East Bay Japanese Language School

Welcome !

                                   February 2003

For all of you new and returning students, the East Bay Christian Japanese Language School welcomes you and your parents.  This newsletter will hopefully acquaint you with the school’s activities and encourage parents to participate in some of the upcoming events.

One of the biggest holidays in Japan is new years.  This year at the school, the traditional New Years fair was held.

There were plenty of games for the children, origami, flower arranging, writing, card games, and a nice show.

RECESS

As mentioned earlier, one of the responsibilities of parental volunteering is supervising recess.  The primary responsibility is the safety of the children. Keeping this in mind, here are some helpful tips:

·       Be ahead of the children and open the door for them (kids can pinch their fingers in the door if they open the door themselves).

·       Look to see the play area is clear of cars, stray dogs, broken glass, wood with nails, etc.

·       Get the toys out of the closet.

·       Make sure the children do not run around the building to the front entrance (too many cars in this area).

·       Don’t let the children pull the wagons too fast (they can tip over or loose control and run into someone).

·       There are two recesses about 10:30 and 11:30.  The bell signals the beginning and ending of recess.  Leave the toys outside after the first recess and bring them back in after the second recess.

·       At the end of recess, make sure all the children enter the building and close the door.

Miscellaneous

One of the kids favorite teachers, Ken, finds a new job in Blythe, California.  He will be working for an agriculture company in the desert town whose crop has a big demand in Japan.  Ken, who was born in Japan and speaks English like he was born in Santa Barbara had majored in international business at Cal and seems to have found the perfect job.  Unaware that Summer temperatures can reach 118 degrees, he says he didn’t know if his office had an air conditioner.

Let ‘ s Lending a Helping Hand

Parents are required to volunteer one school day a semester.  This would involve sticking around from 9:30a to 12:30p.  You would help with recess and before Easter and Sports Day, help set up.  During this 3 hour period, you may be ask to help with miscellaneous school related tasks or maybe nothing at all (other than recess).  The school likes to have 2 parents per Saturday.  Several parents have signed up already:

If your name is not listed here, please let Creighton Fong (cfong@ebmud.com) know what date you would like.

Board Meetings

About every other month and/or before special events (Easter, Sports Day), the Board has an informal meeting in the kitchen after Saturday school.  These meeting usually start around 12:30 and lasts for about an hour.  Generally, the first business taken care of is eating.  The first Board meeting was last Saturday and the topics ranged from a newsletter to upcoming events.

Any and all parent are invited.  The meetings are relaxed and the conversation is casual.  This newsletter will announce the next Board meeting two weeks in advanced.

Registration

For those of you who registered your child for school last Saturday, it was a bit hectic.  The school was pleasantly surprised to find registration up 30%.  The extra students and parents had registration volunteers a little overwhelmed.

Some of the teachers and principal were organizing the students with the teachers.

                    Last updated 07/27/2009