2007年7月23日月曜日

Micro-teaching with Naokofu

I did micro-teaching with Naokofu last week. We taught "Can Anyone Here Me?" I write about my teaching below.

●The objectives of your pre-reading and in-reading activities
I wanted students to think outline of story through pre-reading, and to grasp the story through in-reading. So we used pictures of a shrine, storm, hole and man. And we wanted students to read many times. Though we made students read, we really wanted them to read many times. But we couldn't do it because we had no time.

● The strengths and weaknesses
*The strength
・We predict to ask students "what words did you hear?" before Mr,Naokofu read the textbook. We wanted them to hear carefully by doing it.
・We wrote handout in English. At first we wrote it in Japanese. But we was given the advice to better to write in English by Scarlet. And we did rewrite. This is time of English lesson. So it was better!

*The weaknesses
・Chance to make students read the textbook was too few. We wanted them to read by various way.
・I couldn't react to students who don't try to solve questions in handout well. Mr,hall acted the bad boy, but I didn't know what to do.


I was under tension. Especially I couldn't smile well during the class. And I couldn't instruct with clear voice. I found that teaching stress. But I enjoyed the micro-teaching. I could find good point and bad point of my teaching, and I knew many difficulty of teaching. I want to do my best in my practice teaching to not to forget the lesson.
Finally it took many time for our micro-teaching, so other group couldn't use time sufficiently for their teaching. I'm sorry!!!
Thank You for reading. And thank you, Naokofu!!

2007年6月26日火曜日

What I learned through Mr,Maruhashi lecture

In last class Mr,Maruhashi from Ueda junior high school came and gave us a lecture. So I write about "How do be a successful English teacher at junior high school" based on the lecture and my experience.

1, what is the teacher's work?
Mr,Maruhashi said "It is that "changing students" by a teacher. If we compare students with "a", we make students change A through guidance. But there are two key ponits then. "Unchange" and "Trend". Teachers must use accordingly the two points. When we teach, we must have regular thinking, because if teacher's thinking change any time students are confused. So "Unchange" is important. But as time pass, anything changes. We always must not be prepossessed with only ourselves complex. There are often some teachers who have old thinking in the school. Of course, it is important and should be respected. But time makes "trend". It has wrong things and good things. So we need to bring "trend" with flexible thinking and care. And teachers should change students with using these "Unchange" and "Trend".

2, In doing practice teaching
Mr,Maruhashi said that some practice teachers who come to junior high school has difficult to speak words in the textbook in English. They are not used to speak English loudly. And surprisingly there are many simple English words that I can't pronounce correctly. So we need to practice English pronunciation by listening textbook CD many times before we teach as practice teachers. And there is other important point when we teach English. It is "order" to teach. When we think class structure, we should think the order well. First, Second,,,Last. Whether it is easy for students to understand depends on the order. And of course it is important what we teach students in the class. We need to make the class with thinking these points well.

There are other important things in doing practice teacher. Points that we learned through last class is a parts of many important things. We should learn about it more and more. And Mr,Maruhashi lecture was useful and it will help us someday. We want to keep these points in mind that we learned in last class. Thank You!!

2007年6月12日火曜日

Refrection of last class

First, I learned
①Demonstrate the meaning and use of structure
②Use a situation to demonstrate the meaning and use of structure.

For example Mr,Hall talked about his gym activities. And he wrote "It's too heavy to lift" on the blackboard. As another example, he talked about going Morioka gym by bus. It's too near. So he wrote "There's no point in taking a bus". I did'nt know "no point in ~ing" meaning, but I could understand by giving a situation to demonstrate the meaning and use of structure. I found it is useful in the class.


Next, I discussed "ways of showing meaning" with a partner. There were four examples in the handout.
how to show meaning "~er than~"
Teacher A : I talked about two buildings in the town. (The post office is bigger than the bank.)
Teacher B : I drew lines on the board. (Lines A is longer than Line B.)
Teacher C : I called a tall and a short student to the front and compared them.
( Anna is taller than Maria.)
Teacher D : I drew pictures of two men on the board and compared them.
(Hani is taller than Abdou.)
My opinion about A ; It is hard to understand right away. Students can't watch two buildings in the class. And to explain about meaning of "~er than~" by two buildings example in English is difficult. So the way of A is bad, I think.
My opinion about B ; This way is so simple. It is easy to understand. But because of easy example, students will be bored. This way's strength is to not to take much time. So the most easy presentation is B, I think.
My opinion about C ; I think it is the most interesting way and useful way. Students can enjoy this activity,because some students participate in this activity. And the students are selected from the class members. All the class members knows the selected student, so this way is better than D way. This way is not only interesting but also attract students. But I think teachers must take care to select student carefully. Because the selected students have to go to the front of the class and they are compared their height by teacher. There is the moment that children mind their height. If the shortest boy of the class who wants to tall is compared his height with a tall girl, he will have bad feeling. So this way is very good, but we must take care about it.
My opinion about D ; This way is easy to understand and to show examples. So it is the good balance. This way is more easy to understand and specific than B way. But C way is more interesting than this way, I think.

Lastly, we learned "Presenting a structure". We learned "has been ~ing for ~" by pictures. This structure is difficult. But students can understand it by using pictures.

