School for special needs children

This Monday, with the Aussie teacher, we went to our sort of field trip to a special school for physically and mentally challenged children. We were supposed to teach two short, 15 minutes lessons, one to junior high kids, and the other to elementary 2nd and 3rd grade kids..

To be honest, the night before I got really nervous...I was terrified. My experience in elementary school was a rather horrible one, and I never intended to teach kids again. Even this trip was supposed to be just a trip to that school, take a look around and come back thing. One day, all the teachers from my school went, and we were supposed to go with them, but they canceled for some reason...still have no idea why.

They asked us later if we wanted to go, if we have a chance again, and I said yes. After teaching in so many different schools, I wanted to know what this kind of schools are like. Then turns out, this time it's only the two of us going (plus one teacher to help us with Japanese), and well, why not killing two birds with a stone, they asked if we could teach two lessons. We were taken advantage of...as often is the case. Whatever...at least we can try out ourselves I thought.

Anyway, the big day came, and I woke up with a headache, in a really bad mood.  I cursed myself thinking "curiosity killed the cat, and gonna kill me too...I should have said no". But how could I? Our principal is the kindest Japanese woman I've ever known, she came to the school the same time I did, and she was a principal in such a special school before. I could never turn down her offer or say no to her request. So, I added a 400 mg Panadol to my breakfast and headed to my school. We talked a bit about what we would do there...that made me less nervous. At least we had a plan.

The vice principal of the other school came and picked us up by her car. The principal and all the other teachers we met at the special school, called "Shien Gakko" in Japanese, were very kind and welcoming. I didn't feel out of place there at all. My headache was gone too. 

We went to the junior high kids first. They were about elementary 3rd grade 4th grade level, 8 students in total. Classes here are much smaller, usually with about 3 teachers supervising the kids.  I was surprised that some of them knew the alphabet, and with a help of a chart they could write their names in English. They were all cheerful and friendly...maybe more friendly than my self-conscious regular students. We played fruits basket game with colours, everyone enjoyed it. I was relieved. 

Then we went to the elementary school kids...they were a bit more difficult to teach, because there were a lot of students. You would think 26 is not a big number when you face classes of 40 students everyday. However, I have to admit, 26 is a big number when it comes to kids who are mentally or physically disabled, or have some behavioral problems. They were constantly jumping around and screaming. 5 classes together. Probably it would have been a better idea to teach only one class at a time. Somehow we survived, passing time with shaking hands, some kids were eager to hi5 us :) So cute. Some of them just came up to us, and hugged.  We had flying shoes and a pig, long minutes of screaming, and one kid even practiced for days to say "Thank you" when our lesson was over.  

Honestly, these kids made me feel so much better. By the end of the trip I just felt happy. That's what the principal was telling me about before, but you wouldn't understand until you have the experience. I think I'm lucky I had the chance to go there and meet these kids. They are far more adorable than those spoiled  little brats I taught at those regular elementary schools. 

We even got some presents: a small hand towel from the kids, a box of Halloween cookies and hand made tissue case covers (made by the principal's wife) from the principal. They asked if we could come again, once in a semester (there are 3 semesters in one school year here), and we said yes without thinking. 

The neatly wrapped presents.

The hand towel: designed for the school.