This is my Oral Communications Class. We focus on communicating, sometimes even in English. They are all 3d year high school students, meaning they are graduating soon.
This is Daiki. Chihiro Sensei says he's bad at communicating in English. All he says is "Nice Derek. Nice curveball." I think he communicates just fine.
It's important, when you're a teacher, to give your students a solid, legitimate foundation. You must start with the basics. That's why I chose the longest word ever. It has most of the letters, you see.
In today's class, after we were done warming up with Mary Poppins, we got down to the real point of this class, and to our whole term, in fact: dreams. Not sleep dreams, but future dreams. After talking with all of them, it seems like they haven't thought much about it. I was the same way. This girl actually has, though. She wants to be a care worker. When her grandfather was sick she and her mother took care of him every day after school. Her grandfather said he was so happy to see them and recieve their help. That made her happier than she had ever been, and she wants to keep that feeling alive. She also wants a dog and to marry a Canadian.
I am trying to tell her that there is no need for a care worker in Canada because no one lives there.
The girl on the right, with absolutely no hints from me, said she wanted to have nine kids so that she could have a baseball team. Immediately after, the girl on the left said she wanted to have nine kids so her baseball team could beat the first girl's baseball team. Hearing their little comedy bit put me on cloud nine. Not because it was about baseball, and not because it was funny, but because that was actual communication. The first girl made a joke in English, which is rare in itself. But the second girl listened to the English joke, and then followed up with one of her own! Three months ago that defintely would not have happened. It's really nice that we're all getting comfortable with each other in class.
And one of the big reasons is Chihiro Sensei. She, like me, likes to keep the class light and full of humour. She also likes to let me just wander around and BS with the students about whatever topic we're covering. When I first got here, they were really shy, and I did most of the talking. But now, they're coming out of their shells and using English. Chihiro Sensei also treats me 100 percent like another teacher.
Conversely, at my other school, stuff like this doesn't happen. I wander around the classroom on my own, and I can tell the kids like it, but that JTE doesn't seem to like it too much. She laughs, and says, in Japanese, 'This must be an American style of teaching,' to the students. Also, when she starts class, she still starts it with, 'And today we have Derek, everybody, for some team teaching,' slowing down and emphasizing my name like I'm some sort of special guest party trick. Then again, the name of that class is English II and not Oral Communication, so maybe they already know how to communicate.
Teachering
It's been a long time since my last post, but that's because I've been busy travelling around. Basically, I'm trying to suck out as much fun as I can before I am shut in and stranded by feet and feet of snow. By mid January you guys will be praying that the snows stop here in Iwate so that you can stop reading my new 14 page blogs everyday.
