Paul Worrell ‘10, Mansfield Foundation International Fellow in Elementary English Immersion Education

Greetings Fellows fans and Blog watchers,

It has been another busy week at Katoh Schools, and these past days have been quick, with the third grade catching up for lost time.  We have had a lot of testing, and I am impressed with how well the students handled it.  They do enjoy taking tests here, and they relish the chance to make a perfect score.  In science we have started our new unit: Magnets! and it was fun to start the unit off by giving them magnet kits to explore.  Using their magnets and other tools, the students were able to form hypotheses and test them as they uncovered everything magnetic.  Giving them a chance to play and discover was great, and I hope to give them more opportunities to construct their own knowledge.

In English we are full speed ahead on our reader’s theater, and the students have taken on their animal personae from the story.  We practice every opportunity we get, and have also used the story for our other English activities.  Our spelling this week is all words from the jungle and the story, and their weekend journals were imaginative adventures as if they were their animals.  Our spider wall to go with the main character, Anansi, is complete and it really showcases the students’ creativity.

A section of the classroom, showing our finished spider wall!

Math is where we are really rushing to catch up, and the students have a bit of a heavier workload each night.  At Katoh Schools we always give math homework each night, but it is usually only one sheet.  For this week, most nights have a front and a backside, so I am being careful to remind the students to do BOTH sides.  Our unit is Division with large numbers, and the students are mastering their division skills.  The lessons I have made present different division strategies, while incorporating review topics from other units.  It is fun for both me and the kids to remember what we did in Length and Large Numbers as we tackle division story problems and the like.

In general at school we are really having fun, and it feels very natural to be the lead teacher for all of these different subjects.  I have had about a week of full-time teaching, and it will continue all this month.  It feels great to be in charge, and I really feel like a part of the school.  This is paralleled in my host family, and I feel I have fit into the home nicely.

This last host family has perhaps the least amount of English of all my homes, but this has been great as I continue to learn some Japanese.  We often speak in a mixed bi-lingual way, and we even have some fun jokes going.  The many dogs at the house are a constant cause for fun, silliness, and sometimes messes.  But they are quite loveable, and I enjoy spending time with them.  The daughter and I are having fun playing together, and we have a lot of common interests.  She has perhaps the best English of all the students I have lived with, so she acts as translator a lot.

At the Hakone-en aquarium were many beautiful animals, like this lovely duck.

Last weekend, we all went to Hakone, a mountainous region a 30 minute to an hour trip away from Numazu.  We spent the day taking in the views, and going to an Aquarium and shopping complex.  The animals were delightful, and to get around this area we had to take a ferry.  I took some great pictures from the ferry, and this time of year the leaves are amazing in Japan.  Along with the pretty leaves, however, the temperature finally dropped, and it has been cooler recently.  I have appreciated the change, as summer seemed to carry on quite long enough for me.

A Japanese Maple, showing its Autumn leaves.

As this week continues I will keep teaching full-time, and surely have more fun with my host family.  Keep reading to learn what I will experience next!

Paul Worrell ‘10, Mansfield Foundation International Fellow in Elementary English Immersion Education

Greetings Fellows fans and Blog watchers,

This past week at Katoh Schools has been about new experiences and beginnings.  I have taken over the classroom as the head teacher, experienced H1N1 Influenza quarantine, and moved to my third and final host family.  It has been a long and exciting week, and it feels like forever since my trip to the Safari just one week ago with my last family.  I really enjoyed my time with them, and it was a sad parting after only two weeks.  As with all the special people I have met here in Japan, I plan to visit them before I return to the United States.  In fact it is only about a month and a week until that sad day, and I plan to continue to enjoy my time teaching here in Japan to the fullest.

From my new host family's home you can see Mt Fuji so well!

