Children are the future... KIDS!
I've been incredibly lazy with writing my journal simply because nothing really much has inspired me to write anything interesting.
I noticed that I haven't talked an awful lot about my job. My job's great because I get to make things, create new games for learning and because English only just became a compulsary subject in elementary schools, I'm contributing a lot in making a curriculum for them!
Last week, I made a lesson plan for the 4th grades to practice how to use "she/he has", because I noticed that many Japanese people always cofuse "she" and "he", probably because the two words sound very similar to them (or am I supposed to say us..?). The title of the game is called "Draw My Monster". Basically, a person has to draw a monster, then describe it to the rest of the group and they have to draw the monster by listening to that person's description. For example: "She has a big face. She has 5 noses. She has 20 legs..." and whoever draws the monster closest to the original wins the game.
Choosing songs is also very cool. I was thinking of good, simple and appropriate songs to sing with the kids and I thought of the theme tune to Happy Days. I sang that with the 6th graders and they absolutely loved it! I wasn't quite sure about giving them the lyrics as we aren't supposed to teach them to read or write, but they all wanted it cuz they thought it'd be really cool to have lyrics to English songs, written in English. They tried really hard to read it and showed interest in learning English. I thought that was sweet.
The difficult task of teaching a language is to make sure that your lessons are coherent and organised, which is sometimes difficult to do as the Ministry of Education has commanded us not to use Japanese in English classes. It works for the younger grades, but as they become older, they want a lesson that's more concrete, because they get too old for dancing and playing games. But when they respond to "How are you?" or "What drink do you like?" it makes me so happy, because I feel that I'm doing my job really well. When they even show an interest in the language, it makes me happy.
I started to remember that elementary school children are at the stage of developing their own opinions so I try to be an example rather than forcing my believes on them. This 6th grade kid who causes a lot of trouble around the school once asked me: "If I say tsuna instead of tuna in America, would they understand me?" and I said "I think generally, people will understand you, but if you want to avoid people asking you to repeat yourself, then it'll be better to say tuna, because that's the way people pronounce it in America" and he seemed content with my answer. I'm so fascinated by how children think. It's such ashame that adults stop thinking that way.
I noticed that I haven't talked an awful lot about my job. My job's great because I get to make things, create new games for learning and because English only just became a compulsary subject in elementary schools, I'm contributing a lot in making a curriculum for them!
Last week, I made a lesson plan for the 4th grades to practice how to use "she/he has", because I noticed that many Japanese people always cofuse "she" and "he", probably because the two words sound very similar to them (or am I supposed to say us..?). The title of the game is called "Draw My Monster". Basically, a person has to draw a monster, then describe it to the rest of the group and they have to draw the monster by listening to that person's description. For example: "She has a big face. She has 5 noses. She has 20 legs..." and whoever draws the monster closest to the original wins the game.
Choosing songs is also very cool. I was thinking of good, simple and appropriate songs to sing with the kids and I thought of the theme tune to Happy Days. I sang that with the 6th graders and they absolutely loved it! I wasn't quite sure about giving them the lyrics as we aren't supposed to teach them to read or write, but they all wanted it cuz they thought it'd be really cool to have lyrics to English songs, written in English. They tried really hard to read it and showed interest in learning English. I thought that was sweet.
The difficult task of teaching a language is to make sure that your lessons are coherent and organised, which is sometimes difficult to do as the Ministry of Education has commanded us not to use Japanese in English classes. It works for the younger grades, but as they become older, they want a lesson that's more concrete, because they get too old for dancing and playing games. But when they respond to "How are you?" or "What drink do you like?" it makes me so happy, because I feel that I'm doing my job really well. When they even show an interest in the language, it makes me happy.
I started to remember that elementary school children are at the stage of developing their own opinions so I try to be an example rather than forcing my believes on them. This 6th grade kid who causes a lot of trouble around the school once asked me: "If I say tsuna instead of tuna in America, would they understand me?" and I said "I think generally, people will understand you, but if you want to avoid people asking you to repeat yourself, then it'll be better to say tuna, because that's the way people pronounce it in America" and he seemed content with my answer. I'm so fascinated by how children think. It's such ashame that adults stop thinking that way.