Day 14 Photos

We spent our third day in Ofunato at the Ofunato City Kita Elementary School. We were formally greeted by the principal of the elementary school. Each member of our group was chosen to write a greeting speech to be spoken whenever we visited a new place. I was the one who gave the opening speech at the elementary school. Luckily, we had an interpreter who translated our speeches into Japanese and the Japanese officials' speeches into English. We were then given the class schedules and could roam freely around the building visiting any class that was of interest to each of us. Since I was interested in preparing a presentation on how the Japanese teach math, I mostly visited math classes.

In many classrooms, students sit in desks in rows and raise their hands to answer questions.

Students have rotating jobs in school. Sometimes they serve lunch to their classmates.

As a second grader showed how she solved a math problem, her teacher asked her questions.

Each student receives a backpack from her/his school. Girls' bags are red, and boys' bags are black.