Leading up to the Summer, we decided to start a vote on what is the favourite Summer time activity.
Going to Festivals, Going to the Beach, Traveling or Eating Summer Food.
This is a way for us to see what students like to do during the summer (apart from homework).
It has been fun seeing students cast their votes and learn a little something more about what they enjoy
and which summer festival activities are their favourites!
So far Summer Festivals has been winning by a landslide!
So if you haven't yet, please cast your vote by reception and let's see who will be awesome by popular demand!
- Khanya (Kay) Sensei
みなさんこんにちは！
本日は、小学校低学年のプライベートクラスのお話をいたします。
小3のSくん。
身体を動かしたり、書いたりすることが得意です！
今回の構文は"What are these/those?" "They are ～s."という文でした。
レッスンで出てくる、chopsticks(箸)や、plates(お皿)を使って、おはじきをとるアクティビティをしました！
もちろん、They are chopsticks.やほかのつかむものを使って文章発話をしてもらったのち、ポイントを英語でカウントしました！
真剣にものをつかむときと英語を話す時でメリハリができてとても集中できていましたね！
また楽しいアクティビティをしながら英語を学んでいこうね！
福田
When training or studying to be a teacher, we get told to do things a certain way, be a certain way and say certain things. We get told to use the textbook, use the lesson plan and stick to the material, however as most teachers know, it doesn't always lead to the best results. Last Week I had a class with one of our previous Amity students, who has just become a fully fledged teacher now! I am very proud of him! We had a conversation about how his classes were going and some of the struggles he was facing being a new Highschool teacher.
It is always remarkable to see how dedidcated he is to improving himself! He even said he needs more knowledge. I don't think he has realized just how knowledgeable he actually is yet! "H" has always been full of interesting facts and enjoys learning about different things and subjects!
I advised him to find the fun in his lessons! This is to get his students to engage more. Getting to know them and making the environment interesting! I told him to stop relying on the textbook or lesson plan and rely on himself more. Bring in games and activities to encourage his students to participate, rather than just asking questions. What's imprortant is not the material but the students themselves. I hope my advice helps him become the type of teacher he would have liked to have in Highschool. I know he can do it!
- Khanya (Kay) Sensei
This week We had a new Prospective student come through our halls, He was very small, and very shy, but very sweet.
He already new many colors and words in english, and he repeated after me as we colored together.
What really blew me away with this little superstar was when he saw the Dinosaur storybook in our little library, I started to read it to him, and he started to repeat after me!
Not just one or two words at a time, but a whole sentence!
two npteably long sentences were
"I roar and I stomp, I growl and I romp" with all the dinosaur sounds
and "I am the king of the dinosaurs"
I was so impressed!
-Jordan Sensei
My student "S" has been making slow and steady progress with her Eiken lessons every week.
It has been an interesting journey watching her grow into her English skills as she navigates the new Eiken 2nd grade writing,
as well as trying to get ahold of new vocabulary and getting everything to make sense.
Even though everything seems to be moving slowly. She has been improving every single week.
Sometimes by a lot, sometimes by a little bit!
She is consistently making progress. Where she struggles, we stop, re-evaluate and then she makes progress again.
I am so proud of how diligent she is. How hard she keeps trying. I assign her a variety of homework,
for different aspects of her writing, reading and vocabulary and she keeps amazing me with how well
she is adjusting to the work I give her! She recently scored 95% on her school test from 88%!! That is a leap!
She only keeps getting better!
- Khanya (Kay) Sensei
Better Book? Better look!
As I`m sure everyone has seen now, Our Kure Amity school has an excellent little library of English storybooks for our students to look at before and after class.
What many might not know is that some of these books are much more difficult than others, The most difficult of these perhaps is our copy of Enid Blyton`s `The Magic Treacle Jug`
This story is 20 pages long, with almost 100 words on every page!
Despite how difficult this story is to read, it is very funny and teaches good lessons, not to mention the beautiful art on every page!
Just this week, one of my Mid-Level P5 students chose this book to add to her reading practice seminar.
I was very impressed as she sounded her way through 8 of the 20 pages. She did not know many of the words, but she carefully sounded them out syllable by syllable, and then we found words that she knew that meant the same thing.
Seeing students practicing reading stories that I also used to practice reading when I was younger made me feel so warm and wonderful inside!
-Jordan Sensei
This week a student posed an interesting question to me after her class, she asked me "What is the difference between learning and learning about something?"
This question stumped me for a moment, I hadn`t thought of it before, In the end though we came to an agreement about their meanings.
To Learn something is to practice and do it, you learn crafts, skills and languages, Our students Learn English when they come to their lessons and see new words,
To Learn About something is to understand its history, its meaning, and its place in culture, we learn about art, we learn about people and we learn about stories.
It was so interesting to watch the gears in her head turn as she thought about what she knew, and what she knew about.
I`m always excited when students ask questions like this because it leads to us thinking about parts of language that we might otherwise never consider, so Everyone, Keep Being Curious!
みなさんこんにちは！
今日は、英検2級に向けた対策レッスンのお話をいたします。
現在英検2級取得に向けて頑張っているHちゃん。
今回から、ライティングの要約問題が追加されるため、練習をしています。
大きく3段落あり、それぞれより大事な個所を選ぶこと、そして要約する際に便利なフレーズを伝えました。
最初はどこまで文章に含めなければいけないのか、考えるのに時間を使いましたが、少しずつ重要な点をしぼれるようになりました。
引き続き一緒に頑張っていきましょう！
福田
Two of my Baby C students have started to really make progress in their English lessons!
From being far more active, they are now talking and singing in their classes.
Baby "W" is now far more comfortable saying words in English.
Apple, Banana, Green and black are just some of the words she is now saying.
She is moving and dancing to chants and always wanting to show her dad how far she can throw a ball.
Baby "W" is filled with so much energy.
Baby "A", is also showing great progress, as she now sings along with the chants, especially the counting section.
She is saying things like Hat, apple, banana, cherries, green, hat and black.
She also said "knock Knock" for the first time on Wednesday. This left me and mom so excited.
Baby "A" was knocking on every available surface in the classroom, saying knock knock!
It was simply the cutest thing ever!
- Khanya (Kay) Sensei
Last weekend we teachers had the pleasure of travelling to Kyoto and doing some sightseeing together,
After coming back and sharing about all of our weekend, My Tuesday P6 class got to talking about all the cool places wed travelled to.
One student, `G` told us about his trip to Kyoto as well and how he saw the Golden Pagoda and the Gardens, everyone was excited by how beautiful they sounded.
Next `R` told us about her trip to the Tokyo skytree and we got to laugh about how we would all react if we were standing on the Glass Deck and looking down. It was so interesting to hear about Everyone`s experiences.
Even though travel isn`t something that everyone has had the chance to experience yet, I think that talking about the places we have been in our lives is an excellent way to understand eachother better!
-Jordan Sensei
