Everything Elementary School - ALT Resources

Now that my time at elementary school is over, I figure that I'd create a link roundup to consolidate every post I've made about my time at elementary school! While elementary isn't that much different from junior high in the realm of teaching in Japan, there are some fundamental differences.

This list is still a work in progress because there are a lot of things that teaching elementary entails that I haven't necessarily posted about yet. It could just be that I forgot, so leave a comment here if there's anything that you'd like me to cover!

Elementary School Lunch (Kyuushoku) in March

Can you believe I finished my year? I'm still in shock. Despite some of the problems I've had, I've really enjoyed my time working here. Onto the last edition of my monthly school lunches for March.

I think that, if you have the opportunity, you should opt into eating school lunches. Not only does it allow you to eat things you may not normally eat, but it also strengthens your relationship with the school. A lot of the meals I ate at school used ingredients I didn't normally cook with. And, sometimes I enjoyed the new dishes so much that I ended up looking up a recipe online and incorporating it into my dinner menu. Eating with your teachers and students is a good way to get to know them. Even though it may be difficult or awkward at first if there is a language barrier, it's good to put in the effort.

When I worked at my old school and didn't get an opportunity to eat school lunch, I remember being really jealous. It was hard to bring hot lunches (there was no microwave) and in winter, eating a cold meal wasn't fun... Plus, I would occasionally forget to make lunch the night before and rush to buy lunch in the morning which was a pain. I highly recommend taking the opportunity if you can!

Elementary School Lunch (Kyuushoku) in February

I can't believe my contract with Interac is almost up! It's flown by (though sometimes, it's felt like it's dragged on forever...) and I can't believe the school year is almost over. Here's February's menu, as if I need a reminder that I won't have many school lunches left...

When you come to Japan (or even before), one of the first things you hear about school lunches is that you have to eat everything that's served to you, regardless of whether or not you like it. And while this is mostly true, it is much more important if you eat with your students. If you don't, then you don't really need to. I don't drink milk, so I don't take it at all. Some of the teachers are "dieting" and will only eat half the bread given to them and throw it away. A benefit of being self-serve is you can somewhat control what you're going to eat, and adjust accordingly.

Elementary School Lunch (Kyuushoku) in January

It's good to be back in the routine... Kind of. Being on vacation always makes me want to quit working. Anyway, here's January's school lunches. I also (finally) remembered to take a picture of the whole month's menu, in case you were wondering what that looks like.

If you can't read Japanese, it may be a bit difficult for you at school...

Elementary School Lunch (Kyuushoku) in December

December is over! Well, I only worked half of December anyway and had (unpaid and paid) vacation the rest of the time...

Let's talk about the size of my school lunches. I worked in a Junior High under my last board of education, and let me tell you that there is a very big difference between the JHS meals and ES meals. Primarily, the difference was in the size. When I first saw my elementary meals, I thought they looked pretty sad. Even the teachers comment sometimes on how sad the meal of the day looks. I'm glad I'm not the only one!

Elementary School Lunch (Kyuushoku) in November

Here's the monthly menu for my meals in November.

If you haven't noticed, I don't eat lunch with my students. On occasion, I will eat with my students if invited to, but for the most part, I eat in the back of the teacher's room with the other office staff. At my secondary school, I do eat with my students (which is why there are no pictures from my other school).

In my old schools under my old Board of Education, ALTs were banned from eating school lunch and eating with students. Because of this, I brought my own lunches to school and ate them alone at my desk. It was quite a lonely experience, especially because I'd be the only teacher in the teacher's room most of the time... Though the pressure of not having to make conversation while eating was nice.

My Christmas English Board

I can't believe the year has flown by so quickly already! I only have a few weeks left of teaching before I'm out of my current school for good. Time for me to get more active about posting and go through all of my drafts. You guys won't believe how many pictures I take/half-written drafts I have sitting around.

For Christmas, I decided that I wasn't going to do an "activity board" like how my Halloween board was. I opted for a bit of "culture" this time instead... I just wanted to showcase a simple (American) Christmas scene because Japanese Christmases are quite different!

