9th Grade English Camp

　We are slowly adapting to the “new normal" here at FGS. Last year, many school events were cancelled or postponed due to the pandemic. One of those was our 9th Grade English Camp and we felt a lot of disappointment about that. However, this year we were able to have our camp. While we usually go to Nagano for 6 days, this year we needed to stay at school.
　The theme of this year’s camp was “Around The World in 20 Hours”. Since we needed to send the students home early due to covid restrictions we could only spend a total of 20 hours with them. We did a variety of activities that allowed the students to explore American-Mexican culture, European culture, and of course Japanese culture. I think the students most enjoyed our stamp rally on day two. In pairs, they needed to find 18 posters hidden that were around the school, study the information on those posters and then go to the Question Stations to answer questions asked by the camp staff. Their aim was to correctly answer as many questions as possible and get a stamp. The stamps we used were real postage stamps from all around the world. It was a fun activity and the students had a wonderful souvenir at the end.
　I was really happy during this camp. At first I felt nervous but as soon as we began our program I could see that the students wanted to be at school with us. They were motivated to use English with their teachers, their senpai who joined as teaching assistants, and their classmates. As time goes by we will be able to bring back a lot more of our school events while making sure students and staff are safe and comfortable. Like everyone here, I’m excited for that.