that Dandelions were regarded as weeds in the US.

As all of this orientation and discussion was going on, I heard the sound of children singing throughout the school building. I think that they were singing the school song. It was beautiful. After they were finished, we were given free reign of the school, allowed to go anywhere we wanted. I made sure to drop by the Dandelion class first because the teacher of that class, Fumiyo Nishio, is my host this weekend and I wanted to greet her more than anyone else. She gave me a very warm greeting and I stayed and watched her teach for a little while. She was working on long division with her student, who happened to be a fourth grader. I moved over to the fourth grade classroom and saw that they too were working on: long division. It looked like the second or third day of the lesson, as there was some work posted on the bulletin board. I loved how the problem wasn’t only solved, but included an explanation and a drawing to prove that the student had a true understanding of the problem's solution.


A word about the student work in general: it was everywhere! There were math solutions posted on bulletin boards, art projects hanging up, calligraphy posted on the outside of the classrooms, poster boards with photos from field trips, compositions, everything you could imagine covered an amazing amount of space in these classrooms. The fire marshal would have been all over this school with his clipboard. I can tell you though, it was a happy little place and all of this work showed it. Plus, there were plants everywhere! More than one classroom had a fish tank full of little tiny swimmers.

I noticed that the students all had a nice little cushion to sit on. One of the kids showed me that when the cover for the cushion was removed, it became a heavy orange head cover to prevent injury from falling debris in the event of an earthquake. Each teacher also had a hard plastic helmet to wear in case of an emergency.

After the first few periods, the students suddenly were running all over the school. No one was hurting each other, but instead they were just playing, talking, drinking water, getting bathroom business done, and building up the courage to greet the American teachers that had invaded their school for the day. The bell rand again a few minutes later and all of the children took off to different areas of the school. From what I could tell, the third and fourth graders went to the gym to practice some type of flag performance, the first and second graders were working with pom-poms in the multipurpose room at the top of the stairs, and the fifth and sixth graders were practicing a music piece in the music room. I watched the older kids play music for a while. There was a drum major, some drummers, and some xylophones, but most of the kids were using some type of handheld instrument where they would blow into a pipe and play a piano style keyboard with one hand. They actually were playing a Beatles song “Ob-la di, ob la da.” One of the teachers in my group found out that they were working on a big performance for the parents and that all of these different components would come together later.

At the end of this period, the assistant principal came and found me and the other teachers, and rounded us up and invited us into the fourth grade classroom again, where the principal was teaching a calligraphy lesson. Simply put, this was one of the most awesome parts of the day. The principal showed the kanji characters for left and right and asked the students for the origins of the characters. Some stood up and gave answers. The principal then pulled out a photograph of an ancient cave drawing of a turtle (which I assumed was from south east Asia somewhere) and showed the children that the symbols for left and right were almost identical to the left and right limbs of the turtle in the drawing. The students kept going “ohhhhhh…” it was truly an aha moment for them, and it was so exciting to see them understand the history of their written language. The principal then taught them the calligraphy strokes for the two Kanji, and the children practiced their calligraphy, making beautiful artwork in the process. I found out after the lesson that the principal has a special degree in calligraphy, and as a master calligrapher he is passing on his art to his students as he teaches them calligraphy every week. Amazing! You just don’t see principals in the classroom teaching very often… I guess that’s one of the many benefits of such a small school.


At lunch time, we were to report to the cafeteria where we would be picked up by kids from the classes we would be visiting. I was picked up by fourth graders, and we walked up to the room together. I sat with a bunch of boys and one girl who had pushed their desks together to make a lunch table. The kids were eating in the classroom with their teacher, just like they did every day. There was no cafeteria in the school. The children had gone down to the kitchen where the food had been made from fresh ingredients, brought the meal for their classroom up in the dumb waiter, pushed the cart to the classroom, put on hair nets and aprons, and made sure that everyone was served and waiting to eat. After the other teachers and I came in and sat down, we all said “Thank You for the Food” in Japanese, bowed, and began to eat lunch. All of the kids ate the school food which was curry pork with a piece of chicken, flat bread, a probiotics yogurt drink, and milk. The food was free to the kids as healthy nutrition is part of the school curriculum. It was awesome, probably the best school meal I’ve ever had. After we were done eating, the kids said “Thank you for the food I ate” sorted all of the trash, milk cartons and metal trays and got everything out of the classroom. They where moving quickly with smiles on their face, and didn’t treat the responsibility of cleaning up from lunch as a chore at all, but rather as a privilege.

After lunch, the kids had recess, which basically meant run all over the place inside and outside of the school. I got trapped by a bunch of little kids that wanted my autograph and business card, so I spent recess honoring these requests. The other teachers wanted to crush my face because all of the children were asking for their business cards because I was giving mine away. It’s not my fault that I brought a box of 250 and they didn’t! I knew the kids would like getting cards, and they truly did: they accepted my cards like little business men and women, bowing and studying the information on the card just like the school’s teachers and administrators had before.

We had the chance to watch the kids clean up their classroom as well, and during this time I took advantage of the opportunity to hunt down Hirayama-sensei, the fifth grade teacher. Mikiko helped me present a partnership with her where we could exchange letters between our classes and possibly do a writing project. We’re going to begin this project on September first, near the beginning of Apopka’s school year and at the beginning of Shinshima’s second semester.

I stopped by later to see the kids in that class during a time designated for their class meeting, and Hirayama-sensei called the class to attention and told them about our partnership. They got so excited about having a class to communicate with in the States. It was very cute! So any Ralphadelphians who are out there reading this blog post, you’d better get ready to make some Japanese friends! Start studying Japanese language right now!! After the announcement, Hirayama-sensei invited me and Christina Vargas (who attended the meeting with me) to join he class for a game called Fruit Basket, where some people were the melons, some were the oranges and some were bananas. I was a banana, so whenever my fruit was called I’d have to run for another chair in the circle. If there were none left, I had to stand in the middle and think of another fruit to get that group up and steal their chair. If someone in the middle yelled “fruit basket” we all had to run for it. It was fun, even though I’m pretty sure I lost.

The rest of the day was a lot of fun, but as usual this blog is getting super long. I will finish by saying that this day has been the one that I have been waiting for on this trip, and that there is nothing else that will be able to top it. I have seen a day at a Japanese elementary school, I’ve connected with teachers and kids, and I’ve had a lot of fun. I wish I could invite all of you to come to wonderful Shinshima Elementary and see it for yourself. It is truly a wonderful place. In fact, as we were leaving, the principal presented each of us with a sheet of student made calligraphy from his lesson and a card with the calligraphy for “love” and “friendship” that he put on it. As we left, all of the teachers were outside the school waving goodbye to us. I wished I could stay for another week or two.

I can’t imagine a day that could possibly top this for the entire rest of the trip! Thanks, Shinshima Elementary School!