Hey everyone!
Sorry it's been so long! I got busy...then I got too lazy to write up anything in my blog...hehe. I thought it was my second week teaching now, but it's actually my third! Time really flies over here!
So, my second week teaching was really interesting. It was basically my first week teaching anyone anything (besides my self-introduction lesson last week, and even then, I wasn't really teaching much). I had a few mistakes that week, but, as a new teacher, it's to be expected. One of my mistakes was greatly underestimating the time that I needed to photocopy some worksheets for my classes...omg. It really is as they say, anything that can go wrong WILL go wrong, especially when you're in a hurry. It's almost as if someone up there plays jokes on people who aren't as prepared as they should be... Anyways, I had a couple very minor errors on worksheets that my teachers so kindly pointed out a few minutes before class, which I had to scramble to fix. Normally, this wouldn't be too hard to fix, but I don't like re-printing a worksheet out for the sake of something that the students wouldn't normally notice anyways. I guess Japan recycles better than America does, but I still feel really bad wasting all that paper.
You would NOT believe how much paper a high school goes through in a week.
Look at it this way. My average class size is 40 students. I have 3 classes on both Monday and Tuesday and I have 2 classes on Wednesday through Friday.
2(40 x 3) + 3(40x2) + 7
...
Yikes. You can do the math. And this is just my class alone!! I feel like I'm going to destroy an entire ecosystem by myself by the time this is all done.
Anyways, the first lesson went down fairly well. My predecessor told me that lesson-planning for the 3rd graders was going to be difficult because I have to plan so many individual classes per week (3 per week, sometimes 4). However, I think that making lessons for the first graders is WAY more difficult. Not only is the class level all over the place (some students know little to no English while others verge on being close to how my 3rd graders are...I even have one bilingual Japanese/English speaker in one of my classes), but I have to deal with quiet (or sometimes loud) and/or genuinely unmotivated classes. Some students really could care less. I tried getting one student to participate, but he flat out said "I don't want to." What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to say to that? I can't punish them like American kids, so there is not much I can do. I've been using my predecessor's lesson plans to begin with (making changes that I saw fit), but starting next week, I'm diverging from his lesson plans. I want to cater towards the student's interests. I want to be interested in what I'm teaching, so that the students can be more motivated about what they are learning. I don't want to lose students because I'm taking the easy way out by copying what he did. While using the other lessons as a crutch was good for the first couple of weeks to get enough experience teaching under my belt, I think it's time to take the training wheels off and give it a spin myself. We'll see how it goes. I can only hope that the students will be interested in what I'm gonna try to teach them. Hopefully they like music and movies and other useful topics. I can learn more about them and they can learn more about me and American culture.
My 1st years at my visit school are kinda hopeless as a whole. They like goofing off during English class (and they often make fun of me...some students try to be smart to me too! Today, one student said in English "I want to go to home" to me and I laughed and said "Oh, you want to go home? Me too!" and he laughed) when they are fun game activities, but I lose quite a few of them if I try to introduce anything new. Some of their levels are so low that it's painful... But I did a review session this week and they participated a lot more than last week. I think I kinda understand what kinds of activities will be well received and which ones are not. These guys might be difficult to plan for too, but I think that, if I can keep it interesting and fun, but most importantly, SIMPLE, they can join along and do their best.
While some students are unresponsive in class, if I can talk to them one on one, they aren't so bad. I practiced with the soccer team last week and got to play with some of the first years that I taught in class. They try so much harder on the field than they do in the classroom! I made some really good saves and they were very impressed, so I was feeling good about myself until they put me into the practice scrimmage, where I scored an own-goal on myself. =___=;; This is why I'm a goalie.... But yeah, today it is raining, so I think the soccer club is practicing/running in the gym today. I don't know how long I can stay (I still need to lesson plan for my 3rd grade class), but I'm sure I'll have fun watching (I don't think I have gym shoes on me)...
Anyways, 1st year rant over. My third year class is so much easier and more fun to plan those classes because they have a set curriculum and the entire class level is intermediate-high intermediate. They usually understand me if I speak slowly, and the JTE that I work with can cover any difficult words that they don't understand. They really seem to like me too! :]
I'm teaching how to give and take advice to the 3rd graders right now. I gave them a worksheet on certain expressions they could use to give/take advice and also got to show them TV advertisements that gave advice to the target consumer as an example of how to give advice. For example, Kit Kats are very popular in Japan, and apparently, they have very similar slogans. While the advertisements may have been a tad too fast, the JTE and I helped the students understand the clips, so it was all ok. I gave them another worksheet that listed a variety of problems that they were to give advice for. After they were finished writing advice, I quickly asked them what advice they gave for some of the problems. I asked one girl what she wrote for "Problem: I'm really hungry!!!" and she said "Have a Kit Kat"! ...the JTE and I almost died laughing. The other students understood too, so we were having a great time. Those students are just too cute and creative! My favorite class is easily this one. I may have to plan a lot, but it doesn't take much time to make a lesson and it's almost guaranteed that they'll understand what I plan. Even if they don't understand, they will do their best to try to understand. They're a good bunch...my favorites! :]
Well, as I'm writing this, both of my JTEs at my visit school told me that they're busy and I'm solo-teaching my last class of the day. I am TERRIFIED to say the least. If I had to choose which class I could solo-teach, I most definitely would not choose one from my visit school. I decreased the level of the lesson this week...which means that I can (MAYBE) use what little Japanese I do know to help the students out if they don't understand. I'm only worried about the middle part of the lesson. I am hoping that this isn't a complete failure. >.<
Hopefully I come out of this alive! I DON'T WANNA GO......SAVE MEEEEeeeeeeeee.....
Ciao for now!
P.S. I visited Tenryu River and found a temple and a grave site along the way, so I will post those pictures up when I get back from school!! :]
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