"Hello. Hello. Hello, how are you?..."

I have some cute teaching stories & videos from elementary schools to share! I figure it's about time that I write about my job, instead of what I do for fun on the weekends. :)

I recently taught a fifth grade class in which I called on students to tell me what fruit they like. One boy said, "I like apples." Next, a girl said, "I like cherries." Very common answers. Then I got, "I like persimmons!!!" Wow. Very impressive that he knows the word persimmon in English!

In another fifth grade class, we started by singing "The Hello Song," a very popular song from the textbook. The teacher decided to use the song to teach other replies besides, "I'm fine." I respect that. So she sang, "Hello. Hello. Hello, how are you? I'm sick. (instead of "fine") I'm sick. I hope that you are, too!" Oh no. And then the students sang it just like her. I couldn't help but chuckle.

This is what greeted me when I went to Ube E.S. on Monday. I like that it says "Nice to meet you," when I've been to this school at least ten times!

Here's a little video I took while I was there, so you can meet a few of the cutiepies I teach...
(Notice that the kid with the monkey on his hat keeps acting like a monkey.)

So. Adorable.

It was in the first grade ("ichi nensei") class at Ube E.S. that I had a student ask me how long it takes me to swim from America to Japan. Aww.

At Samuraihama Elementary School, the first grade class sang me the "Do Re Mi" song from The Sound of Music in Japanese. I took a video of it to share...

(Be sure to watch the two kids in the front row. The one on the left looks really bored and starts yawning at one point, but the kid next to him has enough gusto for both of them!)



By the way, this is the school where I have kids come up to me and say, "Hello! Mayonnaise (their name said really fast)!" They think "mayonnaise" sounds like "My name is," haha.

I enjoy walking around the elementary schools with my camera sometimes. It takes only a quick glance of my blog to realize that throwing up the peace sign is a common reaction to the camera (from folks of all ages). Here are just a few "peace pictures" from my collection...

Being attacked/mobbed is another common reaction to my camera, as you can see.

I love when they do the peace signs up against their cheeks. :) By the way, it's hard to read, but her shirt says, "Leave me alone if you don't love me. But you'll be sorry about it."

Nice hat.

The boy doing the peace sign has been on this blog before -- he's so cute!

Well, that's all for now. As I like to say, "Peace out!" Happy birthday, Mom!