Two Things That Made Me Smile This Week.

Now that I'm getting down to writing about these two little things, I'm experiencing some slight discomfort because the stories, on the surface, show me as the hero. My humble Mennonite (moreover Japanese-Mennonite) upbringing has instilled in me an allergic reaction to making myself look awesome, awesome though I may be.

Despite these slight twinges of faux-humility, I will tell you about the two things just because I have time.

1. At lunch-hour yesterday, I walked into the gym for the first time, where a bunch of kids were shooting hoops. Everybody was like "whooaa! Ken!" and two of my favourite 8th graders, two girls named Kanako and Nagano passed me a ball and told me to shoot from the free-throw line. Everyone in the gym was watching. You can guess what happened. I lined up and with perfect form and luck, swished the ball in. A collective "whooaaaa!!!" from all my students and I walked out in triumph, my hand still raised in the cookie-jar, forever a great basketball player in the minds of all who were present. Kanako and Nagano followed me out, barely able to contain themselves, they were so impressed: "Ken!! Great! Great!"; Nagano upped the ante by using correct grammar: "Ken IS great! Ken is great!".

2. I was teaching 9th graders, typically the most detached and unlively bunch of kids. But today's class (section 3-4) was, as my teaching partner Mr. Ishida said, "the best 9th graders in the school". The target sentence was, "It is important for me to...." and the interrogative version, "Is it important for you to...?". Mr. Ishida put me on the spot and asked for an example, which I had not prepared. Finally, after much thinking, I said:

"It's important for me to respect my students." Everyone's eyes got all big and they were so impressed that the class burst into spontaneous applause! I was very happy. Some boys were then inspired to make up their own equally noble and impressive sentences. When I looked at their papers a few minutes later, one boy had proudly written, "It is important for me to sleep". He gave me a big thumbs up and a smile: "Very important!".

Another noteworthy note from that same lesson was when we were reviewing "It is easy/difficult for me to...", one boy asked how to say ______ in English. I didn't know, so I asked Mr. Ishida for the translation: "It is difficult for me to control my feelings". !! Holy crap! What an awesome answer, especially from a 14-year-old boy.

Well, then. There you have it. A few snapshots out of my teaching experience which is often boring, but often very meaningful and rewarding, too.
Also, I hope we can all see that such great reactions to my trivial actions reveals the real heroes to be the students, not me.

So as not to end this post on a cheesily serious note, I will write this last sentence.