No catch up, just an attempt to blog

Since last fall, the 9th graders (3rd graders at the Junior High School) have been intensively preparing for their high school entrance exams. They have been seriously thinking about their futures and working hard to make sure they get into the best school for them. There are academic high schools and technical high schools, schools that excel in specific subjects and schools that excel in certain club activities or sports. These 14 and 15 year olds are making serious decisions about the future careers, and its likely that many of them will stick to those choices. It feels a world away from my junior high school days and the kinds of decisions I was making.

I have been tutoring these two 9th grade girls after school for a couple months now. About two days a week we meet after school and practice conversation first, then do some listening and comprehension drills. Other girls have joined our group off and on, and even even a couple boys every now and then. In this time, I've gotten to know them better than perhaps any of my students. Usually, on these days I end up getting home at least an hour later than usual, sometimes two, but I don't mind at all. In fact, I love it. Those days are the best days.

Sadly, that also makes me realize how much I'm missing out of serious connections to most of my students. I know many of them really like me and having me as a teacher and perhaps I even inspire them to study English harder. I make small talk with them in the hallways, I encourage them in and out of class. But with the language barrier and me being at their school just two days a week, teaching each of their classes maybe once every other week and not being involved in their clubs (we don't have an english club), I rarely have the chance to spend extended personal time with students.

It was these two girls who approached me a few months ago and asked me to help them practice English after school. I remember that day very clearly. I had a responsibility after school for once! The time flew by, I didn't even realize I was at school an hour later than usual until the students said it was time to go. All the students had to leave school by 5:30 that day (there's always a set time, usually 6, earlier when other things like tests are going on), and I had never been at school at that time before. I walked out to the gate with the other teachers to send the students off as they left for home, then gathered my things and biked home feelings more satisfied with my work day than I had for a long time.

My classes that day had gone great, I'd done something useful and meaningful with students with my time after school, I'd connected with two students I hadn't had the chance to talk with much before, and perhaps most importantly, I felt like a real part of the group. I'd been in and out of the teacher's room as much as most other teachers that day, rather than the inevitable 2-3 hour long blocks that ALTs get stuck there at some point in the day, I had a job to do with students outside of class, and I left when a few other teachers also left and the students had already all gone home.

It is not often that you leave work feeling happier and more satisfied than usual because you stayed late, but perhaps that is just the irony of life as an ALT in Japan.