PLEASE READ AND REPLY (YOUR FEED BACK NEEDED)
fum...@gmail.com
I was not able to attend the last parents’ meeting. I hope the meeting
went well and our children are excited the SJLS final school event,
Undokai, this weekend.
Unfortunately SJLS PTA group was not effectively used year of
2007-2008.
I am planning to send my two sons to SJLS one more year and like to
see some positive change to the school.
Before this year’s session ends, I thought it may be useful to send
our feedback to the Japanese school. I created some questions. Please
post your answers and comments.
Q1. What do you and your child like about Japanese school?
Q2. What don’t you like about the school?
Q3. How do you and your children like the class? What do or don’t you
like about it?
Q4. How do you and your children like special events such as New
Years, Shopping day and etc. at the School? Do you suggest for the
school to organize any other Japanese cultural events?
Q5. What do you suggest the change next year?
Q6. Are you planning to send your child to the Japanese school? If
not, why?
Q7. Please write any additional comment.
Please ask your child and think about the questions above and reply me
(fum...@gmail.com ) or post your comment to the site.
The Japanese school is a member of this group and can view our comment
as we post. In addition, I am planning to compile our feedback and
sent it to the school. Hopefully Japanese school board and teachers
considers applies our feedback to enhance learning experience of our
children next year.
Sincerely,
Fumiko
Jenny Murray
Jenny Murray
----- Original Message -----
From: <fum...@gmail.com>
To: "SJLSPTA" <sjl...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 10:07 AM
Subject: {SJLSPTA} PLEASE READ AND REPLY (YOUR FEED BACK NEEDED)
Dear parents of Seattle Japanese Language School students,
I was not able to attend the last parents’ meeting. I hope the meeting
went well and our children are excited the SJLS final school event,
Undokai, this weekend.
Unfortunately SJLS PTA group was not effectively used year of
2007-2008.
I am planning to send my two sons to SJLS one more year and like to
see some positive change to the school.
Before this year’s session ends, I thought it may be useful to send
our feedback to the Japanese school. I created some questions. Please
post your answers and comments.
Q1. What do you and your child like about Japanese school?
Thomas really likes learning the alphabets and numbers. I like that he has
interaction with more people who speak or are interested in Japanese.
Q2. What don’t you like about the school?
I don't feel like there is very much communication with the administration,
especially for new students. There was no welcoming packet or information,
explaining how the classes were assigned and run, what the curriculum is,
and other important information about the school schedule. I realize that we
started late, but it would have been nice to have someone (a parent) in the
class contact me to provide me with additional information and be available
to answer questions. I don't speak any Japanese, so it is difficult for me
to know whom I should talk to, who the principal is, etc.
Q3. How do you and your children like the class? What do or don’t you like
about it?
Thomas likes the class, and is always wanting to get there on time. He even
gets his homework done faster than his regular school homework.
On my part, I find it difficult to follow the curriculum, and I don't know
what they are really learning in the class. Because I don't speak Japanese,
it is hard for me to determine what is being covered. Plus, I would like to
know more about what the kids are learning (grammar and information about
how the language is structured), so that I could participate more in what my
son is learning.
Several of the students are very disruptive and disrespectful to the teacher
and the other students. The teacher doesn't seem to be able to control them
in order to allow the other students to learn. The age spread is rather
large in the class (5 to 8 years old), and I would like to see the class
better controlled, or split within itself between the two teachers so that
the older kids learn togther and the younger ones learn together.
I would also like there to be the opportunity for children who are really
interested in learning the language, and who are more mature for their age
(as my son is on both points), to be able to move up to the next level
during the school year. I think that Thomas would be able to function in the
older beginning class because there would possibly be more cooperation on
behalf of the students at older ages.
Q4. How do you and your children like special events such as New
Years, Shopping day and etc. at the School? Do you suggest for the
school to organize any other Japanese cultural events?
I find the cultural events to be quite interesting and an important part of
learning about Japanese culture. For those who have little experience with
the culture, and basic schedule and simple explanation of the various events
would be helpful. Perhaps this could be provided with the information packet
that is distributed to all new students.
Q5. What do you suggest the change next year?
I would like to see an information and welcome packet distributed at the
beginning of the year, which would include information about the different
classes, cultural events, curriculum, teacher information, administration
information, and any other pertinent information necessary for successfully
attending a once-a-week school. I think that something like this would go a
long way in helping to make the school more "professional" to the students
and the community. A formal brochure to distribute to the greater Seattle
community and public schools would also be nice to have. I might be able to
bring in additional students from my son's class/school if more
professional-looking information was available.
It would be nice to have a school directory, listing the names of the staff
and positions that they hold, contact information for the teachers and whom
to call in an emergency, plus class lists for each class. I get e-mails from
people, and I don't know who they are and how they are related to the school
(for example, I received this e-mail from Fumiko and I have no idea who
Fumiko is :-). Having a directory would make it much easier for someone
coming into the school community from the outside to be able to function
more and provide more volunteer time to the school.
Q6. Are you planning to send your child to the Japanese school? If
not, why?
Thomas will continue to attend the school in the summer and probably in the
fall. He will be attending an elementary school which has an after school
Japanese club/class, so I will have to see how much that will impact his
understanding and experience with the language during second grade.
Q7. Please write any additional comment.
I think that I covered it all up above.