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2016 J-LEAP REPORTDECEMBER, 2016: BREEZE ISSUE #110
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OFJAPANESE

2016 J-LEAP REPORTBY YASUHARU HIGURE
San Dieguito High School Academy
Encinitas, CA
Hello! My name is Yasuharu Higure. I teach at
San Dieguito High School Academy (SDA) as an
assistant teacher.
SDA is located in Encinitas, California, about
30 minutes from San Diego city by a car. We
can see the Pacific Ocean from our Japanese class and even the beautiful sunset in theevenings!
Currently, I help teach in Japanese 1, 3, and 5with my lead teacher (LT), Rie Tsuboi. Usually I
assist my LT by hosting games, checking
students’ answers, walking around in theclassroom and supporting students. Sometimes
I make a presentations about Japanese culture.
My LT is one of the most experienced anddistinguished teachers I have ever met. She
always respects my opinions and ideas andgives me advice about everything, not only
about school, but also life in the US. She plansclasses with many fun activities and projects.
During the activities, I have been surprised by the creativity of our students every day since I
had started teaching here! Students have a passion to study Japanese so much and show theirPrivacy - Terms
positive attitude in the class every day. Sometimes, some students come to me and ask metohelp them study and practice Japanese. I feel proud of teaching them and enjoy working withthem. We have an after school tutoring session every Thursday. I help students who arestudying for quizzes; however, I cannot always take care of every student who studies there sostudents in higher level help teach the students in lower levels.
SDA has a Japanese National Honor Society (JNHS). It is a group that is comprised of students
who study Japanese. Students independently plan and host many volunteer activities andevents about Japanese culture, for example, Japanese movie night, beach cleaning, etc. I
sometimes attend their events and it is a good opportunity for me to communicate with ourstudents outside of class.
There are a variety of events in SDA outside ofthose hosted by JNHS, like concerts, dramas,comedies, sports, and so on. Sometimes I
attend their performances and it is fun to watchour students enjoy school life through theirfavorite activities. In October, I participated inSDA’s homecoming week. I tried wearing
costumes for each day’s theme. Whenever I
attend any school events, students and staff
always welcome me and I feel like a member ofthe SDA family already.
Every Tuesday and Wednesday, I go to middle schools after classes in SDA to give after schoolclasses for Japanese language and culture. I go to Carmel Valley Middle School every Tuesdayand Diegueño Middle School every Wednesday. I teach greetings, expressions, characters, andwords in Japanese, as well as Japanese culture. We also practiced origami, kendama, otedama(Japanese juggling balls), Japanese songs, bon-dance wearing yukata (Japanese traditional
clothes of summer), and made Japanese traditional lantern by paper. At Carmel Valley Middle
School, I teach with a Japanese teacher from another high school and her JNHS students. AtDiegueño Middle School, SDA’s JNHS students come to help my class. In both middle schools,high school students make the effort to help middle school students improve their Japanese.
Sometimes they also give presentation about Japanese culture.
“Japan” is so familiar to people who live around here and they have many opportunities toexperience Japanese culture because of the many kinds of events that are held here. I
attended a Japan cultural festival held in the Encinitas city library. People enjoyed Taiko
performances, Japanese traditional dances, and tea ceremony. Encinitas has only one sistercity in Japan located in Amakusa near Kumamoto, Japan. Students in both cities visit eachother. Every year, 20 high students from Kyoto and Toyama visit SDA. The students here havemany opportunities to use Japanese that they learned in class. Also, San Diego and Yokohama
have a sister city relationship. There is even a San Diego-Yokohama sister city society thathosts many events for the people who live nearby. They can enjoy not only Japanese events,
but also buy things from Japan because there are many Japanese supermarkets, stores, andPrivacy - Terms

restaurants in the area. I ate Halloween version of Japanese snack that I bought at a Japanesesupermarket and my friend in Japan saw the picture of that and asked, “When did you cameback to Japan?”
In November, J-LEAP 6th Year Assistant teachers had training in Boston where we shared oursuccesses and challenges so far. It was a good opportunity to know that each AT is doing theirbest at their respective schools. After the training, I attended the ACTFL (American Council on
the Teaching of Foreign Languages) annual conference, the biggest conference for language
teachers in the US. I got a lot of ideas to make class more joyful by attending various sessions.
Almost four months have passed since I arrived in the US. Living and teaching here is full ofsurprises for me. Sometime I enjoy it, but sometimes it confuses me. However, people aroundme are eager to help. I sincerely appreciate my LT, two host families, other ATs, friends, and myfamily in Japan. They supported me in various situations here in the US. I would like to keep
doing my best by making our Japanese class more joyful, and help students grow up to act as
bridged between the US and Japan. That is my dream.

Breeze #110

Japanese Langauge Education Update 37

2016 J-LEAP Report: Akane Miyazawa

2016 J-LEAP Report: Yasuharu HigureBreeze #109

Breeze #108

Breeze #107

Breeze #106

Breeze #105

Breeze #104

Breeze #103

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