Challenge Met
I introduced a really, really, extra-ordinarily difficult topic to the Fables and Fairytales class today. Let me give you a bit of background on this class. Traditionally, this class was taught by Kosaka-sensei. She is a really fabulous lady whose reading comprehension is fucking ace, but her English speaking and nerves were shot, as last year she retired and didn't give a rat's arse. She has been teaching this class for quite a while. It was known for being a cake class that seniors took to slack off in.
Now that she's retired, another teacher has taken over the class and changed the syllabus. Kataoka was not given any oral communication courses (the classes where the kids actually speak) and he loves them. To his credit, he drives me nuts, but he was the best at teaching those with me. So taking some advice I gave him last year managed to change things around and make it what he wanted. However that meant a change in my schedule - which I was all for - and an attempt to get a few students who weren't expecting to ever have to speak English at school to speak and participate in listening comprehension.
When we walked in the first day and explained the change the kids looked really irked. The first couple of classes were all kinds of chaos - but they had fun with the lessons we'd created. Still didn't like work and stuff that should have taken five minutes took a hundred, but they were still fun and they learned what we wanted. The first quarter (which just ended) was a mix of stories, from traditional Japanese stuff, old European fairy tales and Aesop's Fables. They even did well on the exam, bless them.
So yeah, the week before the exam, when Kataoka brings the test for me to look over he also brings some news. He's getting married (which was another whole kettle of fish) and will be gone... he wanted to find a topic that there were movies about (that we could get easily in Japan) to show while he was gone (note: this class is taught mostly in Japanese as the actual title is 'READING Fairytales and fables in English') on his honeymoon. I give it some thought and tap into a whole stream of stories they may or may not be familiar with.
I had decided to present The 1001 Arabian Nights. This particular lesson was either gonna bomb completely or be fucking ace. It didn't help that I was exhausted walking into it, so my normal energy just wasn't there. We presented the back story to the collection and talked about Scheherazade. That topic alone is challenging. Little shits were exhausted afterwards, too. But they really seemed to like it. It was something they didn't know a damn thing about and wanted to know. These are the lazy ones, too. I'm so happy! Though, they were really happy to hear that this section of the class involved watching a movie while Kataoka is out on his honeymoon. Ok, gonna stop rambling now... They were interested in the way that Islam was portrayed in the selection versus what they know of present day Islam. They were asking really amazing questions. They tackled vocabulary that I would test some English speackers to know. I was proud, I was happy and I think after today, they deserve a movie during the next class.
Now that she's retired, another teacher has taken over the class and changed the syllabus. Kataoka was not given any oral communication courses (the classes where the kids actually speak) and he loves them. To his credit, he drives me nuts, but he was the best at teaching those with me. So taking some advice I gave him last year managed to change things around and make it what he wanted. However that meant a change in my schedule - which I was all for - and an attempt to get a few students who weren't expecting to ever have to speak English at school to speak and participate in listening comprehension.
When we walked in the first day and explained the change the kids looked really irked. The first couple of classes were all kinds of chaos - but they had fun with the lessons we'd created. Still didn't like work and stuff that should have taken five minutes took a hundred, but they were still fun and they learned what we wanted. The first quarter (which just ended) was a mix of stories, from traditional Japanese stuff, old European fairy tales and Aesop's Fables. They even did well on the exam, bless them.
So yeah, the week before the exam, when Kataoka brings the test for me to look over he also brings some news. He's getting married (which was another whole kettle of fish) and will be gone... he wanted to find a topic that there were movies about (that we could get easily in Japan) to show while he was gone (note: this class is taught mostly in Japanese as the actual title is 'READING Fairytales and fables in English') on his honeymoon. I give it some thought and tap into a whole stream of stories they may or may not be familiar with.
I had decided to present The 1001 Arabian Nights. This particular lesson was either gonna bomb completely or be fucking ace. It didn't help that I was exhausted walking into it, so my normal energy just wasn't there. We presented the back story to the collection and talked about Scheherazade. That topic alone is challenging. Little shits were exhausted afterwards, too. But they really seemed to like it. It was something they didn't know a damn thing about and wanted to know. These are the lazy ones, too. I'm so happy! Though, they were really happy to hear that this section of the class involved watching a movie while Kataoka is out on his honeymoon. Ok, gonna stop rambling now... They were interested in the way that Islam was portrayed in the selection versus what they know of present day Islam. They were asking really amazing questions. They tackled vocabulary that I would test some English speackers to know. I was proud, I was happy and I think after today, they deserve a movie during the next class.