"Help me, please."

Yesterday was my first day actually working with the kids at MeySen. I walked in at 8 am not knowing what to expect. Katie, the teacher I am working with for the next 10ish days of school was already there getting things ready for the day. The first round kids started to arrive about 8:30 and got started on morning stations where they worked on their farm animals book. The second round of kids arrived about 9:15 and it was time for the first circle time in English. We sang songs and read poems together. After first circle, it was playtime...the kids favorite. The play equipment at MeySen is like an amusement park. The playground is huge, and play between teacher and student is strongly encouraged. After playtime, we went back inside and the kids had their Japanese lesson for the day. It is about 40 minutes long and that is when the teacher gets a break during the day. After the Japanese lesson, it was finally lunch time. As the students were finished with their lunch, they were able to go play outside again. The last part of the day was another English circle time where we read a story as a whole class. Most of the students who arrived on the first bus in the morning ride the first bus home in the afternoon, so after circle time, they were dismissed to go home. The rest of the students worked on the morning stations from that day. After all the students were gone, we cleaned the classroom and started preparing for the next day.
It was so wonderful to work with kids again. I had forgotten how much I missed it. I also found it refreshing that the adults in the school trust the students to do what they are supposed to do. When my 4 year old class went to the bathrooms as a class, they were all dismissed at the same time to walk down the hall, go to the bathroom, and come back with no teacher supervision. And they all did. With no problems. There were very few discipline problems in my classroom. When a student was acting in a way that was inappropriate, the teacher simply pulled him or her aside, and told them that their behavior was not appropriate for the activity. The student stopped, and continued the activity the way it was intended. When a student made a mistake, they were not called out, but instead the teacher just said, "Oops. That was a mistake. Let's fix it." The student was given the help he or she needed, and moved on. These students are not afraid to ask for help when they need it. If they are unsure of what to do in a situation, whether it be work or play, they simply say, "Help me, please." I loved when a student would ask me to help them because as I speak no Japanese and know very little about the culture and environment here, usually I am the one asking for help. However, when I am at school, I can be the one who offers the help. It's nice to be on the other side every once in a while.