For four years now, Kailua International School has hosted junior high school and high school students who wish to have early experiences in the professions that they would like to have in the future. The students’ respective schools require them to look for an organization that matches their future career plans (schools, companies, clubs, etc.) and take part in actual job experience for two or more working days.
Kailua enthusiastically supports this program and is very happy to have the participants on campus to work with homeroom teachers and the children. Obviously, the students who choose Kailua are the ones who dream about becoming teachers in the future or, looking beyond, possibly becoming school owners or administrators. The school’s experiences with this program have been very positive, so the Kailua community always looks forward to working with the participants.
The most recent student teacher assistants were four high school students from the CCT Chuo High School Chiba Campus: Ms. Rena Inoue (Honua — toddlers class), Ms. Hana Kurashima (Kai — pre-kindergarten class), Ms. Ruka Kaneko (Makani — kindergarten class), and Mr. Ryousuke Kase (Lani — pre-first grade class). Their high school adviser, Mr. Mizuki Kodama, accompanied them when they came on their first day as on-the-job teacher assistants.
The duties that the student teacher assistants perform range from welcoming the children as they arrive, taking attendance and body temperature, reading communications notebooks, snack and lunch supervision, outdoor playtime, and, with the homeroom teacher’s guidance, the handling of some activities and lessons planned for the day. At dismissal time, they accompany the students to the entrance and meet the parents as they pick up their children.
Kailua will be hosting two more groups this school year. Six junior high school students from Mita Junior High School in Funabashi, Chiba will come in December and the third group — composed of six high school students from CCT Chuo High School Chiba Campus — will join Kailua in February. The procedure before they start the apprenticeship includes a visit to Kailua, a meeting with the teachers and administrators, and a tour of the classrooms to say hello to the students.
For more information about Kailua International School, see http://kailua-international-school.info. — ROBERT L. GOMEZ