Teaching full time has been satisfying already, although it is a lot of work preparing all the lessons!  The school is set up so that the units are already in place, but the teachers must adapt and create their own lessons to suit these themes.  In English, however, it is not so strict and merely includes language functions to be covered while the context is completely up to the teacher.  Because of this I was able to do whatever unit I wanted.  Mr. Thorpe suggested turning one of the stories in the textbook into a reader’s theater and I loved the idea.  I have been enjoying the process of developing the overall unit, and starting this week the students will get their roles and start practicing.  Through this unit I will cover several English topics and my hope is the story will tie everything together, encouraging motivation and enthusiasm.  In Math I am teaching a unit about division with large numbers, and in science I am starting a new unit about magnets soon.

My takeover in the classroom has already had some obstacles however.  Last Wednesday there was an alarming amount of children gone from our grade (around five or six suddenly).  We learned that several of them had been diagnosed with the H1N1 influenza, and at Katoh if six students have it in one grade, that grade is closed for several school days.  Needless to say, after another day we were officially closed in third grade.  I had from Friday until Tuesday off, so quite the long weekend!  With this time I got ahead in my lesson planning, but not too far ahead as this closing put us behind anyway.  Also, during this time I transitioned to my newest host family.

My new family is wonderful, and right away it was clear that I was in for new experiences.  They live closer to downtown Numazu in a high rise building that the family owns.  After getting out of the car, all one has to do is take the elevator up the fifth floor where the front door is.  We live in a spectacular multi-level, spacious apartment with many balconies overflowing with flowers and plants.  There is even access to the roof, and the views of Numazu are amazing including an amazing view of Mt. Fuji on clear days!

These are some of the mosaic tiles the children made.

My new family is that of a fifth grade immersion student.  She and I have a lot of fun, and we aren’t alone.  The student lives with her mother and grandmother, and they all have five dogs and a cat!  The dogs are just so cute and playful, and it is wonderful to have pets around once more.  With the family I have been exposed to more of Numazu, and even went to a convention of sorts for children doing crafts and the like.  I was able to make a mosaic picture, and the daughter of the host family even entered hers in a competition.  Also, I ran into some of my students competing in a robot soccer tournament.  It was a great day of fun, and I expect more fun experiences will happen with this family.

I found some of my students competing in a robot competion.

After this quarantine clears, I can only hope that the school days will become more regular, but regardless I will continue to cope with any obstacles.  Keep on following the Blog to see what happens to me next!

Paul Worrell ‘10, Mansfield Foundation International Fellow in Elementary English Immersion Education

Greetings Fellows fans and Blog watchers, 

Another week has passed for my fellowship at Katoh Schools here in Numazu, Japan.  It is unbelievable how the time passes, while I still experience so much in only one week.  This has been another week of transitions and big events, so there is a lot for me to tell you!  Not only have a moved to a new host family, but we have had a major event at school, and have finished our big portfolio projects in all classes.  With my new family, I have had some amazing experiences simply being in Japan as well, so overall it was a great week full of excitement.

The leaves are changing, and fall is surely here in Japan.

At the beginning of this week I went to my next home stay, this time with a regular side family, which means the student attends Katoh, but is in a normal Japanese room, not an immersion setting.  She still takes English, though and we can converse with the two of us using the skills we have acquired in each other’s language.  She has a younger sister who is in Kindergarten, and I enjoy playing with her a lot.  Each family has its own personality, and it has been a unique and fun aspect of my fellowship to get to know each different family.  I have been with two families so far, and after this coming week I will change to my final host family.  At my current home I am once again biking to school, and it is nice to have the daily exercise again.  The route to school is safer than my previous one as well, and it is not as harrowing as many routes can be here in Japan.

At Katoh Schools we have accomplished much in the past week, which was in fact an extra long week.  We started on Monday and went all the way through Sunday.  Saturday and Sunday were only half days, but it was still an exhausting and interesting experience.  The reason for these two days was school bazaar which is a big event where the students and parents alike create shops and sell wares as well as go around and make purchases.  For the students in the fourth through sixth grades, it was a week of designing and building games, and crafting home-made wares to sell to their younger classmates.  The parents also crafted goods, and bought many things as well, to sell to each other in a parents’ bazaar.  The whole purpose of this activity is to raise money for the school, and while this year’s bazaar was markedly reduced to precaution against the swine flu (a good precaution, as just this week the second grade was closed due to students ill with the flu!) we still made over one million yen!  That comes to around ten thousand dollars.

