Monday, April 2, 2007

The Big Move

Staff rooms in Japanese schools are a whole lot different to staff rooms in Australian schools. For starters, they are by no means a place to relax, it is like an office space. The staff room is a long room with rows of tables sectioned into year levels. The 3rd graders are in front of the Principal's office, the next group along are the 2nd graders and the last group at the other end are the 1st graders. Each year, teachers swap year levels they teach, I guess it would break up the monotony of teaching via a text book. So that means that they need to move.

When I was told about how this "changing positions" thing worked I found it hard to believe. But I have now seen it and it was a sight to behold...You are probably thinking, what's so amazing about teachers packing up their desk and moving? Well, the crazy thing is that they don't just pack up and move, they move their WHOLE TABLE and cupboard to their new position!!! I was watching and wondering, how is this going to work?


First the 3rd grade teachers moved their tables out into the corridor. As soon as the desks were gone everyone swarmed in with brooms, mops and vacuum cleaners to clean the floor underneath. Next, the new 3rd grade teachers' desks were moved to their allocated spot which was displayed on the whiteboard. When those tables had moved the cleaning continued and then the new 2nd grade teachers moved their desks and so on. My desk was moved one position to the right. What the? There were people going everywhere and it was all over and done with within 40 minutes. I was impressed.

1 comment:

Tinz said...

The performance sounds very interesting. I would like to attend one.