The school festival has finished successfully and usually people talk about what happens during the festival. However, I’d like to talk about preparations and my reflections of it instead.
According to the list of class data of the JHS/HS, there were 7 haunted houses, 3 casinos, 2 shooting games, 2 maid cafes, and a human zoo with the students wearing animal headbands lying on the ground being fed through cage bars choko boru for their food and protein shakes for drinks.
During the week of school festival preparations, I finally had some downtime between grading and making tests to walk around and help the students and teachers. Below is a list of festival related vents that I personally partiicipated or witnessed where students were practicing English conversation:
• masks being spray painted inside a classroom not well ventilated for a haunted house
• told said high school students to put on masks because of the dangerous fumes
• told high school students to turn on the classroom light because they were sawing wood in the dark using their phones as lights
• wrote cursive for the JHS 1st graders classroom board
• edited an English paper about Japanese culture that was to be displayed in the classroom
• students told me about the new Monster Hunter game coming out
• punctured a hole in the opening of a balloon for students to pump air into
• got a free t-shirt for a Biohazard/Resident Evil themed classroom
• made 30 paper flowers out of confetti paper and 30 paper trains
• decorated a hallway with a smiley face design with above said decorations
• made 20 origami cranes and 10 origami shurikens
• shot a nerf gun for a student to practice running from
• students went shopping at Daiso and Costco to buy materials and supplies
• spun a casino custom slot machine with a students face on it making different poses
• ate 3 cotton candies for the students to practice using the cotton candy machine
• students explained to me the new popcorn game that was on the homepage of Google
• brushed 2 wigs for the performances with many students complimenting them
In the past, the benefits of being an assistant teacher included team teaching and less lesson planning time to connect with students. With the increased time to connect with students, I walked around the school and interacted with students, asking about their lives. I actually knew most of their names and a lot about their family, love rumors, friends, interests, and other kinds of trouble they had going on in their life that I felt so much closer with them.
Now as a main teacher, while I don’t have as much time to connect due to increased role responsibilities as when I was in an assistant role, I still do my best to talk with my students. I really love when the festival season comes around the corner because this is one of the best times I can connect more with my students. Being able to have fun moments inside and outside the classroom is a joy to me and I love seeing my students thrive and improve in their studies. The educational and emotional responsibility we as teachers share for our students is a great task that I take pride in, as showcased during the festival season.
During the festival, the time with my students brings more natural conversations that are so unprompted and organic. While making origami, my students volunteered to become teachers and taught me how to make a crane using easy English and learned new words.
The time together with no lesson plan, but rather just sitting with students creating was the time where I not only learned new names but also their interests and daily life worries. Instead of repeating the textbooks, while making origami students asked the usual questions like what Japanese food do I like and why did I come to Japan but also unusual questions that they never would’ve had the chance to ask me otherwise about mental illness and sexual orientation.
These rare moments outside the classrooms are one of the things I have looked forward to as a teacher as I try to get those interactions every day. One of my favorite things to do when I’m not teaching is to go visit the club rooms and talk with the students. For example, the best place for me is visiting the cooking club. Learning and teaching real world skills is the best motivation for anyone to learn a language and food culture connects us universally.
When I left school during the school festival preparations week to go home, I felt a different kind of accomplishment with my students due to the connections made and look forward to making more.