Ichinensei homeroom at Taisha Chu

First Day for new Ichinensei at Taisha Chu - 14
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Here is one of the 7th grade homerooms on the first day of classes. They decorated the rooms a bit and even the halls, and had these massive stacks of materials and texts waiting for each student as they came into their new classroom. Their parents also came up to the room with them and listened to a short speech by each homeroom teacher.

Not sure who pays for all these supplies. In addition to all the books, the new 7th graders have to buy a new backpack that says Taisha JH, a new tracksuit for gym clothes, new indoor sneakers and sandals, a new school uniform and other incidentals. I've heard that some of these items can be very expensive.

I sit this year with the ichi nen sei teachers, so I'm suspecting that I'll be involved with 7th grade activities much more than last year, when I sat with the 9th grade teachers.
Of course this year, all the 7th graders know me already from me teaching them as 6th graders at one of the 5 elementary schools I visit. Other than the upperclassmen who are their friends from their elementary days, I'm the only other familiar face at first, so that's kinda cool. I was greeted with shouts of "Jason sensei" by many of the 7th graders as I made the rounds that first week.