guwashi-blog

My Image of An English Teacher

2005-08-04T13:33:00.000-07:00

My image of an English teacher has changed. Before taking this class, my image of English teachers was that they are very busy and they could not have interesting class for students, because I did not know how to make the class interesting. But in this class, I learned a lot of methods which can make the class very interesting and can understand the English class easily. So, if a techer has alot of things to do and does not have any time, he can have useful classes. I could get a big hope for the class.

My weakness was that I could not have a class for a lot of students. This weakness did not chang. But it is natural, because I do not have experience of having English class by myself. I will have classes using many methods which I learned in this class and I make classes very interesting.

KMKM's Lesson

2005-07-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

Good point:
・KMKM choiced 0~10. I think it is the best choice for Mr. Abdreim. Because 11 or over are a little difficult for him and there are more new words.
・The balance of writing and other activities is good. The sheet was easy to use and understand.
・It was good to practice the Key Sentences. This practice made 'Interview' activity more interesting.
・There were intresting ideas in all over the place. The cards which used at their introduce had many information and they were very easy to see.

Sugestions for an even Better Lesson:
・KMKM used 'How old are you？' 'What's your phone number？.' There were not an explanation about the sentences. But Mr. Abdreim could understand them, so it is no problem.

Team Y's lesson

2005-07-04T09:43:00.000-07:00

Good points:
・Their speaking speed was good. It was easy to listen. But I think the pronunciations were unnatural. They should have more intonations.
・The lesson's form is easy for me to understand and follow. There were many activities which were plain.
・Team Y stimulated Mr. Abdreim. So he could learn English in the good atmosphere.

Sugestions for an even Better Lesson:
・There were many new words in the short play. But there was not an explanation about them before playing. It is difficult for Mr. Abdoreim to understand the meaning. I think it is better to have some explanations before the play.
・I think Mr. Abdreim can not decide that 'Mark' is man's name or woman's one. It is difficult to decide by only names, so Team Y should have pictures and point at persons.

Key Points for teaching grammar

2005-06-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

☆Key points for teaching grammar
I think Key point 1&2&7 are important.
Key point 1; Good rules can help students. This is useful because students can understand easily the uses of the grammar. I think many teacher do not teach good rules can help students. Teachers should learn good rules and teach to students.
Key point 2; Encourage students to see patterns. This is useful beacuse it is efficient for students to see the grammatical patterns and many exaples. They will learn the uses correctly through their experiences.
Key point 7; Grammar learning can fun! This point is students' ideals. But it is difficult for them to realize actually. This sence is high level for students. I think it is impossible for students to understand perfectlly because there is no time to learn other knowledges about English expect basis of English grammar. We need to learn grammar for examination when we are junior high school and high school.

☆Ideas for introducing new grammar
I think every way are good for students. In the other words, it is good for students to get New Grammar closed to them by doing any ways.

☆Ideas for practicing new grammar
I think Key point 4&5 are important. Practice has to have fun.
Key point 4; Beehave. Beehave is practical, so students can learn the uses easily.
Key point 5; game. Games make a situation that students must speak English. It is more natural than practices. But the games must have garmmatical meanings and they must not end up just game.

☆Ideas for communicative activities
I think Key point 6 is important.
Key point 6; Free situations are important. By this situations, students think spentaneously. Controlled language use can develop students' memory and spontaneous language use can develop students' ability of thinking.

Team A's lesson

2005-06-20T18:39:00.000-07:00

Good points
●There was a review of the last lesson. This activity was prepared for Mr. Abdoreim. The teachers could lead him to the lesson by having the review which was used the last lesson. It was good way to get him relaxing.
●when they explained the difference between ''This is'' and ''That is,'' they put the cards on two detached places. This way is a good idea, because the students understand easily the image of ''This is'' and ''That is.''
●They taught the meaning ''This is'' and ''That is'' carefully in English and Japanese. The balance of the languages was good.

Sugestions for an even better Lesson
●The lesson was formal. So adapting some new activities make the lesson more interesting and easy to understand the contents.

Team A's lesson

2005-06-20T18:38:00.000-07:00

Reflection on my lesson (DHC2's Lesson)

2005-06-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

●I think that I may have spoken too fastly in the short play. I changed my speaking speed at the latter half of the short play.
●There were too many practices which done by the whole of the class. So, we should have had more lessons which done by individual and pair. For example; Students' proninciation check.
●The students may not have understood which was more important in this lesson, ''Do you ~?'' or ''Tennis, The piano, Cake'' They were new things for Ms. Yosihida and Mr. Abdoreim. It cannnot be helped. We had a English lesson with using English. Using English from first to last was difficult for them to understand the lesson perfectly. But I think they understood the lesson's contents lastly.
●We did not explain 'play' 'have' 'like.' If we had had a explanation about the verbs, the lesson's main contents would have been obscure. It is not true whether they understood the meaning.

It was big problem for us that how to get the students to enjoy and understand the lesson's contents. There were some problems, but we neverthless could have an enjoyful lesson.
We did not have a writing activity, so we will have it like Team A.

Team T's lesson

2005-06-06T18:33:00.000-07:00

Team T's Lesson's good ponts;
1) The balance of frequency that Japanese and English used by teachers in the lesson is good. The Japanese helped the student to understand the lesson.

2) I think The review of the lesson at end of the lesson by using sheet is good. Because, theacher can grasp how far students understood the lesson and sutudents can organize what they learned in the lesson.

