2007年6月25日月曜日

To a Teacher trainee

I learned how to be a successful English teacher at Junior high school from Mr. M's lecture. So I will show you the key points.

First, making the teaching plan is very important preparation for the class. In order to make good class teacher have to choose what they want to teach the students, and order them. The process make the class better. Teacher can grasp what is important part of the class.

Second, teachers should teach the students by an intelligible way. It is important to think how to teach from students' ground. Teachers can find the easy way of the students understand and remember the targets. Good teachers have many ideas and imaginations.

Teachers have important work expect for teaching knowledge.
One of them is club activities. Junior high school students do their club activities so hard, and it's coaching and support are not so easy. But teachers can spend much time with the students and enjoy it too. Teachers should have strong fields or favorite fields to enjoy the club activities. Having favorite feilds and giving myself to that will help us not only in the club activities but also in getting many ideas.

To be a succsessful teacher, you should study hard how to teach English and have various experiences during school days. I will do my best too. Good luck!

2007年6月15日金曜日

Microteaching

Hello everyone! Thank you for your cooperating with us in the microteaching. I had good experience by the practice. I will write strong points and weak points about my teaching.



☆Strong Points☆

When we made plans of the class, we try to use the methods which we learned in the last class about presenting a structure. So we showed you some pictures at first, and then we said "Do you play tennis?" and ask you to repeat it.

By this way, I think that students concentrate on the what teachers say and they can learn new grammar practically with a short play.



☆Weak points☆

We had some weak points. First, we needed more enough practice activities. Before the communicative activities students need to practice the new structure again and again. For example, repeating the sentence by indiviual students or practicing with their partners. We should also have asked the students whether they understand the meaning and the form before the communicative activities.



Second, we should have walked around the students and checked their activities during the Interview game. In order to make the activity smooth, teachers should help the students according to their abilities and motivation.



Third, it was difficult for me to talk to the students in English and Japanese. My class was for the first grade of the junior high school, and it is hard for the students to understand the English explanation. So I talked you almost in Japanese, but students also need to get enough inputs from the teacher. I think I should have used English for simple instructions.



I had many weak points, but I could enjoy my microteaching. Please give me your opinions about my teaching, and thank you very much!!!

2007年5月18日金曜日

About Two Approaches

In the last class, we learned about two approaches to teach vocablary. They are the Teach and Learn Approach and the Learning through Input Approach. I would like to tell you about the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.Approach. You can see a PowerPoint presentation of the approaches here.


First, I will talk about the Teach and Learn Approach.

☆strengths
・Students can understand the meaning of the words easily.
・They will be able to review the words easily when they forget them.
☆weaknesses
・Students can be bored with learning because it is a little monotonous.
・Students may forget the words easily. Sometimes the memories are transient.

Second, I will talk about the Learning through Input Approach.

☆strengths
・Students can memorize the words well because they can imagine a concrete situation.
・Students can concentrate on the learning because they can enjoy the theme or topic itself.
☆weaknesses
・It is a little difficult to understand sepecially for the students who not good at English.
・When students learn some words on the textbook, the words don't often have connection. So it is a little difficult to use this method when students learn with the textbook.

Lastly as a junior high school English teacher I would favor a Hybrid. Two methods have each effective points, but I think that it isn't an ideal way that teach by the same method every time. So I think that keeping their balance is also important.

2007年5月15日火曜日

Communicative Activities

Today, I'm going to review typical junior high school's communicative activities which we learned in the last class. The activities I'm going to show you today is Interview and Find someone who... .


First, I want to introduce new Interview. In the last class, we used this activity to study past tense. And we did this Interview with partners and we could enjoy partner's stories, but I think that we will be able to enjoy this activity more. In my plan, we use this to study future tense in the situation of invitation. For example, I ask someone their planning, “Are you free at 7:00 tomorrow?”, and if the answere is “Yes!”, I invite him to the movies or drinking or something, “Shall we go for a drink?”, and we promise to go for a drink. And then, I ask other person. In this activity, we can talk with many people and enjoy talking.


Second, I want to introduce new Find someone who... . I think that it is better that teacher ask students their plan or hope for the vacation in advance, and make a list. Students use this sheets and find whose plans are they. I think that students can have chance to talk with every member and they can do many tiomes in this activity.

2007年5月7日月曜日

Good -by My Job

On this long weekend, I said good-by to my part time job, because my shop was closed down. I had been a shop assistant in the sushi shop. I started that part time job in the August before last. Though I had many worries and sometimes I thought that I want to change my workplace, I could enjoy working truly. Because I loved my coworkers.

I loved my coworkers, because they were so kind. Especially, elder coworkers treated me as their real daughter. They always gave me sweets and something to drink, and they were so friendly to me, so I talked to them about many things. When I worried about something, they heard my stories and gave me sone advice. When I was sick, they cared me. I also thought they were my second parents.

I feel so sad because I will not be able to meet them any more, but I want to tell them thank you for good memories and your kindness. I will not forget this experiences.

2007年4月23日月曜日

My experiences of syudying English

Hello everyone!! Today I will write about my experiences of studying English.

I have studied English for 8 years. I like English very much, but in my junior high school and my high school I studied English for the entrance exams. So I studied mainly writing and reading English. Of course, it was important for learning English, but I think that it is most important for learners to enjoy English and be accustomed to English.

I like English, because I could enjoy English in the class when I was a junior high school student. One teacher taught us English using his video and nice drawing on the blackboard In the class, we watched his private video of his oversea travels. He had traveled some countries and he showed us the video. We could learn also some different cultures.

Like this, the most enjoyable and valuable learning experience was that English class. I liked the class and the teacher, and I studied English hard.

On the other hand, the least enjoyable learning were classes for the entrance exam in high school. We used only textbooks and studied individually. We had no time to communicate in English and enjoy learning English. The least valuable learning was maybe the same experience, but I think those boring learning also contribute to my skill up.

I have experienced various types of learning and I had various feeling to English classes, but I always enjoyed English. So I think that I could my best!

If I become an English teacher, I want my students to enjoy learning. I want to use many teaching materials and make my students try to communicate in English.

2007年4月19日木曜日

Hello everyone!! My mane is Wakame. I'm from Aomori city in Aomori. Now I'm living in an apartment in Morioka. I'm studying English and Education in Iwate University. I like singing a song, and I belong to the chorus club. I like sweets very much, and especially I like cakes and chocorate. I like sports too. I like tennis and volleyball.