A Day at Universe Academy

A Day at Universe Academy


I currently teach at Universe Academy in Miyakonojo, Japan. Universe Academy is a pre-school for children age two through six, as well as an English conversation school (called “Eikaiwa”) for older children and adults who want to practice their speaking and listening abilities. When we initially moved to Japan, I wanted a job at a University….but now I’m in charge of two, three, and four year old kids! When I looked for Universities to apply to I realized that they all wanted two years experience teaching in Japan and conversational Japanese speaking ability. Also, the vast majority of job openings occur in March or April, and we were applying for jobs in June through September. Jon and I also have student loans to pay back, so I couldn’t be too picky and pass up a job offer when another one might not come along for awhile, so I decided to take this offer to teach at Universe.

It’s a cute little school and the perks that come with working there are pretty good.

 We have a nice, big apartment (easily four times the size of any place we would live in if we were in a larger city).
 It’s only a five minute bike ride from home to school, rather than 40 minutes each way on the train which is pretty standard in larger cities.
 It’s a small town, which I really like.
 The pay is good and the rent is reasonable.
 There are places to go camping and swimming in the ocean nearby.

At first I was pretty nervous that I wouldn’t like the job, but from day one, it’s been really fun. My plan is to teach here for the next year and a half and really study my Japanese. In 18 months it will be April, so it will be a good time to switch to a new job and by then my Japanese will (hopefully) be up to par to get a job which requires “conversational Japanese ability.”


A NORMAL DAY (FOR ME) AT UNIVERSE ACADEMY


The kids are soooooo little! The little two-year olds still have that cute baby waddle. My day is like a mixture of a daycare where I just happen to speak English to the kids and a preschool. The kids arrive by bus or drop-off between 7:30 and 9:00 and play inside until everyone has arrived. The kids sure have a lot of uniforms that we have to help them change between. They get to school in their “Arrival” uniform, then we help them change into their “Playtime” uniform, which they wear all day, and at the end of the day they change back into their “Arrival” uniform. How many times have I wished they just arrived in their play uniform? Every day. They literally wear their arrival uniform on the bus and that’s it. 90% of the time they are carrying their hats and then it’s a hassle keeping each kid’s hat separate from the other kids’ hats.





The kids are pretty independent. Although they take a long time, all the kids except for the littlest ones can change and dress themselves, go to the bathroom, and put their cup/chopsticks/notebook/bag/naptime blanket/etc in the their various nooks and crannies throughout the classroom.

Once all the students are there, they get to play outside for 45 minutes. The playground is big, with hollow logs to crawl through, swings, slides, playhouses, and a tiny running track about a 50th of a mile around. Once recess is over, the other foreign teacher (the one who teaches the 4 through 6 year olds), and I lead exercises, stretches, jumping jacks, etc. I don’t think there’s a person alive who wouldn’t think it was the most adorable *#@%-ing thing in the world to see the little two year olds jumping up and down flopping their arms around, trying to do jumping jacks with the older kids. Then we run for about three minutes and the kids get really into it. They all try to tear around as fast as they can the whole time, which is nice because immediately after running time it’s time to sit quietly in their seats for 70 minutes so they can have an English lesson.

This is the part of the day that is the most challenging for me. Not challenging in a bad way, but because I really have to plan carefully what I’m going to do. You’d think it would be as easy as showing some weather flashcards, having the kids repeat the words after you and then handing out a picture of a rainy day for them to color….but it’s much more complex than that. There is a huge gap between the four year old kids and the two year old kids both mentally and physically. The littlest ones are just beginning to be able to color on a piece of paper without scribbling all over the table while the older ones are already trying to write their names on their papers. The younger ones zone out after three minutes while the older ones start chatting with their desk mate after four minutes. The two year olds have only been coming to preschool for a few months while the four year olds have been coming for two years.

I try to plan lessons that every child can understand and participate in—whatever their level of English. I want every child to learn something and improve a specific skill, no matter their age. I try to change what we’re doing at least every five minutes so the kids stay interested. I want the kids to have a good time and keep a good attitude about class time and learning English. I try to let the kids be creative. I want them to create things they can take home and proudly show their parents.

