Grade School

School has been wonderful so far this week. As I said before, the high school students are taking their exams so I am going to the grade school that is connected with St. Joseph's High School. And, I get done with school at 11:15! Unlike the high school, the grade school is co-ed. On Tuesday I met the grade school's English teacher, Sean Hashi. He is Canadian, so I am kind of following him around this week and helping teach his classes a little. We went to the 2nd grade classes and then a 1st grade class. The kids were so fun and cute! Here are some pictures.

Second Grade


First Grade


These kids were just awesome. At first they seemed a little intimidated, but once I was introduced and they got to ask me questions they were okay. They all had to say "Good Morning Abbey. How are you?" as a class. It was really cute. Then there was a question and answer session. They asked me questions like "What's your favorite color?" and "What is your favorite animal?". And then subject and food and so on. One girl asked me where I was from and the teacher had them guess. She guessed France. The next girl got it right. I answered them in English and they had to see if they knew what it was in Japanese. They were pretty good at it.

The first grade also got to teach me all the English they knew backwards. I learned how to say can I please sharpen my pencil in Japanese! That's real useful. I knew most of the phrases already, but it was fun to see what they thought I needed to know and I did learn a few new ones.

After all of that I went and sat in one of the empty desks and they all thought it was hilarious. The desk was a little small. I sat next to a boy and this girl up front turned around and made a little heart with her hands and laughed.

After class they all swarmed over to see me. Mostly to stare at me, but one girl tried to say something to me in Japanese. Realizing that I didn't know what she was saying she ran over to the teacher and then came back and said, "You're beautiful!" Ahhh, it was so sweet! And another little girl made me a paper airplane as a gift.

The whole experience made me think that I might like to be a grade school teacher. I really liked working with all the little kids.

Today was fun too, but not quite as much fun. I went to the 6th grade classes. They were a little more, well they're 11 and 12-year-olds. No offense Christy. :D The question and answer session was a little more interesting though. I got the usual "Where are you from?" and "What kind of food do you like?", but I also got "Who do you support for president, Obama or McCain?". Come on! This kid is 11 and trying to talk to me about politics! To be honest, he probably knows more about what is going on with this election than I do at this point. The only news that I have heard is on the Japanese news channel. In Japanese. I was also asked "Do you like Sean?" These 11 year old boys are pretty creative, right? Sean is twice as old as me! I said he was a good teacher. haha. Then another smarty-pants asked me if I like Jonny, an American English teacher at the high school. I said he was very kind. Then the first one asked me who I liked better! I told them I don't pick favorites. To make all this even better, Sean had to translate the questions for me.

So, that's all so far. I'll also be in the grade schools Thursday and Friday, so maybe I'll have some more stories in a few days.