I learned the way of demonstration through last class. Good demonstration is to use some examples and to make simple rules. It is practical, so I can learned many things and information from the class. I am looking forward to taking MMCE member's micro teaching next week. Thank You!!

2007年5月22日火曜日

About the two different approaches

Today we learned about two approaches for teaching vocabulary: the present and learn and the Learning through Input Approach. You can see a PowerPoint presentation of the approaches here. I would like to tell you about the strengths and weaknesses of each approach as well as the approach I would use as a Junior High School English teacher.

the present and learn
strengths
・As a teacher teaches the word meaning frankly, students needs not to learn extra words by heart.
・A teacher gets the students to repeat words in chorus, so students memorizes automatically in their brain.
・By giving an English example to show how the the word is used, it is easy for students to use the word in their sentence.

weaknesses
・As students is taught the word meaning without thinking, the word does't impress their mind. So the word is easy to forget for students.
・It is possible to be monotonous class, so students will be bored when the teacher repeats the class every day.


the Learning through Input Approach
strengths
・Students takes the class with thinking the word meaning, so they will be able to enjoy the class.
・As a teacher teaches the word with giving the image of the word, students can remember the word even if long time past.
・By testing student's knowledge whether they remember the word, they can know the part that they can't understand in the class.

weaknesses
・ By teaching Natural Vocabulary Groups centered around a theme, it is possible that students confuse the word with the other word in same group.
・A teacher makes students think the word meaning, so it is possible that students has learned words by heart with mistakes.


Lastly as a junior high school English teacher I want to use two good point hybrid of both the present and learn and the Learning through Input Approach. It depends on whether a teacher use those effectively. I learned it through the last class.

2007年5月16日水曜日

Typical communicative activities

Today, I am going to review two of the "typical Japanese junior high school"communicative activities presented in ETM 3. The activities I am going to revieware Interview and Find someone who. I can't include a link in my page. So I write it below .

*Interview
In interview sheet, students must ask the patner the action of every half an hour. I think that the interval is too short. We frequently don't change our action. So it is possible that the answer for partner's questions is almost same. I think it is better to include next items.
・at 7:30 in the morning
・in the Lunch Time

*Find someone who…
Three items has already been written in the sheet : 1,wants to work in Tokyo after graduating 2,wants to go to……. I think that it is better to make students think some sentences in the sheet.
For example…
1, wants to go to abroad
2, wants to swim in the sea
3, wants to go back your hometown
By doing this, students can make a chance to make the sentences in English. So they can improve no only their English conversation skills but also writing skills.

2007年5月7日月曜日

MY BIRTHDAY

5 May in Golden Week was my birthday. So I went to the south Aeon with my familly. I met Mr,JH and Scarlet there. And I bought a cute umbrella in Scarlet's shop. I enjoyed shopping!!
In the night, my friend gave a birthday party for me. I got a cup and good ume liqueur and a hot spring egg machine and so on for my birthday present. But I have already had same hot spring egg machine…however it's very good!! I had great birthday!! I want to thank my parents and everyone.

2007年4月23日月曜日

first blogging task

*Your most enjoyable language learning experience at school and an explanation of why
I remembered the class in my Junior High School. A English teacher made us sing a song before the class begin. It was English songs. For example, it was CARPENTERS, and so on. When we listened a song at first, we could'nt sing it. But we gradually became to sing as the class take. The song changed when we almost could sing. So we touched with various English songs. As I looked back the class, I think that it was very interesting language learning experience. I still memorise songs.

*Your least enjoyable language learning activity at school and an explanation of why
I wasn't interesting the English classes in High School. We solved reference questions for homeworks, and we were asked the answer to the question by a English teacher in the class. The class was repeated every time. Besides if someone mistake the answer, the person must keep standing untill the person responds correct answer for other questions. It was hard for us, and we were bored with the class. So it was the least enjoyable language learning activity.

*Your most valuable language learning activity at school and an explanation of why
I played foreigner student from England in Junior High School. We taught foreigner how to play old japanese play . Ohajiki,Menko, Ayatori …and so on. It was very valuable class for us. We can hardly have a chance to touch with foreigner in Junior High School. So it was most valuable language learning activity. It was difficuit for me to speak English, we used gesture. So we could communicate. I learnd many impotant things from the class.

*Your least valuable language learning activity at school and an explanation of why
It is the class of third grade in my High School. We were bored the English class, because we solved the past question for center examination (National center test for university admissiions) every day. I probably think that almost High School is same. Though I could remembered many English words, it was least valuable language learning activity.

*Overall, how would you rate your experience as an English learner?
I had various English learning experience ever. There were interestiong experience and bored experience. But I like learning English now. As I had various language learning activity ever, I am here. So as a result all language learning activity was good for me.

*The influence you think your language learning experience will have on your teaching
I don't want to teach the class such as the least valuable and enjoyable language learning experience that I experienced in my High School. But I want to refer my good experience. I want to learn the lesson from ever bad and good experience. And I want to make good use of it in the future.

2007年4月19日木曜日

NICE TO MEET YOU !!

Hi!! I'm micchi! I belong to elementary school education and English subcourse. My hobby is going for walking. Takamatu pond is very good walking point! The cherry trees are about to blossom. I'm looking forward to walking under the cherry trees. Let's go a picnic under the cherry blossoms together!! Thank you ★