(July 2020) COVID19 and Japanese Classrooms

I wanted to make a quick blog update on what’s going on in my school in the midst of the coronavirus. I wrote about the strategies my school took to prevent the spread of the virus and for our students’ safety earlier last month, so if you’re curious please go back and read that.

For those who don’t know already: schools in Japan are mostly back to normal.

Over the last month or two, a few pictures of Japanese classrooms with "preventative measures" have been posted up such as this classroom in Funabashi, Chiba and images such as these:

So I took to my twitter, and ask those who were ALTs if such images exists at their school.

(Keep in mind I'm no twitter famous and I have a small following, so it's not like this is conclusive or anything, but I imagine if I asked more people, the "yes" will still not outweigh the "no".)

Hmmmmmmm.............

I had received some feedback from other ALTs about my earlier post as well and was told that honestly, not much preventative measures have been taken. Most schools only dawn the masks and face shields, but otherwise everything remains relatively the same. To which I’m honestly not surprised about. Japanese schools are often under budget, so it’s not like they have money to invest in sanitizer and extra cleaning supplies for everyone. Space is also pretty limited, and most classes have about 40 students each. There’s really not a lot of breathing room for change.

Unfortunately for me, I am in a similar situation.

Sanitizing and Cleaning

In my previous post, I had posted that my school had provided us with alcohol and spray bottles for the classrooms. At the end of the day, homeroom teachers are responsible for spraying the surfaces of the desks. Luckily, I believe most teachers still have a habit of doing this. To what degree, I'm not sure. My co-homeroom teacher and I make sure to spray down the surfaces every day after school while our kids conduct other normal cleaning duties.

A few non-homeroom teachers have taken on the task to spray other commonly used classrooms (such as English room, computer room, etc). Again, to what degree and frequency, I'm not so sure. But the positive in this whole thing is that more and more people in my school are using hand sanitizer on the regular. I hope this becomes more of a habit for people in the future.

In the Classroom...

At first, we were highly encouraged not to do activities where students have to speak aloud and do pair/group work - but as time went on, this became only up to the discretion of the teacher. I would say 2 weeks after the return of classes, a co-teacher of mine was already running group activities like debates.

Like I said before, classrooms with around 40 students are the norm here in Japan. Previously, my school had separated the class into 2 and did half days for both groups of students. However, we are running full day schedules once again with ALL STUDENTS, which means we are back to cramping into the classrooms with 39 other classmates. There's honestly not much wiggle room for social distancing.

Classes with more than 45 students (usually electives that mix 2 or more classes together) at my school, which happens to be one of my high school classes are moved into large board rooms and other huge spaces. Though a class with more than 45 students are rare. Not to mention, not many schools have extra multi-purpose rooms bigger than a normal classroom available.

What next???

Thankfully, the semester is coming to a close really soon. We are just approaching exam time, and after that, there will be no more classes.

Unfortunately, this is still Japan we are talking about, which means teachers will still have to go into school for "work". Students with club activities will still have to attend every 3 or 4 times a week. Extra events and extra classes will still be held for students in special program, or need extra help.

I don't really know what's next. I suppose I will still have to go to work as usual unless the government demands for another "state of emergency", effectively calling for voluntarily shut down once again.

Do I feel safe? Not really. But I imagine I wouldn't be the only one in this camp.

A Self-Reflection and Life Lessons

As I am slowly creeping towards to my 30th birthday this coming Sunday, I want to take the time to do a bit of self-reflection of all the things I've learned through life and my experiences. I'm writing this simply as a gentle reminder to myself of what I learn and continue to practice a few of these thoughts as I go through life. Perhaps a gentle reminder for you as well.

Learn to Let Go

This is by far the hardest thing for me so far, because I get sentimental a lot. Especially with items I own, which means I have some hoarding tendencies. I'm getting better though. I'm much better at throwing things out that I don't need, but I still need to work on giving away and selling things to get rid of clutter. That's for sure. Unfortunately with people, this gets a little harder unless they really did something terrible to you. But sometimes it just has to be done.

