The Changes A Year Makes

From this:

In August, my school was a bit atrocious. The only learning that was implemented, was worksheets that were handed to the kids WITHOUT explanation  The kids MIGHT try to write their name. The rest of it was scribbling.

Since I walked into the mad-house I have done a lot to change the course of the school.

The first thing I did was take over the classroom, I wanted themes to be taught and lessons to be learned. I wanted the kids to walk away learning about the world they live in and going home excited about what they were learning about. My preschool didn't do that before.

I started different kits to teach with different lessons. We did a lot of trial and error. What I have learned about projects is that you need something that is easy to prepare and easy to enjoy. Something that adds onto the conversation you are having with the kids.

BUT thats the main part, that conversation. It doesn't matter what you are talking about or how you are talking about it. You have to show your passion and excitement for learning. You have to get into it and get crazy.

By all means I am a reading and writing learner. I am not visual, I am not hearing and I am definitely not kinestetic. So I learned a lot this year about how to adapt who I am into a person that can teach the others. With the little ones the focus has to be visual and kinesthetic and it HAS TO BE FUN.

My preschool focuses on 3 colors, 3 letters, a shape, number and pattern every month plus 2 themes. we practice cutting, coloring, writing our name and we were content. I am working on adding even more to that currently. Now I am starting learning centers like skip counting, shape recognition, name practice, fine motor movements, gross motor movements, backwards counting, letter sound recognition, CVC words, sight words and more. I want kids to walk away from my school with their head exploding with knowledge.

It may be hard for my teachers to make this happen but it will be happening.

Furthermore, I finally have a school I am excited to show people. I have changed the look and continue to do so often. We have a playground with some toys and centers with more toys, a library full of books (WITH a wonderful reading mat). We have a writing/craft station and a playdoh section. It is nice to see the kids excited to interact and work together. It is nice to watch them grow and challenge each other. I now have motivational posters, cute stories on the walls, cute pictures. We talk about how to behave, how to listen, the different kinds of smarts, how to be nice, and so much more. My school looks like a school and a place that is a positive environment for every child. It makes me proud.

The change I am currently on a high over is my classroom management. I have taken kids that bite, hit and scream on a regular basis and found a way to SHOW them their levels. My behavior chart is color coded and includes plenty of chances that kids at this age need. We have good news letters that go home, and bad news letters that can too. With the visual, my kids are seeing a big change. My "troubled" kids have turned around in only a week. They despise getting a note home for the wrong reasons and now that they know which level that is at and how to get there, they work on staying out of it. It is wonderful watching them monitor themselves and seeing how great of a day they are having. :) Plus it is wonderful for the parents to SEE how their kids are doing. It keeps the kids attention on the chart as well.

Fridays when I entered were movie day, which was a wonderful break on the teachers. But it was still difficult to get the kids to sit and watch a movie. We have revamped that entirely. Now, we have Japanese class, and KinderJam every other Friday. KinderJam (something I am now licensed to provide) is a kinestethic learning class. It is a great way to get involved and get kids up and moving while learning. I see it as a wonderful way to enrich the education and review it. I see this going particularly well with my little ones especially (who can't sit still for a second). Then Japanese class is a great way to help my Japanese students feel like the leader of the class that they normally struggle in PLUS helps my American students take the time and focus on where they are and the customs, holidays, songs and stories of this culture that we are on top of.

I am constantly looking for more and more changes with the students and with the school. My next challenge is my teachers. I want to make them the best at what they do. When I go on vacation I want to not worry and keep them at the top of their game. Some days when I am gone, I am amazed the place hasn't literally burned down in the measly 6 hours I am not there. My goal is to be more confident in my teachers. I want them more positive, more understanding, and more passionate. I will create this in my teachers and it will show before I am done with it.

I also need to work on challenging my teachers. I need to make sure they are doing their job. My focus is on the kids and on the education. And I need to start becoming a better manager of my workers. I need to push them for their best in a positive but effective way.

To This:

Updated Bucket List--So far in Japan

Here is my list (for now! I got most of the ideas from (http://thejapanbucketlist.wordpress.com/) Doesn't mean I don't want to partake!

