I have just recently experience another oddity of the Japanese educational system. I mentioned in the last blog that the school year in Japan ends in March and the new school year starts in April. Well in Japan, not only do the students move classes but every school year a number of teachers are moved to different schools. You may be puzzled and ask why is that so strange, teachers can move schools all the time and the logical time would be at the end of a school year. Well, in Japan teachers are not given the option of whether they want to move or not. They are simply told to go by the principal. They have a week to pack up their stuff and move to their new schools, ready to start on the 1st of April.
I don't know about you guys, but it seems kind of rough to me. I mean, you could really love one school but someone above you has decided that you need to go to another school and you have no other option than to obey. There's no fanfare from the teachers, no kicking and screaming not even any leaps of joy (for those teachers leaving a bad school).
My school had three people leave, but before they left we had to do a spot of waxing the teachers room. Yep, in Japan there are no professionals to do these maintenance type work, its all done by the students or teachers. So I came back from Korea just in time to participate in the waxing. Firstly we had to move all the desks and cabinets out, that was quite some work in itself. Then wash they floors, buff them and then finally applied the wax. Only in Japan I say.
Every year, teachers desks are also move around. So when we moved our desk back in, we were assigned our new spots. I was part of the 3rd year team last school year and had a prime seat at the back of the room. It was quiet, near the heating in the colder months, near the computers, I could do other work while they had the Japanese meetings and no one would know, I could come in late and just settle back ... it was golden. Now, I have moved to the 1st grade team and my desk is right at the front about a meter away from the Principal when we have our teachers meetings (by the way, the principal has a great big office of his own that he normally sits in, its about as big as the teachers room). So I'm far away from the heating, not that it matters now, far away from the computers, coming late is an issue because I have to sit in front of the Principal and watch him stare me down and mutter things like "dirty foreigner", and I can't do my own thing and have no one see me. Blah, its fair to say that I went from the penthouse to the doghouse.
Anyway, back to my teachers leaving. I have three in all that were leaving and 1 going on a 6mth study leave. One was our like our electives teacher, he taught everything from home economics, to computers, to woodwork and metal work. The other was our secretary and finally my principal was also leaving. Now sitting at the front of the teachers room wouldn't have been so bad with my old principal here as I got along with him famously. So I was sad to see him go. Principals don't always get moved onto another school either, sometimes they can be put into different Government roles, like department managers of a Board of Education or similar type Jobs. My principal was being moved into a position where he would do more speaking engagements and stamping of paperwork as he told me.
On their last day, we had a farewell assembly for them and students came in (on their holidays) to have the assembly. When that was done, the students made 2 lines to walk them out the school gates (very similar to what we did when the 3rd years graduated). Their were handshakes all round, flowers were given and photos were taken. After ushering them out, they promptly walked back into the teachers room to finish off any work they had left.
With teachers leaving, there are also teachers coming, 5 new staff members in total. A new principal (who was the Vice-principal at my school 2 years ago and got a promotion to become principal), a new secretary, a new full time teacher (who sits directly opposite me), a part time art teacher and our replacement teacher for 6 months. I think I'll get on well with the one that sits opposite em as his young, into basketball and like video games. But his already uttered that he can't speak English ... we'll work on that.
However, my new principal is a whole new kettle of fish. He doesn't seem to like me very much. He hasn't spoken to me at all. to be fair, I haven't made a great impression on the two more significant events of the school year so far. Firstly, we had a school drinking party to farewell the old staff members and welcome the new staff members. No one told me it was formal ... so I decided to rock up in jeans and a long sleeve top (it did have a collar though (strike 1). The second incident and where I turned up to school late and they were having the first serious teachers meeting about the school year. Again, sitting right at the front near the principal wasn't so great (strike 2).
So I guess one more strike and I'm out.
This was the assembly to farewell my teachers. The Vice principal in front of the microphone making a speech. Teachers leaving are in the back, from left to right you have my principal, 3rd grade teacher and the secretary.
Here they are walking out of school with the students lined up
One final photo
The following is a little clip of the students waxing their classroom, its all heads down bums up.
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On another note, here's a performance from the Ashikaga Taiko group. Their really awesome and have to be seen in person. A must for anyone who visits Japan
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