You might be wondering why on earth would I be writing a post about Psychology. Since when did “I” had anything to do with Psychology? Early this year, I took up on studying a Psychology subject through Open University Australia (OUA). I had thought of going back to university in Australia to study something in the health sector, specifically in disciplines such as Speech Pathology or Physiotherapy. The expensive master degrees were what I had looked at. Both these courses had a first year Psychology unit listed as a pre-requisite unit, hence, I took on the challenge so that I […]
All About Ceremonies
Japan is big with ceremonies. This is specially true when you work at a school. I understand opening and graduation ceremonies are important as a way of celebration for crucial moment for students who are coming and going. I personally do not like ceremonies. Ceremonies in Japan took especially a long time. Attending them, you witness, while a principal is giving everyone a speech after so many others have beforehand, other teachers who are simply there are dozing off. You can totally tell they are because their heads are bobbing up and down so very slightly as you watch them […]
Japanese Students and English Walls
For an English Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) who has been working with students for over 8 months with no prior teaching experience, keeping students motivated, stimulated and engaged is a continuous challenge. Preparation is important, however, what happens in the classroom not only depends on the teachers but also how the students react to your activities and respond in whether they want to participate or not. My experience has told me that preparation is necessary, but motivation from your students is very important for your classroom to be successful as well. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that preparation and […]
A Meaningful Tuesday
Not sure how you spent your Tuesday yesterday, but I sure had a great one. Yesterday, I went and worked at a school that teaches kids who suffer from personal disorders or disabilities. The school is located in the same area I live in Japan. The purpose of the school is to teach their students to learn basic knowledge and living skills such as cleaning, washing, and more. The school also strives to help these kids find a part-time job after graduating from high school. Very different to other schools in Japan, this school has students studying in primary, junior […]
Birthday Invitation Cards
Recently I was teaching my student a lesson titled “Thank you for inviting me to your birthday”. As you could guess from this lesson title, it is about birthdays and inviting someone to a birthday. The lesson was run at my based school. The full length of the lesson is about 65 minutes. I do Team-Teaching with the Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) for the first 30 minutes. The structure of the lesson was based on a student textbook. The first main proportion of it is a dialogue, followed by some pronunciation and English functions. The dialogue is between two […]
English Speaking Social Club (ESS Club)
At my base school, there is an ESS club. ESS stands for English Speaking Social Club. Not every Japanese High school has such a club. It is mostly the high academic or high school that have a strong focus on English that have time. It is typically a group of high school students who come together after school in their own time and they use it as an opportunity to speak in English or do activities such as games in English. Depending on the school, a teacher would supervise or participate as well. In the case of my school’s ESS […]