comings and goings
So, graduation came and went. This year's was, at the same time, less and more distressing than last year's. Last year, I was wholly unprepared for the emotional wallop of saying goodbye, all at once, to hundreds of wonderful students that I had come to know over a few short months. This year, the students who were graduating were ones that I had known for more than a year and a half. I was very close to many of them, and some of them I would call good friends. While that made me fear this year's ceremony would be devastating, it wasn't. After last year, I guess I was prepared for what it would be like. The surprise factor wasn't there, so I managed to make it through without breaking down into tears (something I assumed to be inevitable).
This year, for the first time, I also attended the part-time school's graduation ceremony. Last year I hadn't actually taught any of the graduating students so it didn't make sense to go, but I knew this year's bunch very well. They were loud sometimes, many of them rarely paid attention, and there might have been a few students I could have done without...but they were a wonderful class, and I loved the hell out of them. It kind of snuck up on me...I didn't realize how much that class really meant to me until I was standing in front of them after their graduation ceremony, giving a speech (in Japanese, because they refused to let me do it in English). I had to stop a few times and gather myself, it was seriously difficult.
All throughout this year I've been working closely with a second year writing class. My primary responsibility, for the most part, is to take care of the first year Oral Communication classes, and any other class I do is usually an afterthought, something on the side. But I did a lot of work with this one particular class, and got some really great results out of them. We had them doing writing assignments throughout the year, starting short and easy, then building things up slowly. You wouldn't believe some of the nonsense English I was getting at the start, but by the end, after giving them lots of pointers, doing one-on-one help, and enticing them with prizes I brought back from New York, they had made enormous improvements. I was actually proud of them! I love my students, but in terms of their English ability, they don't often produce anything to be proud of.
We had our last class together the other day, and the JTE told me to come just for the last 15 minutes or so. That was ok, because I had another class I needed to visit as well. When I walked in at the end of class, I discovered what their last activity for the class had been: to write me individual thank you letters! This is a pretty common thing for ALTs, and it wasn't the first time I've received some cute letters, but because of how closely I worked with this class, and how much they improved, it really moved me. Some of my favorite comments from the letters (don't blame them for the errors, they didn't have much time to write!):
"I say hello to you teaching English this year."
"You are so big and pretty."
"You are so big and good smell."
"We love Brody <3" (repeated in most of the letters)
"We get to like studying English thanks to you."
"We were looking forward to have your class because it was very exciting."
"We are nice friends, aren't we? So, let's watch 'Haruhi' with us next time <3 I love Nagato Yuki"
"Thank you for playing a lot of funny games and good smell. See you again! And you are so big!!"
"Thank you for teaching. I will never forget what I was taught by Brody."
This kind of thing really means a lot to me, more than I can adequately describe. Which is why I was devastated to find out recently that Teraoka-sensei is being transferred to another school. Teraoka-sensei is known to many as my Japanese mother, and to say that she's been an important person to me would be a staggering understatement. There are a lot of people who have been looking out for me since I got here, but no one else has had anywhere near as big an impact on my life every single day. Not only does she look out for me, at school and in my daily life, but we had such a tremendous working relationship. WIth a couple exceptions she was the only teacher who requested me to join second and third year classes - and she requested that I join every single one she had. The class that wrote me the letters was one I taught with Teraoka-sensei, and it was one of our many achievements this year. We were requested by the Board of Education to do a demonstration lesson for a member of the Prefecutral Assembly, because rumors had spread about how good Brody and Teraoka-sensei's team teaching lessons are. That was all her, very little me. She's the best teacher we had, and now she's going to another school. She means more to me than I can possibly explain. Tomorrow is her last day at school with us. I'll wear her favorite tie, and try to keep my spirits up.
But I just can't imagine a day of school without Teraoka-sensei.
This year, for the first time, I also attended the part-time school's graduation ceremony. Last year I hadn't actually taught any of the graduating students so it didn't make sense to go, but I knew this year's bunch very well. They were loud sometimes, many of them rarely paid attention, and there might have been a few students I could have done without...but they were a wonderful class, and I loved the hell out of them. It kind of snuck up on me...I didn't realize how much that class really meant to me until I was standing in front of them after their graduation ceremony, giving a speech (in Japanese, because they refused to let me do it in English). I had to stop a few times and gather myself, it was seriously difficult.
All throughout this year I've been working closely with a second year writing class. My primary responsibility, for the most part, is to take care of the first year Oral Communication classes, and any other class I do is usually an afterthought, something on the side. But I did a lot of work with this one particular class, and got some really great results out of them. We had them doing writing assignments throughout the year, starting short and easy, then building things up slowly. You wouldn't believe some of the nonsense English I was getting at the start, but by the end, after giving them lots of pointers, doing one-on-one help, and enticing them with prizes I brought back from New York, they had made enormous improvements. I was actually proud of them! I love my students, but in terms of their English ability, they don't often produce anything to be proud of.
We had our last class together the other day, and the JTE told me to come just for the last 15 minutes or so. That was ok, because I had another class I needed to visit as well. When I walked in at the end of class, I discovered what their last activity for the class had been: to write me individual thank you letters! This is a pretty common thing for ALTs, and it wasn't the first time I've received some cute letters, but because of how closely I worked with this class, and how much they improved, it really moved me. Some of my favorite comments from the letters (don't blame them for the errors, they didn't have much time to write!):
"I say hello to you teaching English this year."
"You are so big and pretty."
"You are so big and good smell."
"We love Brody <3" (repeated in most of the letters)
"We get to like studying English thanks to you."
"We were looking forward to have your class because it was very exciting."
"We are nice friends, aren't we? So, let's watch 'Haruhi' with us next time <3 I love Nagato Yuki"
"Thank you for playing a lot of funny games and good smell. See you again! And you are so big!!"
"Thank you for teaching. I will never forget what I was taught by Brody."
This kind of thing really means a lot to me, more than I can adequately describe. Which is why I was devastated to find out recently that Teraoka-sensei is being transferred to another school. Teraoka-sensei is known to many as my Japanese mother, and to say that she's been an important person to me would be a staggering understatement. There are a lot of people who have been looking out for me since I got here, but no one else has had anywhere near as big an impact on my life every single day. Not only does she look out for me, at school and in my daily life, but we had such a tremendous working relationship. WIth a couple exceptions she was the only teacher who requested me to join second and third year classes - and she requested that I join every single one she had. The class that wrote me the letters was one I taught with Teraoka-sensei, and it was one of our many achievements this year. We were requested by the Board of Education to do a demonstration lesson for a member of the Prefecutral Assembly, because rumors had spread about how good Brody and Teraoka-sensei's team teaching lessons are. That was all her, very little me. She's the best teacher we had, and now she's going to another school. She means more to me than I can possibly explain. Tomorrow is her last day at school with us. I'll wear her favorite tie, and try to keep my spirits up.
But I just can't imagine a day of school without Teraoka-sensei.