Knowing everybody

JETs enter and leave Japan on a different schedule from normal teachers. Whereas rank-and-file Japanese are transferred at the end of the academic year, we're inserted between the first and second terms. I didn't like it at first, but I've come to understand their reasoning: schools have enough to worry about with getting the new teachers and new students oriented. Having to show the ropes to a foreigner--who likely knows nothing about the Japanese school system, and in most cases speaks almost no Japanese--would be overwhelming.

The greatest benefit to having come here one-third the way through a school year is that I've gotten to see three completely different groups of students. Tsushima High offers three courses for its students: college/university-track, commercial-track, and a multicultural program. They divide the students into numbered groups, with the college-bound students classified as groups 1 through 4, the multicultural program 5, and the job-bound students as 6 and 7. (Beginning last year, however, we only had enough freshmen to fill one commercial group; there's no longer any 7th group.)

I help with the oral communications class for the freshmen in the college-bound program. That's groups 1-1 through 1-4. I teach the multicultural class in their second year: the 2-5s. I also teach the commercial students--the 3-6s and 3-7s--in their third year. That means that, in any given year, students from all three programs get to play with the ALT. With this being the third academic year I've been here, I am teaching or have taught nearly everyone at school: 16 of 19 groups, or about 570 of 670 students. That means 85% of the school is currently attending or has at some point attended my class.

Suffice it to say, I'm thrilled about this. Every chance I get, I take the long way to the classroom, picking a route that takes me past the third- or second-year classrooms. The hallway fills with hellos. It's strange seeing the third-years, taller and more grown-up versions of the kids I taught a year and a half ago. I wince a little when I go down the second-year hallway, not only because I so recently was teaching them every week, but also because they're the group with whom I have the strongest bond. I taught them for a full academic year, after all. They entered school halfway into my first year, when I'd gotten some semblance of a bead on things, and I'm proud of how many of their names I learned. Aaron and Evelyn were right: calling a student by name is the surest way to make them brighten up.

Toyotama High is even better. With only two groups of students per grade year, it's not hard at all to keep up with them. Since my first year, I've taught both the first- and second-years, which means everyone was familiar with me last year. This year's seniors, however, know me the best of any of my classes at either school. I've seen them twice a week, three weeks a month, without fail for the better part of my time in Japan. No more, though: according to Iwase, a lot of the students are aiming for college, so they need to study a lot harder than last year's seniors. That means I won't get to teach an optional class like last year's writing or the previous year's oral communications.