Wonderful Students
Yesterday was a great day even though I only taught one class (the teachers were all returning tests). I taught my conversation one class and the students wrote their speech entitled “If I had one billion yen…” I asked the students to be creative and to go into as much detail as possible and they really followed those instructions.
One of my girls is going to buy a house with maids (because she doesn’t like to do housework) and her house is going to be next to a famous soccer player. She is going to marry the soccer player and ride around in his silver Porsche. Another girl is going to rent out Disneyland for the day because doesn’t want to stand in line and wait. One of my boys is going to all the good food that he can, including: steak, Peking duck, cake, and chocolate. All of my students appear to be enjoying the lesson and I am thrilled to see them pulling out the dictionary to look up words!
During the writing I walked around the classroom to help out the students and one of the girls had a folder from Pirates of the Caribbean, it had Johnny Deep and Orlando Bloom on it. I told her that I liked Johnny Deep better than Orlando Bloom and sparked a fight between the girls in the class over who was cuter. I am sad to say that I think Orlando won.
During sixth period Sports Festival Practice started!!! I was surprised because I didn’t think it started this early in the school year but Maemura Sensei told me it starts this early so students can practice over summer break if they want to. Right before practice it was discovered that I had not been placed in a group/team. The school is divided up into three teams red, blue, and white. I looked around the gym and saw that Iikura Sensei (head/first year English teacher), Maemura Sensei (second year English teacher), and Hizawa Sensei (third year English teacher) were all in the red group. Guess what group I decided to put myself in? Yup, that would be the red group with all of the English teachers. I am hoping that I stay in that group and I think I am going to.
After school I had practice for the English Interactive Forum. I was going to practice with the two second year girls that are participating but then the two third year boys who are entering also showed up. The girls were uncomfortable working with the boys so they decided to practice on their own and I was left with the boys.
One of the boys competed last year and he is in my Conversation One class. He informed me that the forum was interesting and that he had a lot of fun last time. He really stepped up during yesterdays practice and helped show me what everyone needed to work on.
The forum has three topics: about me, about my family, and about my school. There are three students in a room for each round and they talk about the topic. First they have to introduce themselves and talk about the topic for fifteen seconds. For example: about me. “My name is Erin. I am Takaku Chu ALT and I am 23 years old. I like running, reading, and watching TV. Thank you.” After everyone introduces themselves they have to have a conversation about the topic for five minutes. That is the hard part and I am not sure how to teach my students to have a conversation in English…I am forgetting how to do that. We have the students prepare questions to ask and then we start talking when the conversation dies…normally in about thirty seconds…someone will ask a questions to pick the conversation back up. We worked on that yesterday and had a good time.
The three of us had a wonderful conversation and talked for about an hour. I really enjoy the forum practice because it allows me to get to know the students on a more personal level. For example; one of the boys lives with his father, mother, grandmother, and little brother; he also has a turtle. The second boy lives with his father, mother, and two younger brothers; and has two beetles. Both think that having little brothers is ok. The first boy told me that when he is watching TV his little brother will change the channel and then he gets mad. I looked at him and said No way, my little brother does that too.” So we all had a good laugh about that.
As I was leaving school I walked past the Judo practice as I always do. Today one of the judo boys saw me leaving and yelled “Goodbye” to me. He then told the rest of the Judo boys that I was leaving and they all stopped practice to yell “Goodbye” to me. The boys also threw in one of the other English expressions that they love to say “I love you!” Andrea, and I talked about this and we really enjoy it when the students say goodbye to us. For Andrea it is her soccer and baseball kids and for me it is the Judo and Kendo kids.
All in all it was a great day and I am looking forward to the forum practice today because the second year girls and the third year boys are going to be talking together. It should be a good time. The English Interactive Forum is this Friday so we have a lot of work to do. I am planning on staying after school for the next three days to work with the students.