My Last Sports Day

It's June, so it's that time of the year again, where kids compete against each other to earn points for their team. This year's Sports Day also happened to be my last with the school, and the city, as my five years with the JET Programme is drawing to an end. So I felt a little emotional today, but Sports Days in Japan are grand events, and are always enjoyable to watch.

Thank You Party

A class of soon-to-be graduates at one of my elementary schools held a Thank You Party for their teachers, and I was invited. They'd prepared food, cards, a thank you song, as well as a number of party games for the occasion. And I have to say, I have never in all my five years here, have ever felt so appreciated by the students and by the homeroom teacher. The party ended with speeches from the invited teachers, and when it was my turn, tried as I could, I couldn't hold back the tears when I saw the homeroom teacher crying, which got some of the students and teachers started :)

My Last Chorus

I've just attended my fifth and final chorus concert as a teacher of Murayama, my current city of work. My monster students, who were right little rascals these past two years, have grown up and have now set their minds on graduating and getting into high school next March. Their performance during this concert really resonated with feeling, and is the best I've heard since joining this school two years ago. It's always great to finish on a high note... (No pun intended.)

Asakusa

[Tokyo Skytree]

On a field trip with students of the English Club, we went to Asakusa in order for them to practice their English with foreigners... and to be honest, I wasn't expecting much with the students of my present school, and it doesn't help that the club supervisor lacks assertiveness and enthusiasm. The whole thing was poorly planned and organised. There were no letters to parents, no permission slips, no school trip policy being enforced, no planning, no name lists or emergency contact details, no briefing/emergency info for the students, no aims and objectives of the trip....zilch.  Everything was just agreed upon verbally, and come the day there were some no-shows, with the supervisor not being sure if they were going to turn up, then having to call the school to ask a teacher to phone the students to see if they were coming or not.

And surprise, surprise, the trip had absolutely no relevance at all to learning about English or other cultures. The students sightsaw a Japanese district, and did things like looking at temples and the Skytree, finding out their fortunes using the fortune-telling sticks, and shopping for key straps... wait, I lied, we did do one non-Japanese thing, we ate lunch at Burger King.

English Education in my Japanese schools

Sorry, it's been three weeks and I still haven't blogged about my holiday over Spring Break. Its been busy at work. I've started planning and leading my own lessons.

The Japan's education ministry is worried about the country's ability to compete in the international market, and from last month, has upped it's national curriculum hours for English in elementary (ES) and junior high schools (JHS)... which is great for me and the students, but for the local teachers who OT like I've never seen people OT before, it's perhaps not such a great change.

Throw in the fact that many of them aren't confident in speaking English, let alone speak it correctly, it's pretty unrealistic to expect these teachers to teach English when they lack the training to do so.

Do you know what else scares me? The massive learning gap between the last year of elementary school and the first year of junior high school. A lot of kids lose interest in English during their first year of junior high. The interest and enthusiasm that most new students start off with dwindles away to nothing. Some kids give up completely, others study it out of necessity, in order to pass exams and get into high school.

Do you know what they, the JHS Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs) do? They spend about 2-3 hours reviewing the alphabet - NAMES ONLY - then in the following week, they launch straight into reading text, and expect the students to be able to read it. In ES, these kids only focused on communication and language not literacy. Unless they've been taught out of school, over 90% of these kids enter JHS not knowing how to read English.

Primary education in England allocates time to phonics like any other subject. Over here, phonics are totally skipped over. By some miracle, students who are learning English as a second language are expected to be able to grasp how to read English, without phonics, after one week of learning the alphabet.

Bloody hell, right? Does it make me want to cry? You bet it does, and I would, but crying won't solve anything.

Anyway, the JTEs in my JHS have decided to have me plan and lead the extra English lessons. Games? Check. Phonics? Check. English as the medium of instruction? About 70-80% (1st years) depending on lesson content, and this will gradually increase. 30-40% for 3rd years though, need to stop the JTE from slipping into Japanese all the time. Fun? Guaranteed.

Graduation

I experienced my first Japanese School graduation, and it was interesting... I really like this year group, and was expecting myself to get all emotional, but didn't.

