Yesterday I spend the day at a high school, observing a teacher of Japanese. It was a really cool experience, since I never had the opportunity to take Japanese in high school myself, but I hope to be able to teach it someday soon.
The school itself was gorgeous. It's band new and I really like the way it was built. Classrooms are grouped together in 'pods' so teachers of similar subjects are nearby. There was even a storage room for all the teachers to share together. Close to the pod was a large office, divided into separate desk spaces for each teacher. It seemed very nice--the teachers were able to keep all the 'teachery things' they needed in the school, but in an office environment, instead of the classroom.
The classes themselves that I observed were really great. I felt that the students were really into studying Japanese, and their teacher is fantastic. I got to see a whole spectrum of classes--first years to fifth, standard lessons and independent studies, and I even got to stick around for a Japan Club meeting. ^_^ I also had a lot of opportunities to speak to the teacher about what goes on 'behind the scenes' and how the curriculum was created and how she chose materials for the classroom. Since Japanese is not one of the most popular languages taught in schools (yet!), I feel like I left with a lot of great ideas to help make the Japanese language acquisition process a better for my future students. ^_^
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