With this in mind, we sing a lot of songs with corresponding movements, do a lot of crafts, play a lot of language games, and so forth. When we do the craft or activity, I break the class into younger and older sections because the older ones can (for example) trace their names while the younger ones can draw a line connecting one letter A to another letter A. I have about fifteen “helpers” throughout class time, because this helps keep the more advanced students from getting bored and it keeps the “naughty” students too busy to cause trouble!

I apply the same rules of language teaching for the kids that I learned to use for adults at University. For example, (some educational buzzwords for the teachers out there): I begin each class by activating their schema by reading a story about putting together the pieces of a teddy bear and then talking about the parts of a teddy bear before we talk about people body parts. Although I don’t write it on the board, I have two “students will be able to” goals in my head. I differentiate learning by providing scaffolding, repetition, pictures, realia, etc. I make sure all the kids get a chance to see writing, write or color something, listen, and speak, so all four skills are practiced. I ask the kids to show a thumbs up or thumbs down so they can all answer. I make sure the kids can see, listen and actively move around to reach all different types of learners…..

Through all this, I am trying to teach lifelong skills like sharing, helping one another, keeping clean, and so forth. It makes planning a lesson a pretty damn demanding experience!

This is not to say that every class is an insightful period of amazing language learning and growth of critical thinking…..sometimes I do “1-2-3 everyone shhhhh!” about fifty times. Sometimes the two-year olds fall asleep. And then, right after we’ve studied action verbs and playground words, the kids will run up to me and say, “Hiroki… Yushi…” and then clap their hands to explain that they ran into each other. …It can be pretty discouraging.

After class time it is lunchtime, and the kids are pretty good eaters. They are so good at their routine that even the youngest ones know to finish eating all their food, show their plate to the teacher, put it in the dirty dishes pan, put their own chopsticks and cup away in their cubby and get their toothbrush to brush their teeth. That said, although they KNOW exactly what to do, this is the hardest hour of day. It’s right before naptime. I am hungry and ready for my lunch break so I’m not as willing to be patient with the kids, and they are sleepy and cranky and wound-up and running around all at the same time. Trying to get them to lie down to sleep is a nightmare EVERY SINGLE DAY.


The kids just want to giggle and run around with their blankets as capes (of course) and it takes a full 30 minutes to get the kids to sleep. In fact one half hour into naptime I have my lunch break, and sometimes the kids aren’t even settled by then, but I still leave! I have two helper teachers. Both of them are Japanese and they speak mostly Japanese to the kids. There is no way I could do it without them. All three of us are always running around breaking up fights over toys, making sure every two year old uses the potty every 90 minutes, cleaning up accidents after naptime, sweeping up after lunch, getting the kids off of the roof of the playhouse, etc. etc.

After naptime it is time to play outside again. Then they have snack time and after that I have story time. Story-time is about 15 minutes, and the Japanese teachers sometimes help make sure the kids are sitting quietly, not pushing or shoving. Other times they are busy getting bags ready to go home or pulling kids away to give them medicine. Every single one of these kids has a terrible cold and sometimes worse, but they still go to school so they can spread it to all the other little snot monsters (…and me- I’ve had a sore throat for a few days now). I’m happy to say that the kids love story time and the biggest issue is keeping them from shoving each other to get closer to the front or kneeling too high once they do wiggle their way to the front.

I try to run a very active story time. Every book I read has a lot of, “The dinosaur is sad! Lets all be sad! Show me your sad face! The butterfly is hungry, what will he eat? Tanako, what do you like to eat? Where is froggy? Who can point to where froggy is? etc. etc.” The kids love to participate. Sometimes I get myself in trouble because they ALL want to participate and then cry when they don’t get to or the kids shove each other to get to the front so they can help point to froggy…I’m learning how to keep those things from happening. Then we sing the goodbye song and the kids go home!

School is over at 3:25. About half of the kids leave right away, either on the bus or their parents picking them up, but some kids don’t get picked up until six. The teachers take turns riding the bus with the kids in the morning and afternoon or arriving early or staying late to watch and play with the kids before school and after. I ride the morning bus twice a week, the afternoon bus twice a week, I watch the kids before school twice a week and I stay late to watch them till 6:00 once per week. Although the day goes by quickly, and I have a lot of fun with the kids, I am EXHAUSTED at the end of the day.

What this means for me is that I need to suck it up and get used to the busy day, because I still need to be studying Japanese for an hour or more every day if I want to be able to have conversations in a year!




Look at this awesome playground!