みなさんこんにちは。
本日はインタラクティブと呼ばれるパソコンレッスンについてお話いたします。
小6のSくん。
現在パソコンを使って、リスニングだけでなく、読みの練習も行っています。
特に、stoneに刻まれている文章を読み解き、5W1Hを使った質問に答えるアクティビティは、辞書を使用しながら解いています。
はじめは文章の読み解き方のサポートが必要でしたが、今は自身の力で十分に解くことができています。
引き続き一緒に頑張りましょう！
福田
This week I have taught a few classes I normally would not, including little baby `K` on Tuesday Morning.
Because I have not spoken to K before, I expected her to be nervous and shy in class, maybe even a little upset, but K is confident and bold and absolutely sweet as pie.
she and Mom had lots of fun repeating back the English in class and even figured out how to answer one of the questions all on her own, and at the end of class, after our goodbye song, little K ran up and gave me a lovely, squeezy hug and even let me pick her up.
She was so excited to play and talk in class even with a teacher she didn`t know, it was such a treat!
-Jordan Sensei
みなさんこんにちは！
今日は、小学校高学年のプライベートレッスンについてお話いたします。
小6のYちゃん。
現在英検3級取得に向けて準備中です。
レッスンでは、"What 〇〇 do you like?"や"Which do you like better?"の文章発話を行っております。
答えの文としては"I like ～."ですが、プライベートレッスンなのでもう一つ踏み込んでその理由を答えてもらっています。
そして、答えの文章はノートに書いて、英検3級のライティング練習も同時に行っております。
英検対策レッスンでもその成果が出ており、スムーズに意見を書くことができています！
もうすぐ中学生になるので、中学校準備も一緒に頑張りましょう！
福田
Funny Voices and Bonding moments.
Over the past year, I have bonded with a lot of my students, but one of the closest bonds I have formed with my adult student "M".
She is a warm, friendly, generous and very sweet lady, who never fails to make our lessons funny, and lively. She does both interactive and conversation classes with me. Watching her improvement has been so rewarding! She engages well with the material on all fronts and always pushes herself to do her best for every and all exercises I give her. Whether it's in interactive or conversation class. She tries very hard to use as much English as she can and has taught me a few Japanese phrases and expressions.
We have even bumped into each other in Kure and in Hiroshima a few times and have caught the train home together. Last week during classes, she mentioned that one of the voices in the video said "That's boring" but it was so high pitched that she couldn't understand what she was saying. She mimicked the voice and made me laugh so hard! That tone has now become our way of saying a few things to each other! It has been quite fun actually!
I'm looking forward to our next funny bonding moment!
-Khanya (Kay) Sensei
I`m sure anyone who has walked past the school has seen it by now.
Our writing challenge for first, second and third graders continues on and every day we see our students turning in their best efforts.
In the last few weeks I have had students go from turning in the occaisional messily written page, crumpled in their bag, to multiple pages at once, written with the utmost care and turned in protected in a plastic sheets.
Many students take great pride in their writing work and it will be the first thing they show me when we get to class, and of course I am very proud to put those up on the window for everyone else to admire. I look forward to the end of the challenge when we can give them back their own little book that they wrote, a treasure for them to keep.
-Jordan Sensei
My baby classes never fail to bring a smile to my face every week. From singing, or saying their first clear English words.
There are always memorable moments. My student "K" on fridays is one of the most interesting students I have.
He is very expressive, even if he is silent. His personality is so much fun and he is always so stylish!
He is so responsive to the material and my instructions.
He puts away when asked, shares props with mommy and opens/closes his book very well.
"K" says or points to colours, fruit, baby signs, body parts and shapes!
He is so smart and tries his best to say all the English he learns in class!
He even tries to mimic the faces on the feelings cards!
Yesterday was his birthday and I wanted to say Happy Second Birthday to a wonderful and bright student!
- Khanya (Kay) Sensei
on Tuesday I had a wonderful encounter!
I ran into one of my Saturday students on my way to work, she spotted me from across the walkway and ran over to say hello.
sweet little `F` is a very bright and enthusiastic student every week and I can see now that she practices all the time!
She was very pleased to tell me she drew a strawberry that day, and she saw snow! she was so happy to see me and tell me about her day,
and Mom looked so delighted watching her run around and chatter in English.
I hope that all of our students find English so exciting.
-Jordan Sensei
Recently we had to take a mock test and come up with stratergies to help teach some of the concepts to our highschool students.
I must say, I myself underestimated how difficult the test was and I could only imagine how the students feel writing it.
I decided to come up with new and interesting ways of teaching the material to them!
As a native speaker and teacher, that test was filled with very high level content!
It really made me take a step back and think..."My poor students".
So, I hope that all the new methods of helping them with that material really pays off!
I want to help them as much as possible! That test was a little scary!
- Khanya (Kay) Sensei
More English with Chocolate-O!
It's a rare thing to find students who truly make you laugh every single lesson. My class of Juniour High students on Wednesdays make my day every time. Our classes are filled with so much laughter! It still amazes me how far they have come from when I first started teaching them. This week, I began experimenting with new ways to get the students to speak more English in class and less Japanese. "Find the donought" was one of the games I made to help give the students motivation to speak more English. I hid three small, plastic donoughts in the classroom and the students have to find them. Each donought toy is worth 3, 4, or 5 points. The more English you speak, I keep adding points to the donought you found.
One of my students found all three donoughts! "K" is very bubbly and she was excited to hold all three donoughts herself. When one fell, she wanted to say something in Japanese, but realised she needed to speak English, so she yelled...Chocolate-o! oh my Chocolate-o!
It was so funny, we couldn't stop laughing! Well, her new nickname is now...Chocolate-o!
- Khanya (Kay) Sensei
It`s always wonderful to hear students taking what they have learned and using it in creative ways,
I`d like to highlight two of my students today who have done a wonderful job understanding what they hear.
The first is my Tuesday kindergarten student, H, we use small songs and rhymes to help students with tasks, like our "put away" song, after hearing so many times, little H has learned that it means it is time to stop playing and move to the next activity, and she uses that to her advantage, if H does not want to do an activity, she`ll cross her little arms and say "no, put away" which is both hilarious and adorable to see, I always love when students find a new way to express their thoughts.
The second student I`d like to highlight is at the opposite end, one of my highest level students, who I see on a Saturday. this student, R, takes great care in everything she says and is very charming and sociable, often times our lessons will go off topic because she and her classmate will ask "when would I say this?" or "what is the best way to say this?" and so we explore context and social cues just as much as the words themselves, it has led to our conversations becoming more and more complicated and natural feeling, and even a few lessons where she and her classmate have started teaching me! through our discussions I have learned a lot about festivals and manners in Japan, and all of it was explained in English!
I can`t wait to see what R, H, and all of our other students can achieve in the future.
-Jordan sensei
