School Life

This is all relevant to my all girls SHS in Gunma. Everything differs from school to school.

The special day schedule

I arrive at school and greet any students I see. Some teachers are outside greeting students and ensuring parents don’t cause traffic jams. I trade my outdoor shoes for my indoor shoes at my shoe locker near the main office. I enter the teacher’s staff room and give my good morning greeting to the room. Everything is usually all bustling by the time I get there. Students come in saying excuse me for interrupting and excuse me for having interrupted when they leave. Usually students are already at school around 7 am for club activities or studying. I get out my stamp and stamp the attendance book. At 8:30 am, the school bell rings and all the teachers stand at their desks as well as the staff from the main office, the librarian, gym teachers, nurse and the principal from his office. The vice principal at the head of the desks says good morning and everyone bows and sits down. He then begins the morning teacher’s meeting. Sometimes there are announcements from teachers and clapping if the students were at a competition or a teacher had a baby, etc. Then the teachers break into their individual year group meetings. At 8:40 am to 8:50 am, homeroom is held. All the homeroom teachers leave to conduct homeroom.

If there’s a special class schedule, I’ll find a paper on my desk with that day’s schedule. Sometimes there are 45 minute classes so the homeroom teachers can have their individual student interviews. Special things are also written on the blackboards or marked on the school calendar. My visit school is the only one that tends to switch up when I’m teaching. If it’s business like usual, my schedule looks like the following:

My schedule - 25 classes

The first class starts at 8:55 am. I follow my Japanese teacher of English (JTE) to class, both of us greeting all the students along the way with good mornings or good days, hellos in my case. Class is fifty minutes long. Classroom have large air conditioners in them and a heater near the windows, and fans on the ceilings. Now that it’s colder, the students carry blankets with them and cover their legs. Between classes students can eat, hang out, do whatever, but they aren’t allowed to use their phones or gaming devices at school. Everyone brushes their teeth right after eating at the sinks in the hall just like the teachers do in the staff room. All the windows and doors slide open in the classrooms and hall. The classrooms all have an outer balcony. It helps with regulating the temperature. Almost all the rooms here have chalkboards. Students have a row of drawers and a shelf in the back of the room where they can store their things: gym uniform, outdoor shoes, textbooks, etc. The desks have an open slot to store things during class, and hooks on the side to hang your bags from. The chair is separate.

The yearly schedule

Class starts with the class rep calling out for the class to stand and then bow. The teacher bows back and we both say ‘onegaishimasu.’ Students are usually expected to stand when giving an answer. Each grade level has a different color: blue, green, and red, which can be found on their shoes, and a different color sports uniform. After class, there’s more standing and bowing saying thank you. Between classes, before and after school, the staff room is always full of students working with teachers. It’s rather amazing how available they are for the students no matter if it’s a personal or educational issue. The girls usually move around together, hand in hand or arm in arm, tugging each other around. There’s plenty of giggling.

For lunch, we get 45 minutes. As teachers, we can leave to get lunch or run errands during this time. We have a bread truck that comes by and the teachers can order a lunch that gets delivered. Some teachers eat at their desk and others around the lunch table. Sometimes the teachers make a big pot of soup for everyone or lay out food around the table like homegrown fruit or veggies. Students eat in the classrooms, on the balconies, or anywhere on the school grounds really. They aren’t allowed to leave school during school hours. Two out of three school gates are shut. Some students practice their club activities or get help from the teachers during lunchtime.

After school comes cleaning time. For twenty minutes, all the students are supervised by teachers at different areas to clean. Sweeping, mopping, cleaning toilets, emptying trash - they do it all. It’s amazing! We do also have school caretakers though. Clubs usually meet after school, sometimes during lunch and before school. My school doesn’t require that students participate in a club. I can often hear choir practice and kendo. The intense teams can be here till 10 pm at night! No wonder a lot of students can’t finish their homework on time and drift off to sleep during class. One girl turnt in her summer homework about two months late. In that case they have to apologize profusely and bring it all the way to the staff room, not just hand it off in the hall.

The full teaching schedule for all teachers

The other day I attended an assembly where the new student council member were sworn in. Everyone takes off their indoor shoes and goes shoeless on the gym floor or puts on their gym shoes. They sit down on the floor in rows by classes. There were some speeches and handing over of certificates. They called out all the names of the two student reps per class and all the club presidents. They had all made their appeal to the student council for money and requests. The student council takes it to the principal and he decides. For example, students requested that teachers stop walking around class during exams, it’s distracting. That was rejected haha. They also wanted more choices in the vending machines because we mostly have water and our principal doesn’t allow soda. That was a we’ll see.

