Elementary

In addition to my two junior highs, I also work at 4 different elementary schools (shougakko) - Tatsukawa, Kojinmachi, Miyahara, and Tsubonouchi. I typically visit an elementary school for half a day, usually in the afternoon. Though I only go to one particular school maybe twice a month, since I have so many, I have at least two elementary visits a week - sometimes three.
Teaching at elementary is my least favorite thing about my job, for many reasons. I like the kids, they are interesting, very curious, and of all my students, they are the most likely to talk to me. I wish I could extract the same desire for communication out of my recalcitrant junior high students. The elementary kids are alwasy happy to see me and, with the notable exception of the sixth graders, are good learners and motivated. Still, whenever I see an elementary visit on my schedule, I silently wince, wish for a cancellation, and utter my second-favorite Japanese word, "taigee". This literally means "tiring" but it is a catch-all slang term used by those in the Hiroshima area for things which they do not want to do. I hear this A LOT in my English classes.
Here are my complaints about elementary:
1) I don't see the students enough. At each school, which class I teach is rotated. This means that, even though I have made perhaps 10 visits to Tsubonouchi, I haven't seen any one particular class more than 3 times. This means that the students aren't accustomed to me and I'm still every bit a novelty. This also means that it is more than a month between visits for any particular class, so it's like I'm starting all over again.
2) The lessons aren't reinforced. Unlike at the junior high level, English is not required ciriculum for elementary students. Thus, very (very) few of the teachers speak it. This is not especially a problem for me in relation to the Japanese teachers because I speak enough Japanese to conduct class and to chat with them during break times. It is a problem in that the teachers don't go over the covered material with the students, so each time I visit a class, it is as though I was never there before. The only students who remember what I taught last time are the ones who go to cram school and study on their own time. And yet, the school wants me to "advance" with the curriculum as though the students have mastered what we've already covered.
3) I'm always treated as a guest. Don't get me wrong, the elementarys treat me very well. They always smile and greet me, bring me tea, do my copying, and generally pamper me. However, this is how guests are treated. At my junior highs, I do my own copying, and I often pour tea for my co-workers because I'm the most junior member (this is my choice, not a requirement). As such, I'm accepted as a (almost) fellow teacher at my junior highs. At the elementarys I'm just a guest.
4) Really small sandals. Okay, this may sound like a nitpicky thing, but read on anyway. You mustn't wear street shoes inside the schools, so I brought three pairs of sandals for indoors. One pair is at home and two pairs are at my two junior highs. Since I'm always shuttling around between elementary schools, I often can't bring my own sandals and so I must wear the school's. Though they are adult size, I could probably have fit into them when I was in elementary school. Picture me stalking around the school, Tyrannosaurus-like while a cadre of pint-sized kids scuttle behind me snickering.

Really, it's not that bad .. the visits are short and only mildly painful. The problem is, that it could be so much better. Kids learn so well at that age and I think the city is truly wasting a golden opportunity by running the program the way they do. But, hey, I'm just a silly gaijin who can't fit into his slippers.
(( Above and below are not pictures of my elementary students, but they are of similar age and disposition ))