From time to time, participants in the college’s study abroad to Nishinomiya, Japan, led by Tom Salsbury, will be giving updates on their experiences. This one was written by preservice teacher Maria Garcia, and has received no editing from the college.

Today was our last day at Nauro Junior High school. We arrived at school early so that we could say goodbye to all of the staff before class. We then went to teach two classes and observe another.

We taught the kids a simple dialogue that had to do with introducing themselves to people. We then taught them questions they could ask people to get to know them better. Some questions we taught them were “What is your name?”, “What sport do you like?”, “Where are you from?”, and “What color do you like?”. That’s just to name a few questions.

Next, we had them break off into “lunch groups” and had them ask us questions about ourselves. Once they got to know us better, we had them introduce us to the class. We then ended class with a little geography lesson on the United States to give them an idea of where each of us is from.

After teaching and observing, we went to say our final goodbyes to some teachers and the principal of Nauro Junior High. Mr.Sasaki, the principal, gave us a little gift bag that came with a pen and a super cool pin that has a symbol of Nauro Junior High School on it. Lastly, some of us posed for a selfie with Mr. Sasaki. What a cool guy!