Yesterday we had the practice ceremony for graduation. All the bowing. Also, the handball team got cheered on for their upcoming nationals game in Kobe. Our handball team is pretty amazing. One of the girls, R, was selected for the Japan national team and played in the world championships in India. She got into a university on a sports scholarship and is aiming for the 2020 Olympic team. She got a lot of awards.

Today was the real thing. Everyone was in their black suits except two of the third year teachers who wore kimonos! I don’t know where the teachers parked because both of our parking lots were empty for the parents. In the gym, the portable heaters were going full blast, but it was still really chilly. There was a board with messages from past teachers and local important people like the mayor and principals from other schools. The chairs were sectioned off with the front portion between for the graduating third years, for the second and first years, for the parents, for the third year teachers, and for the rest of the teachers. On the stage, on either side of the podium, were two tables: one for the principal (who made it despite his illness), vice principal, and head office man, and the other for the alumni group chairperson, a PTA person, and someone else whose sign I couldn’t read ha.

With three other teachers, I sat at the reception tables for each third year class. Basically I had to greet the parents and check off their child’s name. I had to have them point or say the class number though. I can actually read some of the kanji now, but not all ha. The whole ceremony took about two hours. First, the third years walk in with their homeroom teachers in a line, really slowly while music plays. (Not Pomp and Circumstance that they play in the US). Each class had a different color of Gerbera Daisy in their pockets. As each row of five fills, they bow together and then sit. Second, we sang the national anthem with one of the students on the piano. It’s a really pretty song! It was my first time hearing it. All the bowing again. Three times! Once to the flag of Japan, once to one of the tables, and then to the other table. It’s called out when we have to stand and bow too, learned some new vocabulary. I had to be careful not to stand at the wrong time.

The students’ names were called by their homeroom teachers as they said “Hai” (yes, present) and stood up. Each class sat down after the last girl’s name. We also sang the school song. Then there was a speech by the principal, the alumni chairperson, and the PTA head. One of the second year also did a speech and started crying during it. There was another song sung by all the students. A third year student did the next one and there were full out tears and sniffles as all the third years joined it. Being a sympathetic crier, I had already started crying too. A parent also gave a speech to the teachers to thank them. The third years did a final song together.

Between each thing, we had to stand and bow and sit again. At the end, the teachers went over by the entrance and kind of formed a path where the third year students had to walk out through to more music and with everyone clapping. More tears because now I got to stare directly into their crying faces. Some laughed with me together at our tears. Since they turned the heat off before the ceremony, it was so cold in the gym now. I was shivering and trying to suppress my teeth chatters. It’s only about 36 F out plus really strong wind! I was jealous of the parents with their coats, scarves, and lap blankets.

Many teachers handed out snack presents to the other teachers. Students are giving teachers presents and flowers. The bond between teacher and student is really strong here. I even got asked to take a couple photos with the girls.

After work we had our end of the school year enkai at Hotel Amuse in a small banquet hall with the other teachers, school alumni and PTA people. I had gone home and switched my jacket for a sweater which was okay, but I also switched to boots to walk in because I assumed we’d be taking off our shoes. Nope. Oh well, K-sensei had sneakers on so I wasn’t too out of place ha. We started with some speeches. The food was pretty good, and there was a lot. All the courses: sashimi, spring roll thing, salad with ham, dumpling thing, pasta with clams, meat with tater tots, udon, and strawberry mousse for dessert. Plus all you can drink tea, orange, cola, alcohol free beer, and normal beer.

It was my first time experiencing the drink pouring culture. The two youngest teachers started first and it just progressed. I got my tea filled by many different people and went around with Ichigo-sensei to pour drinks for others. I guess you’re supposed to pour with two hands and the label facing up, but I just did whatever ha. It makes it really hard to eat though! She had to stand up and greet the pourers every couple seconds. Quite interesting. Not too many tipsy folks by the end. Then we finished with the school song, and speeches, plus clapping. Not super sure why one of the teachers who started the clapping took a battle stance and said “Ous” (which has a whole bunch of meanings) before counting off the number of clap rounds. It was hilarious though.