When the Nail Sticks Up...
You hammer it down. Well, at least that is what the Japanese proverb says. And I feel like I just got hammered (for doing things differently, standing out)...
Today I came into school, ready to prepare the videos I had chosen for my second period music lesson and burn the 40 CDs that I planned to give my students as gifts (the song list and blanks were ready, but had yet to do the dirty work).
So I come in, sit down, listen to the morning meeting and then go to open the videos... and nothing happens. Hmm, ok. The videos aren't working. I have my personal computer with one of the clips (from an American political campaign; was going to be talking about the power of music and different ways it's used). I use my external harddrive and transfer the files, but the player on my work computer isn't compatable with the clip and I can FEEL the sand slipping through the hourglass and know that I don't have enough time to figure this out with all of the files (and the class was mostly videos with American music and television/awards shows). No time to download the players and still take a risk it won't work... I realize I need a new lesson. Fast.
I plan a new lesson and luckily get a 10 minute buffer (extra time after the bell when the kids are filling out surveys) to work on my NEW lesson. Burn the music from the missing videos onto CDs, wrap-up the worksheets, make 40 copies... and I'm off. The lesson goes OK and the kids look happy. Whew...with an extra minute to breathe, I look around the room for really the first time and... my room is... empty!
One thing that I have been really adament about and sort of take pride in is introducing my culture to my students in an immersion-type setting (years at CLV had an influence on me). While most classrooms in Japan might have a clock and a poster from some event (that the kids made), they are generally not decorated. Yes, just bare, white walls. Windows on both sides (one side looking outside, one side going into the hallway), two sliding doors on each end of the hallway-side of the classroom (one is often locked), with 40 desks (class numbers set by law) in rows, a blackboard in the front and in the back and a little stage and podium at the front for the teacher. I can bet you that if you ask teachers from any part of Japan to describe their public high school classrooms, they will offer the same (or some variation of this) description. So when I arrived to find a white classroom, my first instinct was "DECORATE." I've spent a lot of time and money getting things from America for the classroom, cutting out information for a board about comics and one about America and Minnesota. Just yesterday I spent two hours hanging up new posters (some from an old project on different countries and some newer ones from my second year students). I know the students generally like the classroom. It doesn't feel like a classroom to them, but the point is that it does feel like a classroom... but an American one. I want them to feel what it is like to be in another culture. When they are with me, they are in English mode, and if I can help facilitate that through some simple posters and decorations, then why not? But it really isn't so typical in Japan... and so it all had to come down.
Ok, I will admit I may be overreacting a litte and there are valid reasons behind the move (beyond just making my classroom more stereotypically Japanese again). The classroom had to be bare because our school will be used as a testing site for a pretty big, standardized test on Friday and any potential room cannot have ANYTHING in it.... but they forgot to tell me they were going to take everything down so it caught me off guard. I just don't know why they need that room if it's never been used before and it's also frusterating because I've put so much effort into it (and thought of re-doing everything and of what might have been ruined in the move). Boo.
In other news, I don't think I'm the only one in a bad mood today. Hyogo Prefecture officially announced the budget cuts for next year. I wasn't affected but my coworkers just found out that they might have to give up about the equivilent of a month's salary... per year. Ouch! Talk about aftershocks of this earthquake... only their financial (not sysmic) and are coming 13 years late!
Today I came into school, ready to prepare the videos I had chosen for my second period music lesson and burn the 40 CDs that I planned to give my students as gifts (the song list and blanks were ready, but had yet to do the dirty work).
So I come in, sit down, listen to the morning meeting and then go to open the videos... and nothing happens. Hmm, ok. The videos aren't working. I have my personal computer with one of the clips (from an American political campaign; was going to be talking about the power of music and different ways it's used). I use my external harddrive and transfer the files, but the player on my work computer isn't compatable with the clip and I can FEEL the sand slipping through the hourglass and know that I don't have enough time to figure this out with all of the files (and the class was mostly videos with American music and television/awards shows). No time to download the players and still take a risk it won't work... I realize I need a new lesson. Fast.
I plan a new lesson and luckily get a 10 minute buffer (extra time after the bell when the kids are filling out surveys) to work on my NEW lesson. Burn the music from the missing videos onto CDs, wrap-up the worksheets, make 40 copies... and I'm off. The lesson goes OK and the kids look happy. Whew...with an extra minute to breathe, I look around the room for really the first time and... my room is... empty!
One thing that I have been really adament about and sort of take pride in is introducing my culture to my students in an immersion-type setting (years at CLV had an influence on me). While most classrooms in Japan might have a clock and a poster from some event (that the kids made), they are generally not decorated. Yes, just bare, white walls. Windows on both sides (one side looking outside, one side going into the hallway), two sliding doors on each end of the hallway-side of the classroom (one is often locked), with 40 desks (class numbers set by law) in rows, a blackboard in the front and in the back and a little stage and podium at the front for the teacher. I can bet you that if you ask teachers from any part of Japan to describe their public high school classrooms, they will offer the same (or some variation of this) description. So when I arrived to find a white classroom, my first instinct was "DECORATE." I've spent a lot of time and money getting things from America for the classroom, cutting out information for a board about comics and one about America and Minnesota. Just yesterday I spent two hours hanging up new posters (some from an old project on different countries and some newer ones from my second year students). I know the students generally like the classroom. It doesn't feel like a classroom to them, but the point is that it does feel like a classroom... but an American one. I want them to feel what it is like to be in another culture. When they are with me, they are in English mode, and if I can help facilitate that through some simple posters and decorations, then why not? But it really isn't so typical in Japan... and so it all had to come down.
Ok, I will admit I may be overreacting a litte and there are valid reasons behind the move (beyond just making my classroom more stereotypically Japanese again). The classroom had to be bare because our school will be used as a testing site for a pretty big, standardized test on Friday and any potential room cannot have ANYTHING in it.... but they forgot to tell me they were going to take everything down so it caught me off guard. I just don't know why they need that room if it's never been used before and it's also frusterating because I've put so much effort into it (and thought of re-doing everything and of what might have been ruined in the move). Boo.
In other news, I don't think I'm the only one in a bad mood today. Hyogo Prefecture officially announced the budget cuts for next year. I wasn't affected but my coworkers just found out that they might have to give up about the equivilent of a month's salary... per year. Ouch! Talk about aftershocks of this earthquake... only their financial (not sysmic) and are coming 13 years late!
posted by Brenda Ann Elizabeth McKinney @ 4:23 PM
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