Ch-Check It Out

It’s really sad walking into class these days, as many of them are “the last lesson” for that particular group of kids. Most of them haven’t been told that I am leaving, and so when I break the news they have a look in the eyes that is of desperate sadness/ whipped puppy dog/ betrayed best friend that stabs me in the heard and makes me feel bad for deciding to leave Ubuyama. If Ubuyama was closer to civilization then I might want to teach here forever. The kids in my village are pure and innocent, and remain that way because they live in the middle of some of the most beautiful country land I have ever seen. The culture out here is the foundation of Japanese society- the essence of what people take pride in and draw upon in times of hardship.
When I first got to Ubuyama I taught at three hoikuen (nursery/pre-schools). The classes were so small that I got to know the babies on a really personal level. My favorite class consisted of 5 little boys, all super-hyper and pure fun. This class was able to write romaji (the romanized alphabet) at a 6 grade level (in Japan) when they were 5 years old, and their pronunciation was awesome, but unfortunately I didn’t get to teach them more than twice a month after they entered elementary school, and most times I only got to teach them once a month and their English skills (but not enthusiasm for learning English, mind you) deteriorated significantly.
They still remember some of the stuff that I taught them, and I am satisfied with that. My main objective was to stoke their enthusiasm for learning and exploring their interests, regardless of the subject. We studied science, made art, did culture lessons, and I made lessons based on what they expressed interest in learning, but always we learned through play. I found out early on that if you make students study using conventional methods (rote repitition, standard testing, drills) that you can literally fry their impressionable brains and do great harm to their motivation (yes, this is documented and there is some good research material at the ERIC site that explores these issues).
Anyhow, for our last lesson I decided to go out with a day full of games. I taught the whole lesson teaching them how to throw a football (they say American football, but I think that the American part is redundant. Football is football and soccer is soccer) and playing dodgeball, but the part I remember the most is playing musical chairs, the English penilization with candy compensation version. I blasted track one off of To The 5 Boroughs (the new Beastie Boys CD), and they rocked out. As I walked away from our last lesson I heard them rapping out “Check-ch-ch-ch-ch-checkidou! Wha-whu-whu-whussitallabou!”. I could not help but feel a happy satisfaction covering over the sadness. I am truly proud of Tomohiro, Naoto, Kodai, Tatsuhiro, and Yukiharu-kun, and will not be surprised to hear of their successes in the future.