Tachibana Elementary July 3, 2010 11:56

We left Osaka on Tuesday morning and took the bullet train to Shizuoka so we could visit Tachibana Elementary.  This was such a beautiful school.  When visiting schools you always leave your shoes at the door, which is immediately relaxing and makes you feel very welcome indeed.  The office we received our briefing in had cases filled with little treasures from all over the world.  Africa, Russia, Hawaii.  I'm pretty sure the head Master/Principal told us that they were mementos from their student exchange program.

We met the 6th graders in their gym, and received a warm welcome from everyone.  I think every single kid had a Stitch of some sort in their hands, which made Dean and I feel right at home.  The kids did some dragon drawings.  We usually sit it out for the first few minutes before making our rounds, but this time Dean noticed there was a chalkboard behind us, so he grabbed some blue chalk and started drawing Stitch.  I thought this was a good idea, so I drew Stitch on the opposite end of the board.  Dean's looked nice when he was done, and my Stitch looked rather like a five year-old drew it, which is the way I draw, especially on chalkboards.  I'm pretty sure if we ever visit this school again, Dean's Stitch will still be there.  My side of the chalkboard will probably have some lesson plans on it.

Oh, have I mentioned that these teachers were amazing?  I couldn't follow everything they were saying but I didn't need to.  Incredible energy and optimism.  You can tell when kids are connecting with teachers and vice-versa.  This was a lucky bunch of kids.  And a lucky bunch of teachers as well.  What a great school.

There were a lot of fantastic pictures from this morning, and as usual I'm having a hard time narrowing it down.  I'm sure that when I finally reach the end of this trip on my Blog, I'll have to have a few postings of all the images I didn't have room for before.  Not to mention the Video.  At least I have something to keep me busy till Christmas.