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Daily Journal
Monday, November 27th, 2000 Today we had our final and by far the best school visit. We spent the day at Oinko Elementary School. For one thing, the school building was brand new and incredibly high tech (more about that later). But the spirit of the place was amazingly energetic and happy among all the people there. I gave a speech representing the Fulbright teachers thanking the Principal for inviting us to his school. If you want to read the speech, click here. First a word about the building... all the classrooms were open. That means they had three closed walls and the fourth side opened onto a huge bright wood-floored open hallway. They had a TV broadcast studio and computer rooms. There were solar panels on the roof. The kids had vegetable and flower gardens and an animal hutch with chickens, rabbits, and turtles. ABOVE the gymnasium they had a swimming pool with a floor they could vary in depth from shallow for little kids to deeper. Or, when drained it looked like a floor on the building roof. Hard to believe.  More important, though, was the spirit of the place. Happy kids everywhere. Happy teachers, too. I was assigned to a third grade classroom (3-2). When I arrived, all the third grade classes met in the open hallway in front of their classrooms. They all played a song (a round!) on their recorders, sang a song about friendship, and asked us questions. (There were three American teachers for the three third grade classrooms.)   
 They wanted to know: what was our favorite food in Japan and in the United States, how big is our school, how many students in our school, what do we like at home. I gave the students Heckman stickers and Heckman pencils in the envelopes that some of you helped to decorate. They were very excited with them.  I observed the students during math class and social studies. Then it was time for lunch. Lunch was interesting, too. The food arrived on our floor via an elevator and students, dressed in white smocks, caps, and masks, served it to the class.    Later in the day, all the students, grades one through six, cleaned every inch of the building, including the stairways.  After clean up, we taught the third graders to sing some American songs. Our time with them was done; it was hard to say good-bye.   We spent about an hour with small groups of sixth graders at the end of the day. They taught me how to play Fukawarai (remember that game from the first Mystery Photo?) and some new designs in cat's cradle. I taught them how to play Duck, Duck, Goose and Thumper.  As our bus pulled away, teachers, students, and principal all waved to us. I have so much to tell you about this day, but time is short; more when I return home!  There was a tv camera crew fiming us all day!   |
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