It's really touching to see how hard the teachers work for their students, and it's obvious how they - even the most delinquent students - appreciate it. I've known this set of students for over a year, and I think the teachers have done a great job, and to be honest, and it's made me realise even more how envious I am.

It's often mentioned by ALTs that teachers are too "friendly" with students, and because of that they're not respected. In some cases, perhaps so, but I respect the fact that they make the time to connect with students on a personal level. Teachers that take the time and effort to nurture student-teacher relationships beyond the typical can create a very positive learning environment, and this is definitely something that I should learn more about and adapt to my own practice. There were delinquents who used to get angry at their teachers' - there were some cases where they'd physically lashed out - and had verbally insulted them, and not attend class. Up until the end, they still didn't attend class, but who do they run to for help and advise everytime? Their teacher. It's no easy task getting the challenging ones to respect you, and when they do, it becomes easier to offer them guidance - whether they take it into account or not is another matter - and it makes life a little less stressful.

When I only see students once a week, in a school of around 700, not to mention that the Japanese teachers don't involve, let alone inform, the ALT of their daily duties and what happens around the school, and hey, language barrier too, it's difficult to really bond with the students... which is something I miss doing. In Hong Kong, even though I wasn't a homeroom teacher, I got to see my students everyday, sometimes twice, and really built up a good connection with them.

The new academic year starts in April, so what can I do to improve the situation? All I can think of right now is to gatecrash (of course, I'll ask permission beforehand) other peoples' lessons, students' clubs and committees; persistently insist on being informed about the goings-on of the school; and become annoyingly helpful.

Halloween Display

Really pleased with my Halloween display, display work keeps me sane and keeps me from morphing into a vegetable. If you have any further suggestions, please let me know!

I share part of the board with my English Club students, it gives them a responsibility and it's a great way to advertise to the rest of the school what us English members do!

Storytelling

It's been a very good week indeed with a few, albeit fewer, obstacles being hurled in my face.

I've offered to organise interest classes/activities afterschool and during holidays, so I'm really fired up about that.

Went to visit the Igo Club, it's been a couple of months, and met two absolutely hilarious boys. I don't always understand what they're saying, but it's always hard to keep a straight face. My igo 'skills' have seriously deteriorated, but all the members (3 boys) have been helpful if a little unserious and totally lacking in English speaking skills.

Last week I was invited by the school library for the first time to read today. Resources were inadequate, I had to make do with this tiny collection of aging children's books, and the best I could find was a retelling of Brothers Grimms' Litttle Red Riding Hood... which to me, wasn't a confident choice. I was afraid these Junior High School students would think it was below them, that it was elementary school level, for babies, but I had no other alternative. It was so difficult choosing a book, it had to suit the low English level of the students and it had to be of interest to this age group. Today, before the reading, I had butterflies in my stomach, I was extremely nervous, and it was my first time reading to young adults, and I was going to read to them as if they were in kindergarten... but it went surprisingly well.

The response was beyond expectation. Out of 35 listeners, I was specifically mentioned in 26 of the feedback sheets, and they were all positive responses. Obviously, the majority of students (and teachers) did not fully understand, but the fact that they found it interesting and enjoyed my story-telling has seriously made my day.

Now off to Japanese lessons ;)

Pick myself up, Dust myself down, Start all over again.

Other than to today, everyday this week was actually not bad. I've recently been getting into igo 囲碁 and have been visiting the igo club whenever it's on. There's really only one active member, but he's a patient teacher with pretty decent conversational English compared to most other students in his class. However, trying to explain the techniques of igo isn't an easy thing as experienced by the one member and the teacher who was supervising, so the igo teacher bought me an Igo textbook written in English! In school, my conversations are strictly with him, even though he only speaks Japanese. Of course, a few words about work are exchanged between me and the English teachers or when I take the initiative to talk to other Japanese teachers. I heard through the grape vine that the two previous ALTs left because of this reason.

Anyway, today I presented my first radio show and.... it was a ghastly experience. I told the Japanese Teachers of English weeks ago that I was going to broadcast, come today they harrowed me throughout my session telling me this and that. I was so nervous, and afterwards embarrassed, throughout. Why didn't they bloody tell me before hand???