For our third grade, we did not prepare our own shops, instead we visited the fifth grade’s shops, and all of the students enjoyed it immensely.  I even played a few games and picked up some cute Japanese trinkets.  Instead this week we finished up our portfolio work in all classes, and in English I kept the students working to finish a neat spider display wall, including paper spiders and spider acrostic poems.  It was a rather light week for me teaching-wise, but that will all change when I start this next week, because now I am on full-control of the classrooms.  I have been busy over the last several days developing lessons, and it is going to be an exciting ride from here on out.

I even got to feed lions from the safari bus!

Speaking of exciting rides, I was able to experience an African Safari right here in Japan, at the base of Mt. Fuji of all places!  My host family took me on Tuesday (part of our pseudo-weekend following bazaar) and we had a great day exploring the safari both in our own car, and on a neat bus.  It was a lovely time, and I have enjoyed my time with this family.  The day before we had gone out to an Onsen, a traditional hot-spring bath, and we all played in the pool.  It was great to swim away the stress after that super long work week.

This was our safari bus! Maybe American schools should use buses like these.

I am feeling refreshed and ready to begin my full-time teaching tomorrow, and with the continued support of my mentor teachers and everyone I have met here in Japan, I know it will go well.

Wish me luck!

Paul

Paul Worrell ‘10, Mansfield Foundation International Fellow in Elementary English Immersion Education

Greetings Fellows fans and Blog watchers,

I have finished another week back in Japan since my whirlwind world trip, and it was quick but full of more experiences.  I spent a day sleeping off my jet-lag, but then I went to school from Wednesday through Friday.  During this time it was great to get to see the students again and spending time with them reminded why I am here.  It is important to get reminders of why teaching is important and fulfilling.  Seeing their smiling faces and chatting idly with them was a nice reminder at this half-way point.  In reality, it was only two school days because on Friday we had an exciting field trip to an art museum.

At Katoh Schools, the entrance exams for incoming first graders this next year have just finished.  I had a chance to speak to several of the faculty and it seems it was another successful year and many of the students were excellent candidates for the program.  As always there was much discussion over the students and their families, but it seems that the overall opinion was that this was a fine batch of students.  I was sad that I could not be a part of this process, and hopefully I will have more opportunities in the future to see the inner workings of the school beyond my classroom duties.

In my classroom we have made some excellent progress however on our portfolio work this term.  Portfolios are written pieces that show the students’ current capability to write in English in different subjects.  I assisted Ms. Walsh as the students worked on their science portfolios a few weeks ago, and I personally led their portfolios for English class.  We wrote all about spiders in factual stories.  It was fun introducing this topic and helping the students work through the writing process.  In addition to fulfilling the necessary portfolio requirements, I used several of the students’ stories for an assignment for my own student teaching.  It was great to analyze their work and reflect upon my teaching.

However, the highlight of the week was certainly the field trip to the Hakone Open Air Museum.  This art museum is definitely unconventional and is almost completely outdoors.  It has statues strewn throughout the grounds, as well as several large pieces that double as playgrounds for the children.  Ms. Walsh, Mr. Thorpe, our Japanese teaching partner Yanase Sensei and I each took a small group of students to explore the museum.  Being in a small group was great and the students and I enjoyed exploring and playing throughout the open air museum.

The museum staff also hosted an art workshop for the students and we all got to recreate a Pablo Picasso style piece with foam clay.  It involved mixing primary colors of the foam clay to create numerous other colors, and the students spent a good hour and a half creating unique scenes, faces, or whatever they could imagine!  The whole day was great and the students really seemed to enjoy the artwork as well as the fun playgrounds.  There was even a Pablo Picasso exhibit that many students thought was the best part of the whole day.  I was impressed with their maturity but there were of course some giggles.  It was nice to know that no matter where you are in the world or what school it is, kids will be kids!

