Thursday, March 17, 2005

Me and Nonoka


Me and Nonoka
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

One of my coolest and brightest 9th graders, Nonoka, and me at Taisha graduation. Nonoka had cleaning duty in the teacher's room every day this last semester, so we'd chat most days while sweeping or pretending to clean this or that. She wants to learn French, and after I told her I took it for two years in High School, which I tried to explain was a million years ago, she'd write little French phrases for me to read and write English sentences about things in France.
You might remember that Nonoka was one of my speech contest students, so we got to be friends over the course of my first 7 months at Taisha JH, and she gave me a really nice hand-written note in English after the graduation ceremony. Students like her are one of the reasons I wanted to do this job, and they make me think I might just be making an impression on some of my kids regardless of all the evidence to the contrary. I'll miss hanging out with her during cleaning time.
I know she'll do well in High School, but Ganbatte Ne!

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