After the show, the Main Supervisor of the Broadcasting Committee (whom I was only told about today) starting to complain about it. He wasn't informed, he said. F*ck that, I was referred to his sub-ordinate who went over to tell him after our [translated] chat, and that was a few weeks again. When I chased up about it last week, the sub-ordinate said it was fine to go ahead with it. The Main Supervisor said that no-one understood what I was saying during the Broadcast, he said that the Broadcasting committee needed to make their broadcasts, he complained that he wasn't informed about the content of my show and that we needed to have a Committee Meeting before to discuss matters of starting my English Radio. I felt so frustrated. Instead of giving me the go ahead, why didn't he postpone the session to deal with Committee issues first?

The last straw was when he started talking to the JTE and not me. Its my matter, my responsibility, my duty, why wasn't he talking to me about it? The JTE is there to translate, why didn't he talk to me? Would he dare to do the same with international business partners and sister schools? I seriously did not feel as if I was regarded as his colleague at all. Anyway, he seemed to have a problem with me from the very beginning.

Students don't understand the English dialogue? Do you think I understood Japanese when I first came? Extra exposure to a language is a bonus for learners, especially if I don't see a class one week. He didn't know I was doing a broadcast? I saw him being informed. He didn't know the content? He thinks I know to talk to him? Why didn't he come to me and ask?

I wasn't thinking of crying, but I did anyway. Afterwards, I felt more determined than ever, you want to step on me? You'll regret it. By the time I'm gone, this school is going to be better than when I arrived, at least in terms of English enthusiasm.

Next action point: Presenting Halloween lessons as Elmo. Corny poses and voice included.

Committee Meeting: Tuesday.

The Sooty Show

It's Sooty! I bought one of these from Pasttimes to entertain the younger children in Japan. I love using puppets, they are such a great way to get the shy children talking, and wonderful 'students' for children when they become 'teachers' e.g. having a puppet who isn't very good at maths and needs the children to help it.

A Trip to the Farm

School trips are pretty exhausting. I was in charge of two boys with a scant amount of English. The farm was tiny, with cattle grazing in one paddock. Watching roosters and other poultry birds running loose around the farm was quite amusing, the farm crew would be tossing hay, whilst the roosters pecked about in the haystacks. There's nothing quite like eating lunch to the sound of crowing cockerels either.

After lunch, we went to the park next door and let the children loose for a run. I joined in too ;) and together we raced around the park and rolled down slopes ;) Loadsa fun, unfortunately most of the parents/carers didn't join in, I suppose running around in 25 degrees wasn't so appealing!

[Okay boys, open wide and holler!]

Another Lesson in D&T

Really love my Design and Technology lessons, but we're only getting three on this course :( and I'll be missing the last lesson on wooden furniture, boohoo!

In today's lesson, we focused on making puppets. Forty minutes went by in a blink, I wanted to use string, wool and ribbons for the mane, but my lion finger puppet had to just make do with fabric markers:

I'll be on that airline seat in 4 blinking days!!!!

Newspapers on your Head

The Brief:

To design an Easter bonnet.

To make a prototype of chosen design using newspaper and magazines as the main materials. It must fit and stay on your head. Time limit: 25 minutes.

You may use only the tools that are supplied i.e. tape, string, scissors, and stapler.

Great activity, suitable for 5 year olds and upwards depending on what the brief is. We had a little parade afterwards. Providing various materials gives children more choice and less restrictions, but limiting materials can encourage children to explore a wider range of different techniques.

Since I cycled to Uni, I had to throw mine away after class, there was no way it was getting home intact :(

Lack a Day, Lack of Time

With studies and work experience and work and voluntary, there just hasn't been enough time to watch TV let alone have much of a social life :(

Today I broke away from the mould, and went for drinks at the farewell party of a fellow trainee (but different uni) with a bunch of teachers at The Ferry Boat Inn. With a relaxing candlelit atmosphere in a cosy corner, great company, and yummy pub food (though a little expensive), it was an enjoyable evening. Shame I had to leave early to catch Halfords before it closed; the bike's been squeaking backwards.

