I went to visit Hinoki International
School, a Japanese immersion program in Livonia for the day. I was happy to
hear back from the Dean of Students finally! The lead Japanese speaking teacher
has been on sick leave, returning this week.
I began a journey of research when
I first heard about Waldorf Education in a class at OU while studying for a
bachelor degree. I signed up for a tour of the Rochester Hills and Ann Arbor
Waldorf Schools. I gathered so much inspiration and ideas! That visit led me to
the knowledge of Upland Hills School in Lake Orion which focuses on working
with the environment and science. Making new connections there led me to visit
Reggio Emilia, Montessori, and Roeper schools. When I worked for a charter
school, I advocated for the option of being able to visit a school for the day
to be counted as professional development. It is an invaluable teaching
resource to observe and gather information from surroundings and people. It is
now a new experience for me to visit partial and total second language immersion schools. All of these experiences along with finishing a master's in Early Childhood Education have helped me with finding consultant jobs that will involve me visiting schools, mentoring, and making sure that programs such as those that focus on reading, are being implemented effectively.
The Hinoki International School is located in a residential neighborhood in Livonia. It is owned by the Michigan Japanese Education Foundation charter but it moving over into becoming a part of the Livonia School District. It opened up four years ago with just a Kindergarten. Currently, the school is composed of K-3rd grade. As the students move up in grade, a large Kindergarten forms every year. The Kindergarten class has 47 students and three teachers, two of which speak fluent Japanese. Each table is assigned a color which is also written in Japanese. The children's name tags include their name also written in Japanese. Orange is oranjee :)
The morning is spent with both classes mingling in a large room. They spend their morning immersed in the Japanese curriculum which involves play and creativity. Some tables are set up as centers; the children are free to participate and leave as they please. Some activities include drawing, playing with blocks, and decorating a tree with paper cranes. It was interesting to see that all of the children are required to purchase oil pastels to keep in their supply box. The students shared all of their supplies willingly and kindly. I didn't see any kind of arguing over any class or student supplies during the whole day. They use them for Japanese style drawing and art lessons, especially in the older grades. I watched some children use half of a pastel on one picture :-/ The children gathered on the carpet and did some syllable work. The teacher directed a clapping game using their names. The children counted the number of syllables they heard in each name using their fingers. They also used their fingers to count each syllable and enunciate each one as they taught me new Japanese words! These are all the words that the children taught me!! I was impressed with their ease, confidence, and ability in counting syllables!
After this morning activity, the room is divided into two rooms by a sliding door. One half of the class listened to a story, made a list of words beginning on "c", and worked on a worksheet (tracing and practicing writing a sentence with "c's). The teacher asked them to sit in a "pretzel" or a "rice ball" while sitting on the carpet. The other half of the class had a 45 minute Japanese lesson. The teacher spoke only Japanese and told them story about three birds flying up to tree branches. All of the children listened intently. Japanese is such a pleasant sounding language that is calming, gentle, and flows like a song. An art activity followed. The teacher walked around speaking only Japanese.
During snack time and lunch time, the teachers play the piano! The children were calmly sitting, singing along, and raising their hands to volunteer. All of the children participated and were very joyfully involved. The idea of "singing helpers" was a great idea - children are chosen to stand next to the piano and sing along with the teacher. The class sang "The Wheels on the Bus" and a song in Japanese. Throughout the day, the teacher would go up to the piano and play three ascending notes to get the children's attention. This was pleasant and effective.
Language Arts
The Japanese language is evident all around the classroom. There are Japanese and English books available in the class library.
The English and Japanese alphabets are displayed on the wall. The Japanese alphabet that the students learn to recognize and write first is called Hiragana. The other two alphabets they learn are called Katakana and Kangi (which is tricky and is actually Chinese, the students told me).
Some items such as the desk, were labeled in both English and Japanese. I think they were the nouns required to know how to read and write by the end of Japanese because the Word Wall also included these nouns.
The native Japanese students also attend Saturday Japanese school. These students are still learning how to read and write in English. The native English speakers are able to read Kindergarten level books in Japanese! I asked the class to count in Japanese for me! Most of them counted up to 30 but some continued to count past 100!