The points can make the lesson more better;
1) I think the lesson's content is too much. The student could not understand some parts. Teacer should address the contents and have more practice for students.

☆ I think Team T's lesson was very good and it was like a real English lesson. I think they worried about the student's English level. Grasping students' state is very important for building a lesson.　☆

Junior High School Grammar

2005-05-30T10:13:00.000-07:00

・What grammar is the easiest for you to learn as a student？
　I think the easiest grammar is be動詞 (is, am, are). Because students can put into Japanese easily. Their meaning are in Japanese directly (is, am, are = である、ある). So it is easy for students to remember. And they can remember them by relating the subject '主語' to be 動詞 like 'You are' 'I am' 'This is.'

・What grammar is the most difficult for you to learn as a student？
I think the most difficult grammar is 間接疑問文 which is a grammar I hated. Because it is very complex and the sentence has another sentence. The sentence's meaning is very difficult for students to understand. For example, 'I know what you bought at the supermarket.' I found this sentence in a textbook. This meaning is 「私は君がスーパーで何を買ったのか知っています。」, I think this Jpapanese is strange and not used by any Japanese. 間接疑問文's Japanese meaning is very complex, so it is difficult for students to understand sufficiently. In fact, my English grammar's weak point was 間接疑問文 at my junior high school days .

・Which grammar is difficult for you as a teacher？
　I think this is also 間接疑問文. The students can not very understnad 間接疑問文's meaning and structure because 間接疑問文's Japanese meaning is very complex and unusual in Japanese. Probably, it is defficult for the teacher to make students understand 間接疑問文.

Reflection on SNIFFLE's Lesson

2005-05-23T09:11:00.000-07:00

1. Good points at their lesson
Although they gave a lesson by using only English, the students could understand the lsson. There are reasons for success the lesson. First, they used a chart showing numbers. We will watch the chart and undestand at once like Mr. Hall's Spanish lesson. Next, the lesson's theme was easy for students to understand. For first presentation, they made a good choice. How to pronounce and count numbers are easy for teacher to teach and easy for students to learn.

2. The points they might try doing differently in the future
Students repeated teacher's pronounce again and again in the lesson. This method is very common and very necessary for them to remember the numbers, but if there are some other methods, they will get a higher level.

Working with Input

2005-05-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

I think that all the points are very important and helpful. Each of them have many good points. They are very useful for both teachear and students at L2 class.
Routine ways (like a traditional vocabulary learning) to leran L2 are practical means and they can get students close to L2 acquisition. I want to use those practical means to get students to learn L2 naturally and happily.
But there are some important points in using them. If the teacher brings these practical ways in all classes, students can not feel that the class and the ways are unusual. So, it does not work on students' L2 acquisition. The practical lesson (untraditional learnig) is exciting because it is unusual lesson for students. Although if there are many plactical learnings in a class, the teacher should have various and interesting plans in the class. Sometimes, there should be traditional learning and it is important.
I think that Input happens by the person has something stimulus (刺激) . So it is important to keep giving stimulus to students.

My first Spanish class

2005-04-29T22:14:00.000-07:00

1.
I understood the presentation in Soanish a little. There are many words which I did not know, so it was very difficult to guess the words. They were words about family and I could not understand some words.
I think a chart Mr.Hall drew made the input comprehensible. Probably, if the chart had not been there, I could have not understood the words.

2.
I could the words about family and verb 'be.'

3.
At the beginning the class I was confused with Spanish. Then, I could not understand what a teacher explained. Spanish is a language which our Japanese do not hear in general. So, it confused me. After the presentation, Mr.Hall talked in English, I felt that it was very easy for me to listen.

Questions to current English teachers

2005-04-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

1. Did you have special activities in your English classes？ These are not Just reading a textbook and remembering new words and pharses.

2. How dou you teach English to students who has never studied English？ Do you start teaching English by reading setences or teaching pronunciation？

Part1

2005-04-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

1. My favorite English teacher was...
It is Mr.Nigel. He is a English teacher who is teaching English to foreign student at the University of British Colombia in Vancouver. He is Canadian and can speak Japanese a little. I was taught English by him when I went and studied it in Canada. He is a very tall man. But his teaching style is very careful.

2. This teacher was favorite because...
Because what he teaches me was very useful for me, then. Then, I needed many helpful English skills and a knack which enables me to be good at talking in English. My necessity fited the content taught by him and his teaching style.
Above all, he understood Japanese English learners' habits. He found out my bad habits and corrected it. He thaught about students' individual abilities.

3. As teacher, my greatest strength will be...
My strong point is that I can have a humorous idea about classes. I will have many interedting ways to learn English (and so on).

4. As teacher, my greatest weakness will be...
I will not to be able to watch every sutudent at a same time. I want to watch each student and grow up the students' abilities. I think teacher's big functions is to get students confidences. If one student can not have a confidence, his possibility about everything will be lost. This is not only about teaching English.

Guwashi！

2005-04-21T03:44:00.000-07:00

This blog's name 'Guwashi' is a very cool hand's pose.
But I cannot do that because It is very very hard.

'Guwashi' appears in 'MAKOTO-chan' that written by Kazuo Umezu.
The comic's lead is a pretty kindergartner Makoto-chan.
I like the comic and him.
'Guwashi' is often done by Makoto-chan's. He is very good at 'Guwashi' !!

初投稿

2005-04-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

作りました！