Normally I have 1 or 2 classes I teach with one of my JTEs a day, but today out of the 6 periods in the schedule I taught 5, and I am whipped! I think now I've been introduced to all the classes and bit by bit the personalities of the students and classes are emerging. First year junior high students are always off-the-wall, always _genki_ and when ( Read more... )

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The two greatest things Japan has ever conceive ( Read more... )

I think my 2 days of official teaching so far have been pretty successful. Whether the kids actually retain the stuff I teach them, I don't know, but I think so far the kids are having fun and aren't scared of me or think I'm lame. I wonder if this is the blessing of being an _inaka_ teacher - would city kids treat their ALTs the same way?... This ( Read more... )

I had my reservations about _enkai_ before I went to my first one tonight, but it was actually quite fun.

( What is an enkai? )

In Japan, kids come back to school from their summer break on September 1, but at my junior high there were no classes or lessons - the day consisted mostly of meetings in the morning and club activities in the afternoon. In the morning there is a big assembly to welcome everyone back from the vacationtime and to introduce the new teachers, in this ( Read more... )

Today was my third and last nursery school visit. This nursery school is close enough for me to ride my bike, and it's much larger than the previous hoikuens I visited - at least 80 kids ages 1-5. This visit today was very different than the ones before ( Read more... )

Well as I'm sure I've complained about already, it's EXTREMELY hot and humid here in southern Japan. While the dangers of typhoons are taken pretty seriously here, I personally enjoy them because they bring cooler air to the area, and the winds feel nice ( Read more... )

I went to a local "hoikuen" on Thursday - it's a small nursery school with about 25 kids ages one to six, plus has some elementary school kids. While my lesson of teaching the kids English songs probably wasn't too successful, the kids really REALLY seem to enjoy having an English teacher at their school. Some of the older girls (maybe ages 4-6) ( Read more... )

( Earlier entries - first arrival )