18 - 22 May
School week begins!
School has finally begun for us! We were going to Koyo High School and we had to reach school at 8.15am in the morning. I wonder how the school is going to be...
The timings for the train arrival/departure are quite accurate in Japan! As it was our first day in school, we planned to leave early in the morning so that we wouldn't be late!! *First impression counts ya ;)* And oh my, we had to wake up early in the morning at around 7am, I totally can't get used to the timing. I really enjoyed our holiday and break the past 2 weeks in Japan :(
Koyo High School
When we reached Koyo High School, we went to meet the Vice Principal of the school, Suzuki-Kyoto Sensei, He introduced us to our Coordinating Teacher, David and Kent, who are really nice people! For our first day in Koyo High School, we followed Class 301 (Classes ending with "01" are in the Super Science program). We introduced ourselves to the class and we had to follow the class throughout the day, from 8.45am to 3.20pm (Oh myyyyy....).
Super Science program
So what is the Super Science program? Apparently, we learnt from our CTs that it's a new program funded by the Ministry and only some of the brightest students get to attend this course. The lessons and curriculum are slightly different from the other classes. They have an additional Science lesson taught in English, while other "normal" classes only learn their Science content in Japanese.
That was not the only point that "woah-ed" us. Apparently, students in this program are required to do a Research paper (In Science or Mathematics), and this research paper needs to be done in English AND Japanese. Talking about being smart... :O
Lesson time
We attended all their lessons, ranging from the Science subjects such as Physics, to the humanities subjects such as Geography, and we even attended their language lessons, Japanese classics!! It is a totally new experience for all of us, considering that all the lessons are taught in Japanese and we have no idea what is going on most of the time. Well, at the very least, we are here to observe the lessons, not to learn the subject anyway hehehe. We noticed the various teaching styles from the teachers from different subjects.
That was about it for the rest of the whole week. We joined different classes during this week but yep, it's just lesson all day everyday, where we watched the different lessons conducted all in Japanese. At the very least, we kind of enjoyed ourselves in the class that we majored in respectively, I guess ;)
(Sad to say I can't even do the Maths questions there cause I can't understand the question HAHAHA)
P.S. They don't use calculators when doing Mathematics. Really shocking. Really impressed. ;) *thumbs up* Gonna learn to be like them.
Students
Sorry, no pictures :) There's PDPA in Japan too okay. But the students are really nice. Some really tried to talk to us in English, knowing that we can't speak in Japanese. There really is a language barrier between us oh no :( But I think that if we were to speak slowly, and simply, there would understand us.
But yeah, some were really really nice. Some students tried to translate what their teacher is teaching to us in English (OMGGGG SO NICE RIGHT) even though it was not necessary at all. But yes, maybe we did learn something, and they did try to include us in the lessons. So we were really thankful to this bunch of kids :)
EXCURSION DAY
Oh and not to forget, on the SECOND day in Koyo High School, the students HAD AN EXCURSION DAY. Oh wow. Not to mention their tests were just a week away. In Singapore, we only have excursions during our holidays or after our End of Year examinations or Mid Year examinations.
We ventured out to another area (not in school of course), and the students discussed about their plans for the school festival held in September (and it was all in Japanese ahhhhhhhh).
But okay, after their discussion, it was lunch time and guess what, THEIR LUNCH WAS BBQ. Just wow. We were really thankful to some of the students as we joined them and they gave us food to eat. Talking about being nice, they really are JUST TOOO nice. :D again, sorry, no pictures, PDPA la hoh.
And that was not the end of their excursion day okay, after BBQ, they went to the beach to play. (Excuse me, I don't remember going to the beach to play on a school trip okay) but ya okay complaints aside, I think the students really enjoyed themselves so I would say it's a really memorable sight for us too, experiencing school life (maybe not as a teacher, but as a student). We could see the close relationship between the class's form teacher (known as Homeroom teacher) and the class itself. Awwwww ;)
Conclusion
Okay concluding paragraph. I think it was a fun week for all of us, but tiring too as we had to observe nearly 6h of lessons everyday :( We definitely learnt something too, and saw the culture and school life in Japan. Something not to be missed :)
Bye bye. Sayonara.
P.S. I can only speak like around 5 Japanese words up till now. HAHAHA.