A Christmas tree, some presents, and Santa in the window!

Elementary School Lunch (Kyuushoku) in September

Here's September's school lunch menu! Things are starting to get a little bit different, thankfully!

The end of summer vacation and the start of the second semester signals a change in the kyuushoku menu. For the most part, the meals are somewhat seasonal and use only fruits and vegetables that are in season. A lot of the time, students will ask for a certain dish, only to be told that "that's not a summer dish" etc. For the most part, I haven't really been able to tell the difference yet! There have even been some repeats!

Elementary School Lunch (Kyuushoku) in July

I hope you find July's lunches insightful. This is a slightly shorter list because the middle-end of July is when summer vacation starts! Which means that I don't get lunch for half the month because I'm not in school for half a month. :)

I'm also not in school for the majority of August. I think I only worked two days in August. However, because the school lunch is billed by the same cost monthly (so months with less days means lunch is slightly more expensive) so they just don't provide lunch in August. Otherwise, the two days that I worked, my lunches would've been about $20 each! Unfortunately, no one told me this, and I showed up my first day back with no lunch and had to leave school to get some... I had even emailed the company asking about this, but of course I never got a response back!

Elementary School Lunch (Kyuushoku) in June

Here's June's edition of my school lunches! I'm slowly working on the backlog! Please forgive me!

If you haven't noticed, I don't drink the milk that's provided with the school lunch. Luckily, my school isn't too strict about what I have to eat. In fact, I see some other teachers mixing the milk into the coffees they bring to lunch, etc. I have a pack of furikake in my desk that I add to the rice sometimes (I'll designate if I've added anything). Obviously, your situation may differ depending on your school. In fact, you may not even have school lunches at your school! (I know of one case like this.) Or, you may not be allowed to eat the school lunch. (As was the case in my last Board of Education...)

My October Halloween English Board

Depending on your school and how much freedom they give you, you may get your own English board. Before I started as an ALT, I remember looking at other ALTs' English boards and thinking how cool it was. At my last school, I had zero creative control with anything, so I didn't have an English board or an English room, or anything whatsoever, so all that preparation was for nothing.

At  my current school, my English board isn't located in a stairwell or any other well-traveled location in the school. Instead, it's outside of the English room, so students generally only see it when they're lining up outside before or after class. In my entire first semester, I only changed the board once. (My original board was a self-introduction about myself. I wish I got pictures of it!) My goal for second semester is to change it more often... but it's actually a lot of hard work!

Elementary School Lunch (Kyuushoku) in April/May

Researching teaching in Japan, I heard horror stories about some of the school lunch combinations ALTs are served. Now that I'm a teacher, I decided to contribute and share some of the school lunches I eat on a daily basis. Luckily, I haven't had any combinations that have made me question the entire system... But that's not to say that some days are less appetizing than others!

This will be a monthly roundup of all the lunches I ate at my elementary school during the previous month. I'll try to include a description of the dish (if I can remember what was in it) because sometimes it's a bit hard to tell. I hope you enjoy this bit of insight on school lunches in Japan!

The (Instructor) Visa Renewal Process

My visa is fast expiring--I can't believe I've already been in Japan for a year. This blog is a horrible testament to that! Anyway, because I was given a 1 year visa by Interac when I first applied, it's already time to renew... From what I've heard, JETs get a 3 year visa right away. Can someone fact check me please!

But, the visa process was probably one of the most surprising things I've dealt with in a long time in Japan. It was so surprising because of how simple it was. After dealing with visits to the ward office and filling out paperwork there, this was nothing. To be honest, I think the most difficult part of the whole process was getting to the office.

Obligatory Introduction Post

Hello everyone!

My name is Morgan and I'm an ALT working in Kansai, Japan. I moved to Japan in August, so I'm still pretty new here! (At the time of writing this, it's been about 2 months since I moved.)

I actually had a wordpress account documenting my journey applying to be an ALT, but I decided to make the switch to blogspot because I liked the customization options a little better.

...Not really much else to say for the time being, though! If you have anything you want to ask me, leave me a comment below! Other than that, I'll see you guys around when I make an actual post!

Morgan