First Week of School

First week of a Japanese High School is kind of boring for ALTs. The first day only some of the students come to school and the teachers just spend their whole day in the teachers office. I was bored out of my wits. 3:30 did not come fast enough for me.
The second day was a little better because we had morning assembly where they introduce the new teachers. Of course I'm the last teacher to be introduced because I'm the foreign guy that's there to be the jester in English classes. I didn't get to speak about myself because the principal introduced all the new teachers. To make myself a little different when he introduced me I bowed like the other teachers but afterwards I waved to all the students. Students got a kick out of that. Waving isn't that normal in Japan. For the next couple of days I didn't have any real classes. I was given plenty of time to just plan, plan, and plan. I did manage to sneak in some time to study some Japanese. Wednesday was a little interesting because all the second and third year students of certain clubs got on stage and tried to convince students to join their club. The coolest demonstration was the boys 弓道(Japanese Archery) club. It was very elegant how the boy shot his bow. The crowd was so silent waiting for him to shoot his arrow. When he finally shot his arrow the crowd went wild. Some of the girl's clubs did a song and dance routine which was funny and a little impressive. It's very interesting to observe another cultures school.
Alright so my first lesson with every class is to give my self introduction. I devised a little plan where I would play an original song on my guitar for the students before telling them my name. They really got a kick out of the song. After I was done playing I would tell them that the person who the wrote the song his name is Wade Ramsey. I would make them repeat my name several times. Finally I would start my introduction with Good morning/ afternoon my name is Wade Ramsey. Half the class would tilt their heads and the other half realized oh my god the teacher wrote that song. After that I had the attention of the class for the rest of the day. Some that didn't smile before I started the lesson were smiling. I guess you can say it's one of those moments that I will remember for a lifetime.