This past week was another quick and busy one, and I again enjoyed the hospitality of Dr. Bostwick and his wife.  Starting from now, though, I am heading back into home stays.  My first one will be two weeks with a family of a regular side student.  That means that there will be less English but I know I will get by.  After that I will spend six weeks with a final host family.

I truly appreciate these families’ hospitality and the experience would not be the same without this key cultural aspect.

Thanks again everyone for your support and stay tuned for more news from Japan!

Paul

Paul Worrell ‘10, Mansfield Foundation International Fellow in Elementary English Immersion Education

Greetings from around the world!

This past week has been seven hectic and exciting days.  I have been staying with Dr. Bostwick and his wife in the town of Yugawara again, and they have been most welcoming and warm.  During the first few days of the week I have been teaching more, and it has been great working on longer-term projects like the portfolios.  I can really see how an assignment like that can go from start to finish over several lessons, and the students continue to amaze me with their abilities to write effectively.  I will be using several of the students’ completed portfolios for one of my student teaching assignments this week, and I am looking forward to analyzing their work and writing about the overall experience.

Another interesting aspect of these school days was that I have now had the experience of leading the classroom without my mentor teachers present.  There was of course a licensed teacher with me at all times, but both Mr. Thorpe and Ms. Walsh have been gone for a day.  During these days I simply teach all of his or her classes, and what has been great is that I do not notice significant behavior issues with the students and their motivation remains high.  This gives me confidence that the transition between my mentor teachers leading to my upcoming full-time leading will be smooth and easy.  It feels good to know that the students respect me and do not try to take advantage when their normal teacher is away.

This past school week has also been special because the whole faculty has been preparing for the entrance exam day.  This day is for families and their children who hope to come into the immersion program at first grade.  The teachers were separated into groups of about three, and in those groups they were assigned different parts of a morning lesson.  One teacher had a short morning meeting type activity, another had a reading lesson, and the other had a play-time activity.  Together, and with the help of the Japanese teachers assigned to the group, the teachers prepare their activities and then on the exam day they observe and take note of all the students’ abilities and rate them on how prepared or suitable they are for immersion education.  It was very interesting to be a part of these preparations, but unfortunately I was out of the country during the actual exam day.

My brother and his new wife are quite fun-loving, so this exciting picture neatly sums up the overall weekend.

I was out of the country because I was heading back to the United States for my oldest brother’s wedding.  It was a whirlwind weekend of fun and airplanes and I quite enjoyed it.  We did have some unfortunate weather here in Japan, however, and I had to take a train up the night before my flight day to avoid a Typhoon!  The winds and rain caused all of the trains heading through the country to shut down, so if I hadn’t gone up that day early I would not have made it to the United States and the wedding.  Overall everything turned out perfectly, and I was able to see family and friends and celebrate my brother’s marriage.

I am now beginning the second half of my student teaching experience here at Katoh Schools, and after this week I will be in charge of practically everything, leading up to a full takeover by the end of the month.  I am planning a long-term English Unit all about Anansi the spider stories, culminating in a reader’s theater.  It is going to be lots of hard work, but also tons of fun and learning for the students and myself.  Also after this week I will head to my next host family.

Thanks for following along, and stay tuned for the next update!

Paul

Paul Worrell ‘10, Mansfield Foundation International Fellow in Elementary English Immersion Education

Hello again from Numazu, Blog watchers and fellows fans,

I have had another great week here in Japan, and have had a lot of teaching experiences this week.  In fact, I was practically teaching fulltime.  Because of this, I have been keeping busy writing and developing lesson plans, and working with my mentor teachers both before and after lessons to reflect upon my work.  They are a great help in my developing teacher abilities.  But don’t think that it is all work and not play at Katoh Schools.  Our lessons are sure to include lots of fun hands-on experiences, and I have enjoyed using humor and playfulness to keep the students motivated.