1. See Shinjuku Gyoen. Get lost in nature.
2. Go to an Art Museum.
3. Try clothes on in Japan (Just how small can they be?) Trust me they are small. Though I still want a kimono.
4. Make Sushi, ramen and/or fried rice
5. Go to a waterpark. I don't know if any of you would qualify it as a waterpark. But hey a pool is better than no pool.
6. Go to Tokyo Disneyland
7. Climb to the top of Mt. Fuji.
8. Sing in a karaoke bar! (Wow! So different than America!!! I will write about that!)
9. Do ‘hanami’ (cherry blossom viewing) while in Japan. (Just this past weekend. Pictures to come!)
10. Stay in a ryokan. (Komaki onsen was beautiful and where I got proposed to!)
11. Visit the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
12. Go up the Tokyo Tower.
13. Go to a local izakaya. (love north 40/40! I think this counts?)
14. Participate in Aomori’s Neputa festival.
15. Visit the Sannai Maruyama site in Aomori.
16. Visit Gappo Park in Aomori.
17. Go up APSAM in Aomori and take an awesome photo of the skyline!
18. Get photos of the cosplayers on Harajuku Bridge.
19. Visit Kabukicho (Tokyo’s red light district).
20. Buy a yukata or kimono.
21. Ride the Yamanote line.
22. Explore Tokyo Narita Airport.
23. Find a really, really interesting toilet.
24. Get a photo in the cherry blossoms. (I swear I will update with this)
25. Drink Sake.
26. Drink Chu-Hi.
27. Buy/rent a bicycle
28. Visit Aomori.
29. Visit Hachinohe.
30. Visit Towada  (But I still wanna go to the lake)
31. Visit Sapporo, land of the beers.
32. Make a lasting friend. (Miss Kazue!!! :) ).
33. Befriend the wildlife. (No, no thank you crowzillas, you win this round)
34. Teach a lesson. OR A MILLION! :)
35. Ring a shrine bell and pray. (There is a right and wrong way to do this, so I haven't done this yet) 
36. Try a weird flavour of Kit-Kat. (I hear there’s lemonade, watermelon, green tea)
37. Participate in a tea ceremony.
38. Visit Meiji Shrine.
39. Visit a cat cafe
40. Go to a Pokemon Center!
41. Go to Universal Studios.
42. Ride a shinkansen (bullet train).
43. Play Pachinko.
44. Learn how to drive out here.
45. Get a job so I can stay longer and accomplish all of these things.
46. Try all sorts of weird foods
47. Try Japanese Ramen (my favorite!!!)
48. Get in better shape.
49. Go to Sapporo Festival
50. Go to the Nebuta Festival
51. Go to Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival
52. Watch a Japanese Baseball game.
53. Go to the Misawa Festivals
54. Go to the Summer Sonic
55. Go to Star Tours and Disney Sea

Looking at my list I feel REALLY accomplished for the 11 months I have been here I have done 32 of the 55 things I want to do :) And I have at least a year left :) Sounds possible :)
   56. Try to get to Australia at some point :) 

Running from the silence

I miss writing. This used to be my outlet. Everything could be turned into a poem, a song, a feeling, a story. Every object in the house, every person you see walk by, every natural disaster and common emotion had a story that was on the tip of my tongue and needed to fall out.

Lately, I hold those feelings back, not because I don't want them, not because I can't have them. But because I don't allow myself the time to think about them. That is going to change. I miss the feeling of writing and knowing that I captured an absolute truth about something very few have seen. Knowing I have portrayed something that could be life changing, irreversible and un-describable.

Today that changes. Today I begin again to carry notebooks for random fumings and a piece of paper with a random concept. Today is the day I bring back my passion and my meaning in life. I go back to my quotes and find the stories lost inside them. Today is the day I remind myself that the reason we speak, the reason I exist is to bring the ordinary its fifteen minutes at extraordinary.

What changes your life?

Backstory.

"What made you become a police detective?" A student asked for their newspaper interview.
Keira thought back through her life. She was born in Baltimore by a not so nice and clean father and an all too forgiving mother. The mother knew the signs, she saw what could happen at the hospital she was a nurse at. Yet, her mother always stayed with her father, despite what that meant for Keira and her sister.
But one day things changed.

When Keira was 8, her mother took her and her younger sister, Riley, to the park. Keira fell after trying to be an acrobat on the junglegym and hit her arm on the way down. She was a pretty bruised up child and she began to bleed profusely. Her mother, knowing when to intervene and when to shake it off, grabbed Keira and told Riley to stay in sight. As Kalena Haven applied first aid in the car, Riley was busy playing and laughing and kicking the ball around. One time she hit the ball just a bit too far and went to grab it behind a tree... and the laughter, the kicking, everything was gone.

Keira's mom ran around the entire park looking for Riley, she called for her and Keira cried and searched as well. Kalena called Joshua, Keira's father, and explained what happened. She explained that she thought Riley was kidnapped. They called the cops, they did everything they could to get Riley back but they went mad with worry.

The police had no leads since both Kalena and Keira saw nothing. Keira focused on the laugh, she heard it in her dreams as she cried herself to sleep. Kalena focused on her work, she would be gone for days, hoping that one day she would come home and everything would be back to normal, Riley would be at home laughing and playing again.

Joshua refused to give up the search. He had been without a job for as long as Keira remembered, but after Riley disappeared, he lost himself in the paperwork and doing whatever he could to hunt her down while shooting up and pouring down the alcohol. It drove him and he followed every corner, every curve, every hunch. He ignored his wife and Keira. They were nonexistant to him after Riley. Keira never understood that, she was always daddy's favorite but then he wouldn't talk to her. Riley was all that mattered.

One day, 6 months later on Keira's 9th birthday, Kalena and Keira were baking a cake. Enjoying the day, not bringing up all who they missed, who they they lost. Joshua wasn't around, as he normally wasn't anymore. He was too busy looking into a new curve and found a very secure lead on the investigation. He called the police, he made them not give up as long as he didn't.

