Wednesday, we just wrapped up a week of summer school. No its not for those kids didn't pass their English exams and would rather cause trouble than actually do their work. At MeySen, summer school is all about giving the kids a fun English learning environment for the students all and an exhausting jam packed yet rewarding experience for the teachers.
Unlike our normal days of teaching from 4:20-6:45 (yes thats right for those of you that don't follow my blogs.) We teach from 9-4:30 for a week. Its like a normal teaching day for most people in my profession, if normal days were basically filled with movies, playtime, games, crafts etc. Also, all the grades went to Takamori (the other campus). This meant I had to pack everything I was going to teach with and move it to a new classroom. Because the regular course has tons of camps, all of our classes can be in one building.
Heres a break down of summer school:
Friday, we spent the day at Michinoku Park. It was probably one of the most uncomfortably hot sweaty days I've had in Japan. Kids started playing on the bouncing donut and complained that their feet were on fire. I kept thinking the Philippines in a few weeks is going to feel much hotter.
Saturday, we had a normal day. We read a book, do normal curriculum we do everyday and then go to my grade level partners classroom for a craft. My class's theme for summer is Native America. Random interesting fact: Japanese people call Native Americans Indians but India Indians are Indojin...so smart. For crafts, we made masks, canoes, totem poles, and dream catchers (requires patience). The kids are probably twice as good as I ever would be at any of those crafts. They can literally make a whole city of Origami with running water in about the time it takes me to type this.
After crafts, we have some class time that I can teach them all kinds of things I dont have time to teach during our shortened days. That was the fun part. My biggest goal was to get the kids to use bigger words when talking. They generally understand everything I say but generalize things like using "good job" for everything fun, exciting, funny, etc. From my class time we go to lunch and watch a movie in English. After that we have water play time for an hour and then write in Journals.
Id say the days are about 60% play and 40% curriculum. However, the play and everything is a great way to utilize the English skills they've learned. Essentially everything we do with the kids is teaching them more English in a real world context. Though it sounds like I'm trying to justify playing all day (which I am), it really is a great way for them to practice and get better.
Sunday was my first day off since coming back from US. It felt great to just do nothing for a change. Sunday night, I got the chance to go to my first professional soccer game. I actually wrote a blog post all about it but blogspot decided to make it disappear so I never wrote it again. To sum it up, the game ended 0-0 and the fans and chants were awesome.
Monday through Wednesday was much like Saturday. They days were exhausting but flew by. We played tons of random games from capture the flag to dodgeball in which the teachers got to play the students. The kids loved it. It was basically 100 kids verus about 10 teachers. We also had our powwow (played Native American games), watched "KungFu Panda" and wrote in a journal everyday.
The kids writing is definitely where I notice the deficiencies in their language understanding. For example, one kid wrote about how he liked one of the games for our PowWow and said " I am really very much attracted to Mohawk Wrestling." Another girl, wrote "we all painted our 'feces'" during the PowWow.
On Wednesday, I also was able to get my class to Rick Roll my grade level partner during lunch. My kids had been practicing a verse of the song for about a minute a day all week and were really pumped about it.
Lauren had no idea what was about to hit her when 30 kids popped up following her around and busted into Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give you up." I have a video of it that I unfortunately can't post because of our policy.
All in all it was a very fun yet exhausting week. I'm definitely glad to finally be on vacation. I can't wait to head to Thailand and the Philippines in a few days.
Unlike our normal days of teaching from 4:20-6:45 (yes thats right for those of you that don't follow my blogs.) We teach from 9-4:30 for a week. Its like a normal teaching day for most people in my profession, if normal days were basically filled with movies, playtime, games, crafts etc. Also, all the grades went to Takamori (the other campus). This meant I had to pack everything I was going to teach with and move it to a new classroom. Because the regular course has tons of camps, all of our classes can be in one building.
Heres a break down of summer school:
Friday, we spent the day at Michinoku Park. It was probably one of the most uncomfortably hot sweaty days I've had in Japan. Kids started playing on the bouncing donut and complained that their feet were on fire. I kept thinking the Philippines in a few weeks is going to feel much hotter.
Saturday, we had a normal day. We read a book, do normal curriculum we do everyday and then go to my grade level partners classroom for a craft. My class's theme for summer is Native America. Random interesting fact: Japanese people call Native Americans Indians but India Indians are Indojin...so smart. For crafts, we made masks, canoes, totem poles, and dream catchers (requires patience). The kids are probably twice as good as I ever would be at any of those crafts. They can literally make a whole city of Origami with running water in about the time it takes me to type this.
After crafts, we have some class time that I can teach them all kinds of things I dont have time to teach during our shortened days. That was the fun part. My biggest goal was to get the kids to use bigger words when talking. They generally understand everything I say but generalize things like using "good job" for everything fun, exciting, funny, etc. From my class time we go to lunch and watch a movie in English. After that we have water play time for an hour and then write in Journals.
Id say the days are about 60% play and 40% curriculum. However, the play and everything is a great way to utilize the English skills they've learned. Essentially everything we do with the kids is teaching them more English in a real world context. Though it sounds like I'm trying to justify playing all day (which I am), it really is a great way for them to practice and get better.
Sunday was my first day off since coming back from US. It felt great to just do nothing for a change. Sunday night, I got the chance to go to my first professional soccer game. I actually wrote a blog post all about it but blogspot decided to make it disappear so I never wrote it again. To sum it up, the game ended 0-0 and the fans and chants were awesome.
Monday through Wednesday was much like Saturday. They days were exhausting but flew by. We played tons of random games from capture the flag to dodgeball in which the teachers got to play the students. The kids loved it. It was basically 100 kids verus about 10 teachers. We also had our powwow (played Native American games), watched "KungFu Panda" and wrote in a journal everyday.
The kids writing is definitely where I notice the deficiencies in their language understanding. For example, one kid wrote about how he liked one of the games for our PowWow and said " I am really very much attracted to Mohawk Wrestling." Another girl, wrote "we all painted our 'feces'" during the PowWow.
On Wednesday, I also was able to get my class to Rick Roll my grade level partner during lunch. My kids had been practicing a verse of the song for about a minute a day all week and were really pumped about it.
Lauren had no idea what was about to hit her when 30 kids popped up following her around and busted into Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give you up." I have a video of it that I unfortunately can't post because of our policy.
All in all it was a very fun yet exhausting week. I'm definitely glad to finally be on vacation. I can't wait to head to Thailand and the Philippines in a few days.
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