Open School
Today is the first of five Open School events for our high school and junior high school. Yep, five. That is 3 high school and 2 junior high school Open Schools.
It seems as though every high school and university is having an Open School today, but what a day to have it? A typhoon is just fizzling past and the humidity is horrendous. But the real reason is because it is the first day of the summer holidays. I will post a separate entry very soon on the summer holidays... grrr... and the cultural difference... mmm.... for teachers.
Open School in Japan (this school in particular) operates a little, nay, a lot differently to my experience in Australia. My experience in Australia was that anyone and everyone can join the one-off event (Open Day). It was a very large display of everything the school had to offer and involved guided tours for families and hands-on experiences in classes like Science, Art and some of the sports like fencing, Tae Kwon Do etc.. It was another chance for the school to impress the public with aspects they were proud of. There were one or two demonstration lessons (I gave one) that involved volunteer students from the school, and visitors (parents or children) were welcome to join in or simply observe from the back of the classroom. That was it. There were plenty of things to do and it was an administrator's nightmare when you think of the enormity of the day.
My experience today was quite different. Firstly, the day is only for students transitioning from 3rd grade junior high school into 1st year high school. Secondly, there are three chances for them participate. The two other chances (other than today) are in the following months. Thirdly, the Open School is primarily for the students to participate, not observe. So, they must register to participate in advance of the day via an online application, and they must nominate the subject lessons they wish to join (e.g. 1st: Mathematics; 2nd: English Conversation). There is only space for two lessons, which is a "cunning plan" in Baldrick's words. I will explain that a little further later on. The students also inform the school via the online application their means of transport. This is important because there are 8 or 9 different School Bus routes that bring the students to school, and this is available for free for the participating students. So, a couple of days in advance of the Open School, we have a reasonably accurate idea of how many students are coming and which lessons they will join. That's pretty convenient for everyone and enables us to plan our materials more specifically. The parents are also allowed to come by School Bus, but they are directed to one of the halls for an information session, and then guided around the school by members of the 生徒会 (せいとかい, seito kai), which is the student respresentative body.
I had 2 scheduled students, but 3 joined. I gave a 40 minute "lesson" titled "Trivia in English" and basically tried to make it a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere to use English. That is except for the fact that 4 waves of parent groups came through to observe the lessons. Anyway, the students did pretty well and my staff and student helpers were great. At the end of the lesson (mine was the 2nd and last lesson for the students), they were asked to complete a survey and also strongly encouraged to come again and experience other subjects ("a cunning plan"). They were then bused off again, while the staff members did the very "Japanese" custom of farewelling them from the entrance until they were out of sight. All staff members then returned to the staff room and had a debrief session then and there on the positives and areas in need of improvement before 第二回 (だいにかい, dai ni kai - the 2nd time).
I guess it doesn't sound too different when I type it out, but it certainly felt a lot different. Students were locked into a fixed schedule, so did not have the chance to wander around and get a feel for the place. This may be the biggest difference in feeling.