The lead he gave on Keira's birthday, brought home the best birthday gift Keira could have asked for. Her sister. Riley ran in, laughing and crying, hugging and holding her sister. "Happy Birthday" she choked over. Joshua looked smug, he found the missing link, he brought his family back together.

And he wasn't going to tear it back apart. He gave Riley the best gift he could give her to welcome home. He sobered, he cleaned up, and he became an inspirational story for people just like him around the world. He wrote a book, he spoke at conferences and he lived the rest of his life clean. He changed his life and devoted his time to researching new methodologies of a saving people as well as volunteering his free time to help the police.

Keira never knew what to think about her father before the change. it was like he was a different man. She learned that year that bad things can happen and good can come from it. But she believes that justice should be served. Following her fathers newer developed passion, she would join her father's volunteering with the police and followed in his footsteps. She went to college for behavioral psychology and criminal profiling and became a police detective to help find people just like those that captured her sister.

Riley ended up following her mothers passions of medicine. She became a special needs psychologist and helped those that have disheartened ideas and need to be brought back to reality. At times, her past affects her but she focuses on the positives and fights through the fact she has survived the worst already and her life was saved for a reason. Keira's mom, Kalena, later became an EMT and saved lives just like she wished she would have for her daughter.

Keira watched her entirely broken family turn into a family devoted to true happiness all because one of the most horrible thing happened to them and they found a way to turn it positive. 

God gave us words and it's our job to put wings on them.

What is the meaning of words? Why have them? Why communicate? Why share? 

I believe the answer is simple. Words exist to help us all learn the lessons we are meant to learn. They are around to answer the questions we need answered. They challenge the world we believe in and teach us how to transform ourselves. Why sit idly and foolishly talk small chatter? Why talk about the weather, why talk about your day? It becomes background noise and a chore. 

But from time to time you have the opportunity to grow through the conversations you have. They arent there to answer today's questions but to make sure you don't have the same one tomorrow. Words are a way to solve life's biggest problems and challenge everything you thought you knew. Words encourage your brain to dive deeper into concepts and teach you how to soar through reality. 

I challenge each of you to explore one deep thought at least once a day. Don't just ignore the question your brain is thinking but ask it, out loud to another person. That conversation will be the one you walk away from refreshed, renewed and refined. 

And if you both partake in this conversation as fully as you can, you will walk away with a new concept that you both didn't know the world had in order and one that you didn't know would change the way you viewed it. 

Holidays In Japan

Our holidays are thought to be so foreign to other countries. Some are. Some aren't.

Thanksgiving isn;t big (for obvious reasons) in Japan. However some do get the holiday off to give thanks. They don't have turkey. The only ham they have in japan is the sliced version for sandwiches. So bringing the ham was a shock to them. But they enjoyed it more than most things I think.

Christmas is bigger than I expected in Japan or at least our heavily influenced area of Japan. At my Japanese and American Preschool all of the Japanese came to school with Christmas gifts and new toys. One of my American friends asked if it was Annual Gift Man that dropped off the toys. It wasn't. It was Santa.

About 10% of the country believes in Christianity. But what is interesting about religion out here is that a lot of it is intertwined with each other. Its normal to have a Christian wedding, a Buddhist Funeral and celebrate Chinese New Year (This year is the year of the Snake coming up FYI)

New Year is a week long festivity. Full of cleaning every speck of dust out of your house and then spending your time with family and friends. They believe whatever you do that first week will pave the road for how your next year will follow. They have little tricks (much like the ones I found out we do. My family doesn't do much for New Years) They leave a bowl of fruit that they don't touch for 3 days. It means they will be bountiful with food the next year. They go to the temple for New Years and ring it in with a prayer and a wish. And other things like that. I think its something Americans should celebrate in line with (and its not JUST because I want a week off lol)

The Japanese I talk to have NEVER heard of groundhogs day (and I found out the groundhog doesn't see his own shadow. He sees Jack Frosts shadow.) So it was fun teaching them about that one.

February 3rd is Setsubun. It is a holiday like another New Years where you wish for bad spirits to stay out and for good luck to enter your home. They throw beans and talk about Oni (a  demon orge like thing) It is a fun holiday.

Valentine's Day is split into 2 holidays (I am SURPRISED Hallmark hasn't tried to capitalize on that yet) It is February 14th (The girls give gifts to the boys) and March 14th (The boys give gifts to the girls). Basically asking to be the valentine and finally getting a response. It is a cute and sentimental way of expanding the holiday.

I am sure there are more that are different and I can't wait to hear more about it!

Must America Be So Pigheaded?

I have lived in Japan for 6 months and I'm going to say something I've known and understood since high school in the states. Can we PLEASE conform to the metric system? We are the ONLY idiots refusing to give up an out-dated system that we were "so sure" would catch on. This just in: It never caught on. Let's give it up already. I hate how moronic I feel (and we look) out here trying to figure out size, speed and god forbid temperature. And let's not even start me on time!

Maybe if we weren't so big headed and gave this losing game up, people in other countries would actually start listening to some of the information we say again.