Our semester is progressing quickly, and it is portfolio time at school for the students.  They are working on showing how well they can write in various subjects.  In Science we are pretending to be scientists and it is amazing to see all that the students can write about our latest unit, light.  Also, I developed the English lessons this week so we chose to write our English portfolios all about spiders.  The students enjoyed comparing and discussing different spiders and sharing all that they knew or thought about them.

Overall it was a rewarding and fun week of teaching, and also a great time for me to make more connections with my students.  It was a rainy week, so we had indoor recess for many days.  During this time I have been enjoying the opportunity to play with the students!  We play a lot of card games, like Speed and even some Poker (don’t worry there is no betting), and I even introduced them to Hangman.  They have accepted me as their teacher and Ms. Walsh and I even described the switch over to my teaching as seamless.

Aside from teaching, I have had more wonderful experiences simply being in Japan and exploring with my host family.  They took me out to a neighboring prefecture this past weekend to go grape picking.  We had so much fun at the local vineyards and enjoyed our time in the sunshine choosing the freshest bunches.  It was also an amazing car ride over to this prefecture, Yamanashi prefecture, because it goes right past Mount Fuji and its surrounding lakes.  Unfortunately it was another cloudy day so I do not have any clear photos of the mountain.

After grape picking we went to a local winery for a wine tour and tasting, and it was very fun and educational to see the process.  In fact, the winery we visited is one of the largest in Japan and has Japan’s largest wine cellar.  After the tour we sampled the different varieties, and they were of course quite fresh and fruity from the local grapes.  It is experiences like this that remind me that despite the many differences between the cultures of many countries, there are also so many commonalities.  Wine-making is a tradition throughout the world, and it was pleasing to know how it is done in Japan.

This has been my last week with this first host family, and I have now left their home to stay again with Dr. Bostwick.  I am so appreciative for my time with this family, and they have shared so much with me, more than just the trips and such, but the experience.  My fellowship would not be the same without this aspect of the experience, so thank you to everyone who made this possible.

I will be jet-setting back to the United States for my brother’s wedding this coming weekend, so expect another fun-filled and exciting Blog next week, albeit a little late.

Thanks for following along!

Paul

Paul Worrell ‘10, Mansfield Foundation International Fellow in Elementary English Immersion Education

Greetings Fellows fans and Blog watchers,

Here is my next Blog quickly, as I am still playing catch-up from being ill for a few days.  The fourth and fifth weeks here at Katoh Schools in Japan have been quite eventful and we actually had a mini-vacation from school called Silver Week.  This five day weekend is because of three different holidays, one being grandparents day and another being the beginning of autumn and another national holiday.  Unfortunately I was sick from Friday until Sunday so I still only ended up with a three or four day weekend.

We went on a short trip to a mountain park, and saw a nice rocky river.

Before Silver week, however we had an eventful week at school.  The highlight of the week was that it was parent observation week, and each grade had a day when the children’s parents came and observed lessons in the classroom. Now imagine if this happened in every school in the United States.  My guess is approximately 8 to 10 mothers would attend due to many others working or juggling too much.  At Katoh Schools the numbers were astounding.  Almost every single child’s mother was there and in fact we had many fathers attend as well.  So for our observation lessons the parents were everywhere, observing listening and working with their child.  It was a great opportunity for them to see what their child is learning, and I really enjoyed meeting all of the students’ parents.  We even had a parent-child game of dodge ball before lunch!  Dodge ball is incredibly popular here, and the parents were avid players, some of the mothers were even in heels out on the dirt field.

Aside from the exciting parent observation day, this week has been a good wrap up week for several of our units in Science and Math.  We have just finished large numbers in Math and in Science our light unit is coming to a close.  It is just perfect timing too, as the students can start fresh with new units after the nice mini-vacation that is Silver Week.  I am in charge of the new math unit, so it has been great to develop the first lessons about Length.  I have to make sure I know my metric system however!

