Oh BTW, I am still a teacher...

So it has come to my attention, (mainly bc about 10-15 people have asked me recently) I haven't really posted about work here in a LONG time. I mean, it is great that I have been having a lot of fun and traveling and taking some photos, but how is teaching going???

All in all it is going great. In the past few months I have become very comfortable teaching and for the most part my students have really warmed up to me (there is one boys class that I think would rather eat nails than study English, but other than that....). Even some of the older students at the boys school, despite most of them not going to college and feeling they have no use for English, have at least become attentive in class and actually try.....sometimes. :-) I am still going to basketball practice, usually at least 2 days a week, and have started to make some really good connections there. I went to a couple of practices that the coach couldn't make it to, so that atmosphere was a little more relaxed than normal so that really helped. I have taught them some basic things, but it is a little hard since my Japanese (basketball) vocab is a pretty low! With the use of examples, body language and a few basic Japanese words like, "good, bad, best..." I can actually teach them some important things. There is a new professional basketball league in Japan and Sendai has a team, so I am trying to arrange something where we can go together.



At the girls school things are going really well. Some of my friends teaching here have told me stories about how their girl students (and sometimes boy students) spend all class looking into a mirror, doing their hair or makeup (boys don't do this one...) but I really haven't had any trouble with that yet. There is one girl that sometimes will have her mirror out looking at herself and doing her hair, but at the same time she still pays attention and is almost always volunteering to answer questions, so I just let it go the few times she does it. Also there were a few girls that really talked a lot in class who are in the dance club. One weekend there was this huge dance performance (hip hop, modern and jazz) with schools from all over the area. The girls from my school saw that I attended and every since then they have been a lot better in class. Below is just a photo a took from the roof of the girls school one day.



I know teaching is like parenting and I am not suppose to have favorites (even tho I was my parents favorite!!! :-)... JK Jenn!) but I feel like it is impossible not to like some students more than others. I think I just have to be careful about making sure I give everyone equal attention. Anyway, I do have about two students at each school that are just great people and really interested in me and want to learn English. A few of them often come to me just to talk despite their English not being so great, but they try really hard to talk to me so it is really great.


So what exactly have I been teaching?? Well I tend to do about 1 lesson plan a week (so the same lesson plan for every class) but sometimes a different lesson plan for each school. So far some of my lesson plans have been about: body parts, body language, how are you feeling (like having a headache, etc.), Halloween, telephone conversations and at a restaurant. I feel like they are learning some, but since I only have class with them once a week, unless the Japanese teachers review what we did or the students review by themselves, I not sure how much they are really learning....

ok sorry that was a little long, but I hope I answered some questions for you. If you have more ket me know!