Observations and Baby Bunnies...oh, and Jesus too

For the past two weeks Kris and I have been observing various classes.  I (Lauren) have been at the Takamori campus with the other immersion teachers, while Kris has been at Maruyama (the main campus) with the regular friends club.  It has been good to watch several different teachers and get an idea of how the MeySen curriculum flows together, but I am itching to teach full time.  In the mean time, I am learning what I can and writing down ideas and wisdom from current teachers.

During last week and this week, I have been in Ms. Grace's classroom.  Grace is an amazing lady in her late fifties who teaches at MeySen.  She is a very good teacher and cares about the kids.  I am amazed at her energy and ability to keep up with the kids - she has more energy than me!  During playtime, all the teachers play organized games with the students (ie dodgeball, freeze tag, 2 ball soccer, etc) and even then she is able to keep up with the kids; she's just as competative as they are!

My grade level partner Greg, who is also a new teacher, and I have taken over about half of the class teaching time.  By next week we'll be teaching pretty much all day.  Esther, one of the trainers/supervisors, watched us teach today and didn't have any critiques or suggestions -- that's good news!  I enjoy teaching with Greg -- he is funny, patient, great with kids, and a nice guy.  It's good we get along: we'll be working together a lot since we both will teach 3rd grade at the Maruyama campus.

Today all the friends' club students (regular and immersion) went to an assembly where the gospel was shared in Japanese.  It was really cool to hear the gospel preached in another language.  Ms. Grace interpreted for us so we knew how the gospel was being shared.  This is a huge deal since most of these kids come from nonChristian families and less than 1% of the population is Christian.  Please pray that the Spirit of God moves in these kids' hearts and spreads to their whole family.

Another exciting part of my week is that I've discovered the baby bunnies at the Takamori campus.  There are all kinds of animals kept on the campus that the students are sometimes allowed to play with.  I have been in love with these cute baby bunnies and taking this little guy out of the cage to pet it has become part of my daily routine.  Look how it fits in my hand!  So adorable!!!!


Look how cute it is!!!!!!