When I began teaching, there were many things I had no idea about how to do, little things such as how to write on the blackboard, but also larger, less definite things such as dealing with children, and how to deal with parents. I was also not prepared for the large amount of non-instructional responsibilities. This first year has been very difficult. I am much busier than I had expected to be. It is entirely different from my student teaching experience.
Every day brings a new surprise.
I have really come to feel the weight of my responsibilities and the importance of my own behavior and words. At the same time I have come to understand many of the joys of being a teacher. In more recent years, boards of education of prefectures and designated cities developed special training sessions to help newly employed teachers adapt to their new lifestyles, but they were conducted on a much smaller scale than the current teacher induction program. With partial financial support from Monbusho, Boards of Education conducted ten-day training sessions for newly appointed teachers. These then days were usually spread over the course of the teachers' first year and had a prominent focus on observing other teachers' lessons.