2007年7月8日日曜日

Micro Teaching

Hello! Last class, I did micro teaching. So I' m going to review our class.

-Strong point
・ We used blackboard.
・ And when we explain about who, we wrote subject word (Makkenji) bigger and emphasized that subject is the same in the sentence using 'who'.

-Weak point
・ Our class was one-way class a little bit. We tried to explain about function of 'who but we couldn't make good idea to be more communicative class. So I thought Mr Hall's presentation was really good!
・ We didn't take much more time each section of our class. We want to take more time to practice.
・ In the practice (introduction of your friend) we should have prepared some sheet to write sutudent's answer. I'm sorry to trouble you.

I felt this practice class was very dificult, because I was very nervous when I stood in front of a lot of student. But everyone helped us activily. So I'm full of feeling of thanks!
Thank you for your listening and coopolation. Please give us your honest opinion to our class.

2007年6月26日火曜日

How to be a successful English teacher at junior high school

Last day I took Mr. Maruhashi's class. I could learn a lot of things about junior high school and junior high school teacher.

1. In junior high school students and teacher are earnest their club activity. They practice even Saturday and Sunday ( their holiday). So teacher needs some power. Though this seems hard, Mr. Maruhashi said he is happy to spend for a long time with students. I think perhaps club activity is the best way to understand each other (students and teacher).

2. Mr Maruhashi said that teacher's work is changing students. It was very impressive phrase for me. WhenI looked back to my school days, in 50 minutes class I got some new knouledges at least one thing through teacher's speech. But when I slept whole class, I didn't get new information. In other words I didn't change. This is one example. So if you want to be a junior high school teacher, you must try to change students. You should not only make enjoyable class but also give necessary information for students to work in social.

I had some prejudices toward junior high school( for example in jr high school students and teacher play club activity in earnest and students meet rebellious stages etc). Some of them is true and other is not( Students respect their senior etc). In this class I could know real informations and the present condition of junior high school. So Mr. Maruhashi's speech was very interesting for me.
I took this class and I thought I want to get a lot of experience to give students various information.
Let's challenge everything!!

2007年5月20日日曜日

Two approaches for teaching vocabulary

Today we learned about two approaches for teaching vocabulary: the present and learn and the Learning through Input Approach. You can see a PowerPoint presentation of the approaches here. I would like to tell you about the strengths and weaknesses of each approach as well as the approach I would use as a Junior High School English teacher.

1. The present and learn
☆Strengths☆
・ The English class use this approach will go smoothly, because students can understand easily what their teacher tell them and play that is instructed by teacher immediately.
・ Students can practice correct pronunciation.

☆Weaknesses☆
・ The class use this approach may be one-way lesson. If so, students will receive the class passively.
・ Students can't improve their skill of thinking, because teacher tell them the meaning of new words before students think and find the answer.
・ Students will be easy to feel hesitation new words when they encounter unknown vacabulary for the first time.

2. the learning through input approach
☆Strengths☆
・ Students is easy to memorize new vocabulary, because the vocabulary is learned through their experience.
・ Students will be able to feel pleasure, because they can find the answer themselves.
・ They can act independently.(They can have own image about new vocabulary.)
・ They are easy to hold their concentration, because they keep guessing and understanding.

☆Weaknesses☆
・ If the class is too fast, some students will not be able to follow the class, because every students have different thinking speed.
・ The understanding gap arise between students who good at English and who is not so.

Lastly as a junior high school English teacher I want to make the most of the good points two approach have and I'd like to use a hybrid.

2007年5月15日火曜日

Communicative Activity

Today, I am going to review two of the "typical Japanese junior high school"communicative activities presented in ETM 3. The activities I am going to revieware Karuta and Using movement. You can view them here.
I think Karuta is a useful way to make sure of student's skill of listening and understanding English.
To make this more effective, I want students to make own a pair of card(reading card and picture) . Students can write about themselves following the theme.
After that, teacher gather the cards and hand out to group leader at random.
Then students enjoy playing Karuta in group.
I think students can feel English using is close to them by reading sentences written by them friends.

Also I'm going to think about Using movement.
In the last ETM class, we did pair work.
I think pair work change message game in line of classroom.
First teacher tell theme only first student. Next he/she show the theme to next person, and keep on doing this activity until last person. Finally last person tell what answer is.
I think team play make students excited. Also all of them can join English class with fun by this activity.

2007年5月6日日曜日

My part time job

I am working part-time at a cafe in Morioka station.
I started to work when I was freshman at Iwate University.
There are some reason for my begining this job.
First, I like cafe very much! But I lacked in knowledge of kind of coffee.
I wanted to know a lot of kind of drinks that sell at cafeteria.
Second, I wanted to get skill of cooking.
In my cafe some light meal is sold.
So I started my job for my bridal training!!
It is two years since I began to work.
I have experienced some encounter and parting for two years.
My seniors teached me how to make foods, drinks, clean machine and shop, kindness for guests and so on. I was taken care by them very well like that.
Last year my seniors started off for their dream.
Although I feel lonely because I parted from them, I think I'm very happy because I could encounter them.
Now new members join in my cafeteria and I'm senior of them.
I must learn a lot of thing than ever and I'm tired sometimes.
But I don't forget to be teached by my senior and I will try to succeed to new member.
The cafeteria that nice clerks gather is Pole Shop Cafe!
If you want to feel warm, please come to Pole!!
We are waiting for you!

2007年4月21日土曜日

My stories of studying English in secondary school

When I was junior high school student, I started to learn English.
I was looking forward to study English, because when I was elementary school student, some American came to my school and did English activity.
I joined in this activity.
So I was interested in foreign culture and wanted to talk with foreign people.
In junior high school class, we studied about basic grammer, word, how to write the Roman alphabet and so on.
I enjoyed studying, because there were a lot of things that I could learn.
So I studied English positively.
I was happy when I watched TV, I understand some English that appear on TV.
Some happy thing like that made me study harder.
But I was poor at writing some sentence written in Japanese in English.
Although I learn basic grammer, I didn't understand how to use that in sentence.
And then, I was poor at speaking and listening to English.
Yes. I was good at only read.
Now I think that I wanted to more practice to express myself in English.
A year passed since I began to study English.
I encounterd a girl who likes English by class changing.
We were good friend soon and talked about many thing.
She was good at all of part of English without talking.
So we practiced to talk in English together and I learned writing and listening from her.
Then I became liking that.
I think that I was lucky to encounter her.
The encounter with her gave my English skill good effect.
Like that I overcomed my week point of English through talking with her.
So I think English should be learned through communication each other not through studying on the desk alone.
If I become English teacher, I will make my student do a lot of group work and wish that they encounter a lot of good friend for them.

2007年4月19日木曜日

Hello!
My name is Misato.Please call me Misato.
I like eating, listening to music and going to cafe.
So in my holiday, I often go to cafe, and drink coffee or eat some foods with favirite music.
Recently my favorite cafe is starbucks! It is very nice.
Also I like walking around in sunny day.
Nice to meet you!!