First Week of School!

The first days of school were cool and wet.  I usually walked instead of riding my bike, though most people seem to bike carrying umbrellas.  This is the view again from my journey to school looking back to the confluence of the rivers where I live when the tide is out and there are people digging for clams.  I also usually see lots of herons wading in the rivers.  

On the morning of the first day of school, all the students and staff of Fukuoka International School filed into the gym for a welcome back assembly.  The students sat on the floor in rows by class, with the tiny preschoolers in the front and the cool 12th graders in the back.  Altogether there were less than 250 people in the room.  Each class stood up and waved as we clapped and enthusiastically started the 2008-2009 school year.  

I met my 9th and 10th graders.  There are 14 students in each class!  The students showed up to class early, sat calmly in their desks, and paid attention as I introduced myself and subjects (9th grade = world geography, 10th = ancient world history).  It was amazing!  The students are mostly Japanese and Korean but there were a few American, Malaysian, Finnish, and Thai students.  I love them all!  

The lighting for this photo wasn't too good, but can you tell that it is a map of the world, drawn from memory by one of my 9th graders?  I was amazed watching my students think hard and draw their versions of the world map.  Every single student worked on the assignment for the whole time!  This student's map is pretty advanced.  Others had more blob-shapes, and some funny perspectives on the size of certain landmasses (i.e. Korea was often huge!).  Some students clearly had a better grasp of geography than others, and some clearly needed help with English, but they all did their best and I was so impressed!  

I finally learned the rest of my teaching schedule at FIS:  I will be working with elementary students in the 1st, 2nd, and 5th grades, sitting in with them in their classes and pulling them out for one-on-one help with English and reading.  I also get to teach "Theory of Knowledge" to 11th and 12th graders.  ToK is one of the core classes in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program.  I am very excited about this opportunity to teach this philosophy course which examines ways that we know things and asks questions like, "How do you know what you know?" and "How do you know you know what you know?"  

So it's going to be a busy year at FIS but overall I'm thrilled.  The students are fantastic, the classes are small, the staff is supportive, and my classroom has windows!  

After school on Friday the staff had a bbq in the school yard.  I'm happy to be making new friends.  Afterwards a few of us headed downtown to hit some bars in Tenjin.  I didn't get home till 5am so have mostly wasted today away...  I have a lot of reading to do and have discovered that you can rent movies on iTunes so I will stay occupied this weekend.