The Transfer Window

Its all change this month as thousands of teachers across the country pack their bags and move to pastures new. For Kagawa sensei this involves not only packing his bag but clearing his desk of two years worth of accumulated bits of paper (he looked pretty glum today). So, who was the star transfer, and who got an Emile Heskey when they were looking for a Ronaldinho? Lets review...

Chisato-san (Hirota-sensei): The casualty of the window is that Chisato is moving, bringing a close to 7 months of mornings eating udon and afternoons gossiping about other teachers. She's going to a more academic school where my friend Meghan works. Although I'm sad to see her leave, her English fluency and teaching are wasted at Seishi, and so its a good thing for the students of Okayama. She'll have to wake up at 6am instead of 10am though; if I was forced into a change like that, I'd probably jump in from of a bullet train.

Ono-sensei: Not only am I losing Chisato but I'm also losing Ono-sensei. He's also off to an academic school, leaving a gap at the head of the English department at Shonan. Although he turned down my offer to fill that gap, he's a good guy, chilled out, and has a great taste in music, as well as favouring English English over what they speak in less wonderful parts of the world.

Kagawa-sensei: Perhaps the saddest change, however, has to be the loss of the legend that is, Kagawa-sensei. No more will the halls of Shonan be graced with his presence, nor his cheeky smile get to light up the teachers room. If Chisato is a Thierry Henry, and Ono-sensei a Michael Owen, then Kagawa-sensei is clearly the Stan Lazaridis of the English teacher world- the people's favourite, who will be greatly missed.

As well as these three casualties, a number of other teachers are leaving- maybe 10-15 from Shonan. Next week we have a massive formal enkai for both departing and new teachers. At Seishi, there'll be a new teacher to replace Chisato and line-up alongside me and Sugihara sensei in the English teacher strikefore (Ok I think I'm taking the analogy a bit too far now). At Shonan we have a back five of me, Takamoto sensei, Manabe sensei and two new teachers.

Below are a couple of pics from Seishi graduation- Sugihara sensei and me next to his very nice car for some reason, and him holding the big flag we put out for graduation.










Posts all about Taiwan coming soon...