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2014 J-LEAP REPORT: TOMOKI NODOOCTOBER, 2014: BREEZE ISSUE #84
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF JAPANESE

2014 J-LEAP REPORTBY TOMOKI NODOChief Sealth International High SchoolSeattle, WAHello. My name is Tomoki Nodo and I am currently
working as an assistant teacher at Chief SealthInternational High School in Seattle, Washington. Almost
two months has passed since I arrived here in Seattle.
Before I came here, I had never worked professionally asa teacher. In fact I had never worked as an adult member of society. Last March, I graduated from aUniversity in Osaka so this is the first challenge for me as an adult, living and working at a high school inthe U.S. In addition, I had never been to the U.S., so everything I see, everywhere I go and everything I
have experienced in this country is really brand new and deeply fascinating for me. When I was auniversity student, I studied a little about the culture and education system here so I did not expect Iwould be as surprised as I am now. After I arrived at this new place, a lot of people (some of them areteachers and others are not related to education) taught me numerous things. However, since it has only
been about a month since high school started, I would like to introduce my first and biggest challenge so
far at this school.
I would like to introduce the city where I am staying before talking about my life at the high school.
Washington is located in northwestern part of the country and is known as the Evergreen State with its
wonderful nature and its never-ending color of green. Although the climate is really comfortable insummer, most days in other seasons are rainy. During rainy season, some people in Washington get SAD,
Seasonal Affective Disorder, because of short daylight hours. Though I knew it before I came, most people
I met told me “Even in rainy season, we can also enjoy that atmosphere.” Although I do not know whether
the rainy season is good or not for people, it is good for growing plants in this evergreen state. Because
the rainy season has not come yet, I really like Seattle so far.
Next, I would like to introduce Chief Sealth International High School where I work at. This school opened
in 1957 in the southwestern part of Seattle and it is a comprehensive high school that offers a wide arrayof opportunities for students to learn in a multi-cultural environment. Students can experience various
cultures from other countries in an environment that is ideal for international education. In world language
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classes, there are four languages that students can choose from including Arabic, Chinese, Spanish andJapanese. In addition to this, there are also Spanish immersion classes. This school doesn’t just focus onstudents but also staff members who are part of the team. Teachers have opportunities to take lecturesand participate in training programs for International education. Through these programs, teachers canbrush up on their teaching skills. One training program that I took part in was about assessment inInternational Education during the 21st century presented by Asia society. For world language teachers,
every class is related to International Education, but this training opportunity included many teachers fromother subjects and we discussed about how we raise our students to the level of world citizens. We
exchanged various ideas from different positions so we can share the same image for each class as amember of one team. These are the main things I have learned in one month. I think there might be morecharacteristics to an International high school, but I have not yet experienced enough to objectively
explain this innovative approach to teaching.
Next, I would like to introduce Japanese classes at my school. There are four levels of Japanese including
1, 2, 3 and 4. Some years, level 5 is also offered. We offer an IB (International Baccalaureate) program,with Japanese 3 and 4 being part of this. Japanese 1 and 2 are divided into two classes and Japanese 3and 4 are held during the same period. We currently have a total of 120 students taking Japanese. Someof them have connections with Japan in various capacities. For instance, some of them have Japanesefamily members and others have been to or stayed in Japan. For these students, Japanese is not an
unfamiliar language. Of course, more than half of students who take Japanese class have never learnedJapanese. In order to let all students learn while having fun, Joshua Sensei, who is my lead teacher, and Imake plans and cooperate in class. However, since only three weeks have passed since class started,
there have been many difficulties for me. The biggest is instruction for students. Instructions must beshort, clear and easy to understand. If one of those things is lacking, student will get confused. Even
instruction for Japanese students in Japan was not easy for me so, for now, it is much more difficult. Everyday, every class, new difficulties come up and it can get me a little depressed, but I wanted to be aJapanese language teacher, so I am happy to face to these challenges.
In September 2013, just a year ago, I decided to apply for this program. The first thing I did was readreports like this by former J-LEAP participants. At that time, I could not imagine that I would be here, but I
am here now because of the support I received from everyone around me. I really appreciate them all.
Thank you very much for reading this article.

Breeze #86

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Japanese Langauge Education Update 112014 J-LEAP Report: Tomoki Nodo

2014 J-LEAP Report: Kaori Nishida
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