In fact, many times I have been experiencing different systems and such here in Japan.  The weather degrees are always Celsius, and it is interesting to know what 25 degrees feels like compared to 29 degrees (both are quite warm!).  Also when I was somewhat ill, I learned that 37.6 was indeed a fever!  Overall however, I have enjoyed being more worldly and it really makes one think about some of our countries systems and how different we are compared to the rest of the world.

Also during these two weeks I have been able to visit a small farm out in the country and also go to a mountain park near the town where my host family lives.  We set out in the car and headed for the farm on Sunday afternoon of Silver Week.  As we crested the hills along the way beautiful views of Mount Fuji greeted us, and unfortunately I couldn’t snap a picture from the car (don’t worry it is allegedly very clear from late October on through winter so you will see some good Fuji photos in the future, I promise!).  As we got closer to the farm we saw people hang gliding far above.  This was a neat area to visit!  At the farm were many animals to see and very good ice cream made from local cows.

The mountain park we visited was picturesque in its own way, and I got some great river photos of a rocky river flowing by.  The kids enjoyed playing all afternoon, but I was able to sneak away for a lobster dinner thrown by one of the teachers.  It was great to see them outside of work and we all enjoyed some fresh Canadian lobster shipped in!  It has been a very fun two weeks and after resting and having some time off we are all refreshed and ready to get back into the flow at school.

Things are going to take off from here so hang onto your hats and keep on following the Blog!

Thanks for all of your support,

Paul

Paul Worrell ‘10, Mansfield Foundation International Fellow in Elementary English Immersion Education

Hello again family, friends and followers,

Sorry for the delay in updating the Blog, the last entry was slow to go up, and then as I was about to start the next entry I fell ill with a bad cold!  Anyway, things have been wonderful and I have continued to enjoy my time here in Japan and with my students at Katoh Schools.  A lot happens each week here, and I have been able to have many new experiences, both with my host family and at School.  I have experienced an earthquake drill, taken over more teaching responsibilities and with my family gone to see Mishima shrine and walked all around town.

In Third Grade at Katoh schools, the children are accepting me as just another one of the teachers.  I have been leading the morning meetings, doing the occasional whole lesson, and frequently team-teaching and individual teaching with the students.  This means that I am responsible for the little things that happen each day, and am also busy during each period going around with the students helping their learning.  It is great to get to know them, and I think I have all of their names mastered now!  Sometimes I chuckle at the little things that go on in a Japanese school however.  For example, one day we had an Earthquake drill.  This drill was very organized and when the loudspeaker informed us “an earthquake was coming” the students knew what to do.  They dove under the tables and grabbed the legs.  After the all clear was given, we all went outside and waited as a school while the principal said a few words.  Overall, what made this drill amusing and different were the cushions they all had to wear on their heads!  They all have a seat cushion that has a pocket for the child to put over his or her head to keep it safe in the case of an earthquake.

This is the view of the main building from our third grade balcony.

In fact, I have noticed that much of Japan is very efficient and organized to prevent harm and hazard.  Homes have fancy typhoon shutters, all the cars make beeps when the back up, and at train stations and the like there are numerous signs and warnings for the safety of everyone.  Japan is a very safety-conscious nation, and frankly I have never felt safer in an urban setting!

This is the entrance to Mishima Shrine. Look how big it is compared me and my host family!

With my host family, I have been able to visit many fun and exciting places in our local area.  One being Mishima Shrine, which is a beautiful shrine where people come to bless their children, pray for health, or simply enjoy the gorgeous setting.  We explored the whole place and enjoyed the Fragrant Olive tree’s scent.  In fact this tree is over 2000 years old!! Can you believe it?  Also, one of the highlights was seeing traditional Japanese Archery.  The archers were fluid and sleek and my host family and I were in awe of their ability.  Overall, it was a beautiful shrine and a great place to see.  After visiting it, we walked around downtown Mishima and it was nice to be out and exploring the city.

These Japanese Archers were amazing and beautiful to watch.

