Off to school! The staff was very friendly and welcoming. I was introduced to the jr high, HS and vocational staff and students. I voiced and signed my little introductory speech- talking in Japanese and signing Japanese sign language. Maybe they understood a little! I went with Yao to his homeroom class. There were two students. I have noticed the student teacher ratio is very small. Sometimes 1 student and 2 teachers!!! Some classes have 2-4 students. At ISD we are getting complaints from upper administration that our class sizes are two small and we would never be allowed to have two students in a class- which is at times detrimental to the students.

And then to my surprise- Yao had no more classes for the day! It was paperwork time. The rest of the week he has two to four preps each day! We got talking about salary and certification. He commented that we only work 9 months a year and only from 8 am - 3 pm.- but I pointed out that we teach all day with very little prep time and that most US teachers take work home with them! We were teasing each other. He was also surprised by salary and certification differences between states. I was surprised that no matter how much education a teacher has (BSEd, MSEd, or PhEd) they still are all paid the same salary.

I had the opportunity to walk around the school. I ran into a little girl about 5 or 6 years old who was enthralled because she had never seen blonde hair before. I also visited the dorm. There is one dorm- a girl side and a boy side with only a curtain dividing them. However, the curtain has a sensor attached to it so kids can't sneak! Yao said I could leave at 3 so I took advantage of that and walked in the street mall area now with the stores open.