Justin Rankin

Position at the School

Physical Education Teacher and Special Programs Principal, Athletic & Activities Director

As of the 2024-2025 school year, Justin Rankin has been teaching or working as an administrator for over 16 years. Check out his experience and background through our YouTube interview and read more about him below.

Nationality

Canadian 

Where were you born?

Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario 

When did you first know you wanted to be a teacher?

Good question. Yeah, some people, I think, know that they want to be a teacher from a really young age. I was not one of those people. For me, it was a little bit later on in life. Actually, after I had finished my undergraduate degree, I initially started working sort of in the computer technology industry. And then I was always involved in coaching in some way, especially with ice hockey, even when I was working in a different industry. And I just always enjoyed coaching and thought that teaching would be a natural connection. So I ended up going back to school later on in life and getting my teaching degree that way.

How long have you been teaching? How does teaching at HIS compare to other schools you've taught at?

What year did you come to HIS, and where were you working prior to HIS?

I've been lucky in my career. This is my seventh international school, so I've had a chance to work in a lot of different ones. I really like it here, not only because of the advantages of living in Hokkaido and in Sapporo, the city itself, but because I feel like this is probably the school that has the strongest support and the strongest community of parents that I've been at. It's great when you can work alongside your parent community and have great relationships with them because I've worked at schools where that's not the case. I think that a big strength of ours is our great parent community. I got here the year when the Tokyo Olympics were happening. So that was actually 2021, the summer of 2021 because there was still hotel quarantine at those times. So this is my fourth year right now. And the year right before coming here, I worked up in a very remote Inuit community called Pangnirtung. You can Google that one, Pangnirtung Nunavut, Canada. So it was actually up near Greenland in Baffin Island, a fly-in-only community. It was pretty cool.  

What attracted you to come work at HIS?

I visited Sapporo a number of times when I was teaching in other countries like when I worked in China and Myanmar. During our long winter holidays, I would often come and visit Hokkaido to do some skiing. And I always enjoyed coming here. The food's great. You know, obviously, the skiing is fantastic, and so when I knew there was an international school here, and I was looking to go back and work internationally, uh, it was one of my top choices, and uh, fortunately, I got the job, and I'm here now.

What do you think is the importance of choosing an international school that emphasizes sports and health?

I'm a big believer that you learn a lot about life through sports and through the pursuit of physical fitness. You learn how to take care of your body, you learn how to overcome adversity, and you learn how to deal with challenges. So I think schools that prioritize or schools that promote athletics and fitness and outdoor education, I think you're going to create a student who's more well-rounded and has a better chance of success at the next level because they understand what it is to struggle and what it is to go through adversity. 

What is your perspective on learning physical skills from a young age as a PE teacher?

It's hugely important. I think you know if you learn how to take care of yourself if you learn how to move properly, if you learn how to eat properly, and train properly, the chances are later in life you're going to be a lot healthier. And if you're stronger and healthier later in life, I think you've got a much better chance of being a successful parent, a successful employee, or a successful business owner. So taking care of yourself, taking care of this body, we only get one. And so if you learn how to take care of your body from a young age, I think you're better set up for success in the long term by being healthy and being fit.

In your terms, what is your teaching style?

I don't know, you might get a different answer if you ask students. But for me, I think, I have pretty high expectations of everybody, maybe sometimes unreasonably high. However, I believe that setting the bar high for expectations forces students to rise up to meet challenges. I don't really want to set a low bar of expectations because I think people should always strive to get better and to do better every day and try to just be 1% stronger, 1% faster than they were during the last class. So yeah, I set pretty high standards and pretty high expectations. You know, sometimes I don't always have a lot of patience for students who aren't taking the class seriously. I try to have fun and I try to make a fun environment. But at the same time, I like when people take things seriously and are, you know, trying their best and trying to make the class better overall by putting their best effort forward. 

Do you have any favorite sports personally?

As a Canadian, ice hockey is number one. So I grew up playing ice hockey from about four years old, roughly. So that's definitely number one. Canadians live and breathe and sleep and die with ice hockey. It's almost a religion back home for us. I'm also a big fan of baseball as well, so I'd probably put baseball up there. And I can't forget about American football. So those would probably be my top three. 

If you had the opportunity to teach a different subject, what would it be?

Well, this year I'm lucky I get to teach a little bit of math still in middle school. So I teach seventh-grade math in addition to the PE classes. So I'd probably say math. I'm the kind of person that likes black and white, right and wrong. I'm not always great at, you know, creativity or interpreting things like in some of the visual arts or music classes. It just doesn't really suit my personality or my likes. So I think for me, teaching math is nice because it's organized. It has the right answer. There's a bit of logic involved in it. Uh, so if I wasn't teaching PE and I had to teach something else full-time, it would probably be mathematics. I see.

How would you describe the students at HIS?

Welcoming, athletic, and just happy overall. I see lots of laughter and smiles on campus every day. They're also highly tolerant to cold temperatures. 

What's your favorite part about living in Japan? How about living in Sapporo, Hokkaido?

It might just be Nana Chickee from 7-11. I'm a big fan of the konbini culture here in Japan. 

What do you get up to outside of school?

You can usually find me scoping out a tree run at Rusutsu, cruising the aisles at 7-11, or watching some kind of sport on TV. 

What's your favorite book of all time? Alternatively, what's your favorite movie? Why? What do you love about it?

My favorite book of all time is Lord of the Flies by Sir William Golding. It's a story that is built on a great premise. You can really connect to the characters while you think about how you would handle certain situations that occurred during the boys' time stranded on the island. Ask me why I think Ralph should be considered the antagonist instead of Jack. 

What advice would you give to teachers looking to work in Japan?

It's a fantastic quality of life here in Japan. Bring your powder skis.

Any Last Words?

I love working here. We had a great group of kids at our school. We got a great group of parents, like I said, a great group of people to work with on staff. And, it's a good time to be a Husky.