One group of students I will miss particularly is the third graders at one of the smaller school in Nanyo, Nakagawa. They were lucky in recent time to have had two fantastic English teachers who were very skilled and passionate about their jobs and English. Back in December the third grade students of this school were asked to write poems in English, inspired by a nationwide contest for third grade students around all of Japan, with some of the best poems being picked to be published in an anthology. Writing poems in any language is not an easy challenge but all of these students tried really hard, and I helped them with their grammar, translations and spellings.
I feel it was a fantastic thing for them to do, one they should be really proud of, and it was also a good way of getting to know the students better. Some of the poems were surprisingly deep and thoughtful, and a real insight into the psyche of young Japanese minds! They were all around the theme of thanking something, or somebody, or some place 'upon their graduation' from Junior High School, before they moved on to High School or employment. Consequently, because of the time I spent working with them, and the stuff I learned from them, I was able to make some really close connections to quite a lot of the third grade students, (actually remember some names for once! Remember I have seven school and the longest time I'm at any one of them at a time is three weeks, so learning and remembering around some 1000 students names is not going to happen anytime soon!)
Anyway, I revisted them back in January and was very sad to say goodbye to them. Then, the English teacher there tells me that one of the poems won the opportunity to be published in the national anthology of poems. It was a beautiful one about the mountains that sit at the side of the school by a student called Shinya.
'To our Iwabu-mountains'
Three years ago, you welcomed me in Spring.
In summer you were a suit of green.
You made me feel cool.
In Autumn you were wearing a costume
of vivid Autumn colors.
In winter you were wearing a blanket of white.
You are a wonderful work of art.
I'll never forget you.
(Despite the American spellings,) it is a beautiful poem and I'm very pleased that it was selected to be published in the book.
The English teacher told me afterwards that he was planning to have all the poems of the students made into a book as a memento for the students. He did a fantastic job putting it all together. Everything was in English, from beginning to end. He asked me to write a Foreword, and he himself wrote one in English too. The book looks so professional and he gave me one as thanks for all the help I gave to the students. It's time like those that make you see how satisfying teaching can be. I am immensly proud of those students and will miss them such a lot - as a will miss various other great students from all the school as they leave for high school and other things. I really hope their success at writing an English poem will inspire them to keep studying hard at English and instill in them a curiousity for literature and culture of other countries and langauges! Goodbye!!!!
Nakagawa 3rd grade - 2007/2008 - a great bunch of kids with some good English skills and nice enthusiasm!
An example of the attempts and drafts of the poems they wrote. It wasn't easy sometimes, but they worked hard and were proud of what they made in the end!
The finished book! How professional!
The finished poem - this was one of my favorites, and by a really nice student too.
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