People Will Come and Go

Speaking of people...... as an expat, this is going to be especially true. You have to learn to accept that sometimes the friends you meet in the country together won't stay as is forever, as some will move on or return home. And that you may not get a chance to see them again in a long, long time. Though social media has definitely help close the gap, sometimes it's just not the same... or maybe they don't use social media, and people will just slowly exit your life. And that's ok. Cherish your time together, and reflect on those times.

Admitting Your Mistakes And Saying Sorry (Like You Mean It)

Admitting that you might have done something wrong can be really hard. I grew up in a household where my parents were always right, and the word sorry wasn't exact in the dictionary for them. That's because parents just cannot be wrong. I was obviously taught to say sorry to other people, but never with loved ones. So it was hard for me to be wrong (if I don't know something, I usually just don't say anything), and much, much harder for me to apologize. But I think I'm getting there. At least I want to think so.

Be Willing to Learn

As an adult, you never stop learning. You just (might) stop learning in more conventional ways like a classroom, but you're always learning. As a teacher (of sorts), I know I'm always learning from my students.

Be Kind to Yourself

Be kind to others, be kind to you. Sometimes it's okay if you're just not feeling it, and you need to just not do anything. Or, maybe you did make a mistake, but perhaps there was an unexpected outcome that came of it. Don't stress on things you cannot control. Just be you as best as you can today.

Time Doesn't Wait For Me

As much as I would want time to stop so my vacation or holiday can be extended indefinitely, I know it doesn't. Sometimes time might just not be so kind to me, and there's really nothing I can do about it but to keep doing that thing call life.

Using Comic Strips for EIKEN Pre-1 Interview Practice

EIKEN is a standardized English test Japanese people (both students and adults) can take to see where their level of English may be. More and more Institutions in Japan are using EIKEN as a prerequisite or some form of entrance requirement. This means more students are probably thinking of taking EIKEN, or aiming for higher levels of EIKEN to set themselves apart.

EIKEN tests all 4 skills - reading, listening, writing and speaking. Reading, listening and writing are all done in one sitting, via a written test. Once students pass this, they can advance to the speaking interview test.

Most ALTs will only deal with students taking level 3, pre-2 and level 2 speaking interview. These are usually the most common at a standard, average level Japanese school. This blog has a very good guide on the flow of the interview test for L3 and Pre2 (thought L2 basically has a similar flow, with more difficult questions and a different picture describing activity).

However, you may get a student who may want to do Pre-1 EIKEN every once in a blue moon. Practicing for Pre-1 is quite different than the previous levels of EIKEN, as the difficult increases significantly.

Assuming you are an ALT with some familiarity with EIKEN L2, I will say that the format of Pre-1 is quite similar with L2. Besides the initial reading aloud section scrapped, students will have to attempt hard-mode for the storytelling and hard-mode critical thinking type questions.

My suggestion for this blog only refers to the storytelling portion.

Unlike L2, where the story narration was more about making sentences based on what you see in the pictures, Pre-1 requires examinee to identify some conflict in the story and clearly describe what the solution is to said conflict.

I usually have a few students who struggle to find the words to describe the conflict and resolution, but most students simply just get stumped on telling a story without simply just describing what they see.

Here's an example of what Pre-1 looks like:

Taken from (http://taktak02.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-16.html)

A lot of students look at these pictures and automatically form "There are (two kids playing video games)" type sentences describing what they see instead of narrating about how the electricity bill is too high.

This is why I started pulling comic strips like Garfield, Peanuts and other more simple comics for students to practice actually telling a story, not describing pictures. They are also free and readily available on the internet, so if you run out of Pre-1 practice books to practice with, I think this is a good alternative.

I enjoy using Garfield as most panels are quite minimal, but some can still have quite a bit of action that needs to be narrated. Like this one, for example:

You may need to take some time to explain some of sound effects and what they mean, but usually students catch on quite quickly.

Encouraging students to narrate the story and connect what they see in panel 1 to panel 2 with enough information is really the key here, so just make sure your students are saying enough and not leaving too much to the imagination.

I also enjoy using Peanuts as most Japanese students already know of Snoopy and some of the characters. Some of the strips also have a bit more of a "story" and they're usually pretty easy to understand for young readers.