Halloween and French

And here’s another post. Sorry for the lack of updates. I’ve been busy.

As for what I was busy with, I’m about to tell you. All of us Takayama ALTs have been planning and then executing a Halloween English Shower for elementary students. And it was a lot of fun.

We had about 120 kids registered and only a handful didn’t show up. And that’s not counting the unregistered younger siblings and parents who came as well. All the kids came in costume. I have to say there were a lot of witches. I think witch hats must have been one of the easiest things to find. We did have some originals. One kid had a sweet Peter Pan costume, a girl had a full Belle costume, and this one kid had a full pumpkin outfit.

Not to be outdone, us ALTs broke out our onesies. We had 2 Hello Kitties, one dressed as a tiger and the other a rabbit, one reindeer, one Pikachu, one other Pokemon, one actual tiger, one bloody bear, one Rilakkuma, and one Chopper (me).

This was the very first Halloween English Shower. Which is probably why we ended up with so many little snags. Groups got confused, kids ended up lost, no one knew where the next group was supposed to go, etc. It all worked out in the end though.

Early on, I made friends with a little girl who was around 2 or 3. She high-fived me and I pretended to fall over. This was something of a mistake. Because for the rest of the day, she would periodically come and find me to high five me again. She was super adorable so I didn’t mind.

The last part of the event was the trick or treating simulation. One of the ALTs had gone home for her brother’s wedding so she’d bought all sorts of real Halloween candy. Each of us had our own table which we could decorate and the kids went from table to table saying trick or treat. I’d brought some extra candy and gave it out to the unregistered siblings. And yes, red dress got a piece. I made sure of it.

Afterwards, we were all going to head to a Halloween party. I’d driven in, so I had to take my car back to my apartment and then catch the train into Takayama. Except the train kept getting delayed. First a half-hour, then fifty-minutes, then seventy-minutes. After an hour I gave up and went home so sadly I have no drunken Halloween adventures to tell you about.

Now not only did we have the Halloween English Shower, but most of us ALTs also did Halloween lessons. I blatantly stole my ideas from two of the others. For the older kids, any kid from 4th grade up to 9th, we played a trick or treat game. The kids had to say trick or treat to me and then pick a slip of paper out of a hat. If it said treat, they got a Halloween sticker. If it said trick, they had to wear the ridiculous costume that the paper specified. I know I amused my coworkers during Halloween week when I spent the time I had between classes making fake mustaches and beards for the kids to wear.

In my junior high third year English conversation class, the game went over a little too well. One of the boys had just gotten the feather and fan mask set, something that always happened to the boys more than the girls through no plan of mine, and the whole class was laughing. One of the boys laughed so hard he fell out of his chair and hit his head. Which of course made everyone laugh even harder. He was fine though he admitted it did hurt when everyone had calmed down.

The other game I played with the younger kids was Halloween Basket. Which is just Fruits Basket with Halloween words substituted for fruit words. Kids bring their chairs and put them in a circle. I randomly distributed cards with pictures of the Halloween creatures I’d taught them. Then I’d call out one. All those kids have to change seats. One kid is always left out and then it’s their turn to call out a creature. And the kids love the game. Of course there’s always a couple of kids who fake falls and stuff so they can be in the middle but all in all, it’s a good game.

So right after Halloween, I had my special, shoot-me-in-the-face, watched lesson. This is where a whole mess of English teachers from Takayama came to watch me teach English in elementary school. Well me and the homeroom teacher. It went pretty well. I got the teachers involved in the game instead of just having them watch and loom over kids with their clipboards. I got some positive feedback on the game so at least I know I’m doing something halfway decent.

So the night after my watched lesson I got a phone call from my supervisor. I thought he was calling to talk to me about my lesson. Nope. He asks me if I speak French. I say I do, more or less, and he tells me they have a French language class at the Takayama cultural centre on Thursday nights. And that their French teacher just moved. If they couldn’t find a replacement, they’d have to cancel the course.

And that’s how I ended up having a meeting with the lady who runs that the next day at school. Since it’s only beginner French, and I don’t want them to have to cancel it, I’m the new French teacher. This is either going to be really great or it’s going to end horribly. We’ll have to see. I start next week.

So that’s about all for now. There are plans for trips to Toyama and Tokyo in the next month so stay tuned for details of those adventures. Until later, bye!