Earlier in the day, I went to visit a local children's centre which opened a few years back. It's equipped with a wide range of resources, excellent facilities, loads of space, three staff to thirty children, up-to-date paperwork, good relationship with parents... but, if I had kids, I wouldn't sent them there. Fine, it's early years, it's great children are allowed to make their own choices and given lots of opportunities to express themselves. However, there was a noticeable lack of boundaries and ground rules, the children (not all) were chaotic. Behaviour management was inadequate. I was observing a class of 3-4 year olds. Come on, even 2 year olds (in HK) can line up and push their chairs in. During fire practice, teachers could not keep track of all the children. Some children were running off somewhere else in the commotion, and in the congregation area all classes were all sort of intermingled in a large crowd. Register check involved shouting across each other and staring into the combined masses to look for each child. It was pretty shocking, the practitioners are just asking to be sued.

Anyway, it'll be the last week of work experience at the primary school. Feeling a bit down about it. It's going to be weird not going in everyday.

Exhausting Week

It's been an utterly debilitating week, and I'm literally hanging on to the paperwork by the skin of my teeth. With lesson planning, observations, assessing children's progress, marking work, attending meetings, teaching, behaviour management, preparing teaching resources, assisting the class teacher with her duties, collecting data for my files... every night I'm working on paperwork, every night I'm only getting 5 hours sleep. It's only the second week, and already I'm feeling so exhausted.

After getting home from work last night, I just dropped into bed and slept like a log, and woke up 13 hours later. Fortunately teachers at the school all agree that trainees have a harder time with paperwork than a qualified teacher. There's just 5 more months to go!

The Beginning of An Answer

I went to an INSET day last week, and there was a teacher who'd explained how she taught 'instruction', it's such a good idea! It's so simple!

"Today, we'll be learning about 'instructions?"... is one way to turn off your students, but anyway in this case that was how the teacher began, the usual way of starting off a lesson with an explanation of the learning objectives.

Next, she split the children into three groups, and placed scissors and paper on each of the three tables.

To Table 1, she instructed them to "Get started," and went to talk to the next group.

To Table 2, she told the children to "Fold the paper and use the scissors to cut some patterns..."

At the last group, she said to them, "We are going to make a... First cut the paper into a circle, fold it in half... then fold it in half twice more... Next..."

The teacher continued going around the three tables in this way, but didn't say anything else to the first group.

As you can probably guess, the children on the Tables 1 and 2 became pretty frustrated, not least the group who weren't spoken to. By the end of it, Table 3 had made a decent snowflake, Table 2 had produced something that somewhat resembled a snowflake, while Table 1 came up with something that was nothing like a snowflake.

The children had a great discussion afterwards about what they learnt from the experience i.e. how they felt, what was good/bad about their instructions, what makes a clear instruction etc. What a great lesson!

Question

How would you teach 'instructions'?

Teachers regard this as a difficult topic to teach, so lets say you were placed in a position to teach 6-year olds or older depending on their language skills, how would YOU teach it?

Stop Motion

I'm still alive, essays should be finished in a couple of weeks, I'll be all essay-free after April.

My application for JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme) is underway, just need to deliver some papers off, fingers-crossed I'll be offered an interview in January.

Below is a stop motion animation video, my partner and I made it in today's ICT class. It turned out well, it's the first time we ever used the software, with dried up plasticine to boot. Sorry it's not very clear, nor is the story line ;) Yes it's a limbness person, and yes that's a frog.

History Lesson - Teddies on a Journey

Just two more History lessons left to go :( In today's lesson, we took Teddy & Co on a trip around the campus. An excellent cross-curricular activity.

[Teddy&Co go tree-climbing.]

[Bears and Banisters]

[Teddy&Co at the canteen.]

Leaf Hunt in the Park

It's half-term break, and Redbridge Council has organised a couple of events for children. I went to observe the Autumnal Arts and Crafts activity in Ray Park to get some ideas for my lessons!

[Looking for natural materials around the park]

[One of the children's beautiful pieces of work]

Oooh, they're looking for people to help willow-weave a Willow Dome in mid-December... hopefully assignments would all be out of the way by then.