In fact it has been great simply exploring the culture of Japan during my time here.  Whether it is conversing with my students about their homes and lives, or visiting beautiful places, I have been so grateful to learn about another place and its ways.  Also, I have enjoyed sharing my experiences with everyone and some of my favorite moments at school are when I read a great English book to the students and share something they have yet to experience with them.

I will make the next Blog very soon to make up for lost time, so keep on reading everyone!

Paul Worrell ‘10, Mansfield Foundation International Fellow in Elementary English Immersion Education

My student teaching journey in Japan has continued to be amazing. I have made it through a whole week at Katoh Schools, and it feels as if I have always been here. The students have accepted me, and they truly make everything worth the work. This week I have been active in Math, Science, and English lessons, and am enjoying my increasing time in front of the classroom. Mr. Thorpe and Ms. Walsh are very supportive and encouraging, so I know I am in good hands. I also want to give credit to Cornell’s education department which has prepared me quite well. Without the hard work and wonderful teaching I received last year I would not be who I am today in the classroom. Thanks!

Me with my mentor teachers Mr. Thorpe and Ms. Walsh

So as well as having spent a whole week with students, I have spent a week with my host family. The whole family is wonderful, and the children are very fun. There is a baby girl of seven months, a five year old boy, and an eleven year old girl who attends sixth grade at Katoh Schools. They have provided me with amazing Japanese cultural experiences so far! Firstly, the food is great, and the family provides ever varying dishes made of local ingredients. It is great to sample all of the new food, and I am relishing the new flavors. This second weekend we ventured out into the town and took the children and some friends to a park. There, they spent time catching the local wildlife! We caught two large crawdads, a cicada, and several small fish. It was great to get away and play. There were some tears when we left, as the children had to let their new pets go, but overall we had a good Saturday morning at the park.

That afternoon Dr. Bostwick, the school director, hosted a barbecue for all of the immersion teachers and staff. I ventured out to the nearby Mishima train station, only about a 10 minute walk from my host family, and caught a train for Yugawara. At the transfer in Atami Station, I saw a clump of foreigners and recognized my colleagues. Together, we made our way to the party. The other teachers have been great, and have taken me in as one of their own immediately. This barbecue offered me the chance to get to know them better, especially those from the Junior/Senior High School. All of the teachers are the best from around the world, and it is another wonderful aspect of being here at Katoh Schools that I am able to learn from all of them.

In fact, I learn a lot in an average day at Katoh Schools! An average day begins with a hearty breakfast with my family before heading out on my bicycle to school. After a week of riding past moving traffic and avoiding colliding with other bicyclists, I feel I have gotten the hang of getting around Japan by bike. I arrive early, and help my mentor teachers with anything they need as well as prepare for my own teaching. The children are everywhere, playing dodge ball and the like outdoors, or finishing changing in the classroom from their formal uniforms into their P.E. clothes that they wear all day anyway. We have morning meeting first, which differs by day, but allows time for things like spelling and oral language practice.

Me in Calligraphy class.

Each day then is different from there on out, but for me usually contains several Math and English course, with a Science class thrown in here or there. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I have culture club at the end of the day, and this time is a wonderful chance for me to experience immersion first-hand. I have Flower-arranging and calligraphy on Tuesday and Badminton on Wednesday. In all three classes I become a student with the children and the teachers use only Japanese. It is a nice time to see how it feels to learn in another language, and helps me to empathize with the students as well as learn wonderful cultural lessons. Flower Arranging is really quite mathematical, and involves placing the flowers at specific angles. The classroom is traditional with Tatami floors and we all sit traditionally. I almost fell over the first day though, as my legs fell asleep and I had to wait for the blood to rush back to them. In calligraphy I am getting better at using the brush, but still feel very basic. It is good for me to experience these new classes so I remember how it feels to be in a completely foreign environment, language included. These times allow me to empathize with my students!

Me and the student arranging flowers.

