I'm not too bad at biology or at covering topics like genetic engineering. But if today's lesson was any indication, I REALLY need to write lesson scripts for myself. All the time. Despite what the literature says about "it's more important to teach kids than to teach the lesson".

Just plain old "outline" plans are a recipe for disaster whenever I

I'm at my new high school now. All the people are awesome, and so are the students, but right now I'm all exhausted - First day I felt pretty good, but by the second I wasn't feeling so well. (It's all got to do with lack of sleep, and somewhat to do with a terribly long commute by bus - I'm almost ready to swear that I will never even set foot on ( Read more... )

1) I'm not an English teacher.

2) I have a giant student loan to pay off.

3) Being a new teacher is cultural shock enough, let alone being a new teacher in a freakin' new countryIt's a good thing we had Career Week at ed school ( Read more... )

For the JET program, you can apply in September of this year...and get notified of whether you are accepted in April, the next ( Read more... )

At my awesome Powerpoint presentation about invisibility cloaks. Real ones.

Because it's my blog, and I can show off if I want to!

And, to be frank, I totally agree with them. Just today I got the "practicum report" written by the teacher I worked with at That High School I Won't Name, and she marked me...very difficult.

Just now I saw a link on Coyote Blog to an xkcd cartoon, which highlights why I'm so darned worried about myself:


( Read more... )

...on the science research topic I have to give for one of my classes ( Read more... )

Don't start saying the nice things yet. I'm going to volunteer to teach English to adult learners who need help, but I'm really a selfish jerk who only wants to become a better teacher, and get some credits for the JET programme. :D ( Read more... )

When teaching, it is important to make things clear, and think about whether what you say can be misunderstood. Listen to this song without reading the lyrics, and you'll see an example:

Click to view

To be fair, the kids were just being kids.

Today was my last day at the High School I Was Placed At. Sadness...although it was offset by a bit of annoyance when I had to supervise a bunch of kids doing their science assignments more than an hour after school was over. :D ( Read more... )