Guan Yang.
School week begins!
School has finally begun for us! We were going to Koyo High School and we had to reach school at 8.15am in the morning. I wonder how the school is going to be...
The timings for the train arrival/departure are quite accurate in Japan! As it was our first day in school, we planned to leave early in the morning so that we wouldn't be late!! *First impression counts ya ;)* And oh my, we had to wake up early in the morning at around 7am, I totally can't get used to the timing. I really enjoyed our holiday and break the past 2 weeks in Japan :(
Koyo High School
When we reached Koyo High School, we went to meet the Vice Principal of the school, Suzuki-Kyoto Sensei, He introduced us to our Coordinating Teacher, David and Kent, who are really nice people! For our first day in Koyo High School, we followed Class 301 (Classes ending with "01" are in the Super Science program). We introduced ourselves to the class and we had to follow the class throughout the day, from 8.45am to 3.20pm (Oh myyyyy....).
Super Science program
So what is the Super Science program? Apparently, we learnt from our CTs that it's a new program funded by the Ministry and only some of the brightest students get to attend this course. The lessons and curriculum are slightly different from the other classes. They have an additional Science lesson taught in English, while other "normal" classes only learn their Science content in Japanese.
That was not the only point that "woah-ed" us. Apparently, students in this program are required to do a Research paper (In Science or Mathematics), and this research paper needs to be done in English AND Japanese. Talking about being smart... :O
Lesson time
We attended all their lessons, ranging from the Science subjects such as Physics, to the humanities subjects such as Geography, and we even attended their language lessons, Japanese classics!! It is a totally new experience for all of us, considering that all the lessons are taught in Japanese and we have no idea what is going on most of the time. Well, at the very least, we are here to observe the lessons, not to learn the subject anyway hehehe. We noticed the various teaching styles from the teachers from different subjects.
That was about it for the rest of the whole week. We joined different classes during this week but yep, it's just lesson all day everyday, where we watched the different lessons conducted all in Japanese. At the very least, we kind of enjoyed ourselves in the class that we majored in respectively, I guess ;)
(Sad to say I can't even do the Maths questions there cause I can't understand the question HAHAHA)
P.S. They don't use calculators when doing Mathematics. Really shocking. Really impressed. ;) *thumbs up* Gonna learn to be like them.
Students
Sorry, no pictures :) There's PDPA in Japan too okay. But the students are really nice. Some really tried to talk to us in English, knowing that we can't speak in Japanese. There really is a language barrier between us oh no :( But I think that if we were to speak slowly, and simply, there would understand us.
But yeah, some were really really nice. Some students tried to translate what their teacher is teaching to us in English (OMGGGG SO NICE RIGHT) even though it was not necessary at all. But yes, maybe we did learn something, and they did try to include us in the lessons. So we were really thankful to this bunch of kids :)
EXCURSION DAY
Oh and not to forget, on the SECOND day in Koyo High School, the students HAD AN EXCURSION DAY. Oh wow. Not to mention their tests were just a week away. In Singapore, we only have excursions during our holidays or after our End of Year examinations or Mid Year examinations.
We ventured out to another area (not in school of course), and the students discussed about their plans for the school festival held in September (and it was all in Japanese ahhhhhhhh).
But okay, after their discussion, it was lunch time and guess what, THEIR LUNCH WAS BBQ. Just wow. We were really thankful to some of the students as we joined them and they gave us food to eat. Talking about being nice, they really are JUST TOOO nice. :D again, sorry, no pictures, PDPA la hoh.
And that was not the end of their excursion day okay, after BBQ, they went to the beach to play. (Excuse me, I don't remember going to the beach to play on a school trip okay) but ya okay complaints aside, I think the students really enjoyed themselves so I would say it's a really memorable sight for us too, experiencing school life (maybe not as a teacher, but as a student). We could see the close relationship between the class's form teacher (known as Homeroom teacher) and the class itself. Awwwww ;)
Conclusion
Okay concluding paragraph. I think it was a fun week for all of us, but tiring too as we had to observe nearly 6h of lessons everyday :( We definitely learnt something too, and saw the culture and school life in Japan. Something not to be missed :)
Bye bye. Sayonara.
P.S. I can only speak like around 5 Japanese words up till now. HAHAHA.
Guan Yang.
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