Day 3 - First visit to a local school

June 20, 2019

This is Suguru, one of the University students who are helping out with guiding and translating. I'm lucky enough to be part of Group E that has Suguru as our brave leader. Here he is apologizing for something or other. Adorable!

Yesterday was quite the day! We headed out in the morning and took the train to a local school to take a tour, visit classrooms, have lunch with students and then watch a Lesson Study lesson taught by one of the teachers in the school. I can't even begin to describe how fortunate I am to be welcomed into a school in a different country.

We were welcomed to the school by the principal and vice principal and treated like special guests. They had a large room set up for us to work before we took a tour of the school.

The walls are plain white with very little hanging on the walls.

This was a poster made by students inviting others to an after school activity. Students are responsible for helping organize and run programs.

These are old soy sauce containers that have been turned into drums for music class.

Student work for history class. Beautiful isn't it?

Students change for gym class every day so bring their clothes back and forth.

All students and visitors are required to wear slippers. Each shoe storage shelf is organized by classroom. We were given special treatment. We were asked to rub our soles on the carpet before coming in the building but no slippers.

The staff room with the agenda for the day on the board. All teachers have a desk where they come together each day to play the agenda for the day and collaborate with other teachers. There are no announcements on the intercom during the day because all teachers have agreed on the agenda and pass it along to students. They strongly believe there should be no interruptions during the day so there are no announcements. During lunch the students play music, tell jokes or present something over the intercom to entertain fellow students. This is a club run by the older grades.

There are handwashing sinks in the hallway where the spigot can turn to become a water fountain. Instead of soap dispensers, students use bars of soap are hanging in mesh bags.

There are up to 40 students in each classroom. This classroom we visited had 35 students.

Between each class period students get 5 minutes where they are completely unsupervised. They are responsible for serving lunch to their fellow students and cleaning the classroom. They were incredibly friendly and respectful.

This poster was on one of the hallway walls...past and present.

This table was set up outside the library. Recognize any of the books?

Harry Potter!!!

This is the playground...no padded areas, no grass, no problem.

Science projects where displayed outside.

We all then were able to visit classrooms to talk with students and joined them for lunch. They were all so happy and excited to see us, even with our inability to speak Japanese.

They set up a classroom in the gym so we (along with all the teachers in the school) could observe this teacher teach a lesson on proportional relationships. We then were able to watch as the teachers and administrators had a discussion about the lesson. It was powerful to watch!

After a long, hot and sticky day in the school, we took the train to this little bar/restaurant and had a wonderful welcoming celebration with some of the staff of the school we had just visited.