Overall this week has been full of new learning experiences for me and the students, and there is too much to report on! I could write 10 pages more at least. However, in short, this week was great, and I really have become comfortable here in Japan, and at Katoh Schools. This next week I have more teaching, but still I am mostly observing. In the coming weeks I will be leading more and more, so wish me luck! Thanks again for everyone’s support!

Paul

Paul Worrell ‘10, Mansfield Foundation International Fellow in Elementary English Immersion Education

Dear friends, family, colleagues and fellowship supporters,

Paul Worrell, here! And for those who are not familiar with me, I am a senior this year attending Cornell College, majoring in Elementary Education. I was extremely fortunate to have been given the opportunity to conduct my student teaching in Numazu, Japan. This is the first entry in my weekly Blog, which will contain updates of my fellowship. Included will be photos, descriptions of extraordinary opportunities, and the various challenges and experiences that I will have.

My fellowship in Japan has been a whirlwind of culture, new faces, learning experiences, and of course excellent food. I have now been in Japan for ten days, and it must feel like more than a month. From the moment I stepped off the plane it has been incredible. After making my way through customs and baggage claim, I purchased a train ticket for the Shinkansen bullet train to Tokyo. My ticket was for the 4:16 train and I purchased it at 4:12. Rushing down the escalator with my backpack and heavy suitcase, I approached a station worker who promptly pushed me onto the train and it left the station a second later. Immediately I knew I was in for a wild ride here in Japan, and it was wonderful!

A traditional Japanese Garden in the heart of Tokyo.

I spent two days in Tokyo exploring various parts of the city, and visiting many memorable locations. It was a challenge to communicate but what I found was that all of the Japanese citizens bend over backwards to help. After the first few train rides I had the train system mastered. Trains leave every few minutes and are efficient, clean and always exactly on time. Some of the memorable places I visited were Shinjuku, Tokyo’s busiest section full of shopping opportunities; Ueno Park, which has an amazing zoo full of interesting animals, which I proceeded to fill my camera with; and Rinkugien Garden, one of many traditional Japanese gardens throughout the city. All in all, it was an amazing two days, and served as a wonderful way to introduce me to Japan and its culture.

This view shows part of the Ueno Zoo

I next caught another bullet train headed south toward Numazu. My site mentor, Dr. Mike Bostwick was waiting for me at the station, and he graciously allowed me to stay with him for my first week in Numazu, while I went to Katoh Schools. For the first few days at Katoh Schools, most students had not yet arrived so I became acquainted with many teachers and explored the campus. During these few days, however, fifth and sixth grade students had morning summer school, so I immediately jumped in, sharing a group with one of my primary mentor teachers, John Thorpe of New Zealand. This was awesome to begin working with students right away. During that first week, the elementary officially began on Thursday, and I met my third grade students for the first time. The children are wonderful, and their passion for learning and general curiosity for life was immediately visible.

The first two days of school were over in the blink of an eye, and during that time I have begun to learn names, start leading in small areas, and have also seen the benefits and challenges of immersion education. The students have a good grasp on simple English, but most often do converse in Japanese. Breaking them of this habit, which is also against the rules in the English room, is going to be one of my big challenges. I look forward to modeling good English speech, and providing them with the tools to excel in their ability to speak as well. The benefits are many, and the first few that have become apparent to me are the overall fervor that these students have for learning. When given a task, there is little hesitation, and lack of effort is not going to be a problem here at Katoh schools.

This weekend I have attended a teacher workshop where I learned much in the ways of immersion education, and feel even better prepared to begin leading in the classroom. Overall every person I have met is supportive, engaging, and devoted to the students’ education. I am so lucky to have come into such a wonderful school! After the workshop I came to live with my first home stay family. They have welcomed me into their home, and it is what I believe the start of a wonderful cultural relationship, one with which we can all learn more about each other and the world.

I would like to give a big thank you to everyone who made this fellowship possible, especially Dr. Mike and Dr. Kerry Bostwick, RJ Holmes and Rob Sutherland, and all the supporters of the Cornell College Fellowship program! Thanks a million!

Paul