Teaching English Reading

So today was my first non-English conversation class. At my new school, there is a different curriculum from my last school. At this school I have to teach English Reading to all first year students. Today was my first two lessons. Needless to say, I was quite nervous about it all.

Each class consisted of 42 students. I have never taught a class of such size before in Japan, so I really didn't know what to expect. To raise the pressure, I had never taught with my teaching partner before. I literally just met him about 1 week ago! So we didn't know each others style. Anyway, I'm glad to report that the classes went just fine. The students were very enthusiastic and friendly. The English level at this school is fairly decent as well. This reading class is not an elective therefore they must take the class. That means that many students are assumed to not care about English. Luckily for me the students did like English. There was not even one student sleeping either class for 50 minutes. That would never have happened in Matsubara High School.

My lesson consisted of a sparsely laid out plan of introducing class greetings, bonus point rules and class rules. Then the last goal was to introduce Texas and myself to the students, giving out bonus points to students that answered questions or asked them. Overall it went smoothly considering all the obstacles. Afterwards my teaching partner and I discussed ways we could improve the class. I think that we worked well together!

I ate lunch in my school cafeteria on Monday for the first time. One of my fellow teachers came along with me to introduce me to the staff. As I first entered the cafeteria, I was shocked to see how nice it was. At my old school, the cafeteria staff consisted of some old guy and a young kid. At my new school there were 6 ladies cooking up a storm! The selection was excellent and I even got a tray! That made my day right there. My test was to order the same thing that I always ordered at my old school, curry rice. So came my piping hot bowl of curry rice, with a side of macaroni salad and tea. Delicious! Much better than the goo I was served before. At that point I knew, this year was going to be good. haha

Typical bowl of Curry rice w/pork cutlet. Delicious!

peace

vince

p.s. here is the link for my high school's website! http://www.osaka-c.ed.jp/kunijima

Good times on a Friday

Good Friday to you! Well it's already the second week of September. My September has been pretty bland so far. My birthday was last Wednesday, and it was great to get some goodies from home! Thank you!

I decided that I would share some of the lessons that I do at my school. I scanned some of the works from my students so you can see the results. On this past Wednesday I made a lesson for my students that they have to make a short story by looking at a picture.


I made this sheet for instructions.

I have to make the English very simple. I also made a ridiculous story about an Elephant in a rain coat for an example. Next was the students turn.

This is from one of my students. She is really funny and this is my 3rd year teaching her.

The English is not perfect at all, but I don't punish them for it. It's just a conversation class not grammar! I just want them to use English.

*The circles on the sentences mean "correct" in Japan. In America, we use the check mark.

This is the picture that she had to look at to create the story above.

You can see some of her notes in Japanese there on the paper. The English level is probably about middle school at my high school.



The next picture is one I gave to another student. He happens to be the funniest guy in class.

He had drawn angel wings on the backs of the kids. You will see why now... ;)

As you can see, he has a very big imagination! Oh, just in case you didn't know. Yakuza are Japanese mafia, so that will make the story make a little more sense hopefully! ;)

The next lesson I started in my class a few weeks ago was to make a recipe in English. I wanted them to make a simple recipe and them share them with each other. Here the best example from one of my 3rd year students.

Japanese students love to draw little picutures of everything. They are good at conveying emotions with these little drawings. Hey maybe you can try to make this very popular Japanese fast food dish! :)

Ok, I just wanted to share some of the things I am doing at my school. Teaching is very interesting here, I have to make up all my lessons on my own. I'm the only foreign teacher so sometimes it can get a little difficult. Enjoy, and I will be back soon!

peace

vince



p.s. don't forget 9-11-01. 8 years later and I can remember every last thing I did that day.

Too much excitement...what?

Hey everybody how are you doing? Well I survived the dentist and the barber yesterday. I left my school about 3pm so I can reach the barber right at opening time. He didn't seem too excited to see me. However I realized that his demeanor was this way. He is a pretty nice guy though. We chatted about a few typical things. For example, the weather, baseball and girls. Sounds like a typical conversation between two dudes in the USA! haha Far from it I would say. Next stop was the dentist. The dentist was about 5 minutes from my house. So that was pretty awesome as well. As soon as I walked into the dentist office, a nice looking lady greeted me. I think they were expecting to see me. Anyway, the lady asked me if I was a teacher at Matsubara High School I swiftly replied with a great big "yes!". She told me in some decent English that her daughter went to MHS. It turned out that her daughter was in my class that day! It was quite ironic I think. We kicked the can for a few minutes then I went to see the Dr. He didn't really know English. Neither did the Dental Hygienist. So my Nintendo DS Japanese-English Dictionary came in damn handy! (thanks Danny!!!!) The dental office was all high tech. Everything was handled quite fast and efficient. They cleaned my teeth and fixed my broken filling. It may sound crazy, but I enjoyed it! haha All for a cheap 3,000 yen or $30. Can't beat that...well I guess you could...but you know what I mean. I have to go back next Friday for another cleaning. I think I will keep going for a regular cleaning, since I already broke the ice.

Tonight I am going out with my friends. I'm bringing along my good friends the two "toms". We're going to eat at an Izakaya (restaurant/bar) place. Should be good times. I will try to take some photos and put a few up later on.

At the moment I'm sitting at my desk at work. I have just finished my classes for the day. I am trying an ambitious (in my opinion) project this 2nd term for my 2nd grade students. We are going to make TV commercials in English. I downloaded recent commercials from America and showed them about 30 minutes of commercials today. Of course in typical Japanese fashion they had absolutely no response about them. In order for them to understand the assignment, I am going to make my own commercial. I am going to try and convince students to take my wonderful class in the commercial. I will shoot that lame commercial next week. So expect to see some ridiculous video next week. I hope my students will follow my ridiculousness with me. I can only hope however. Oh, and when they wrote in their journals at the end of class. All the students commented how they love the commercials. Of course I would never have known that since they will never speak a word out loud in class. Kinda crazy if you ask me... Well I believe that my brother and my father are heading to Las Vegas tomorrow. Please be careful driving ok! Oh and thank you SN and Tom for the comments. I appreciate it! SN, don't worry it's all good dude! Good luck with getting ready! And Tom, I'll be checking the blog soon! Well I'll be back soon. Take care y'all!

peace

vince