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Published: August 31st 2006
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My students
Preparing to leave Konan chu to go to the elementary school to practice for the sports festival Today was the first day that I really felt like I was having fun at school. I had the first years today and I re-vamped my self introduction so it went a lot better than the first one I did. For the second years, I thought there would be a projector so I brought my lap top and I was going to show them pictures on it. Well once we got to class it turns out that there is no projector and I was going to have to show them my photos on the actual computer. It was just not good and not everyone could see. I got frustrated because things weren’t going smoothly. After that experience I decided to just blow up the photos that I had and put them on cardboard and then put magnets on the back so I could stick them on the blackboard. That ended up working really great! The kids were into it and I spoke really slowly using very simple sentences.
One big factor too might be that I was with the first years today and they are more likely to be rambunctious because they’re first years. There were two boys in particular who liked to talk a lot. I also did a quiz to accompany my self intro. and the whole time they are supposed to pay attention because there is a quiz after and the prize is a sticker! Yeah they love the stickers here. Anywho...my quiz was super easy. So the two boys kept wanting to answer each question. They were really funny, kind of reminded me of some of my little cousins.
After the quiz the kids had to make name cards for my benefit like the other class did but the twist is that they have to give me the cards that they made and introduce themselves to me. That was fun cause of course the two boys came up to me first and they wanted to look at my pictures again. Some of the kids were really shy, but I just smiled and told them to try their best and that it was ok. Some of the girls would introduce themselves and then giggle right after it was over.
Next was BINGO!!! I read words from their textbook and they wrote them on their blank bingo sheets. Then I read the words again so that they could play...what’s the prize? You guessed it! A STICKER! Ok, so I would walk around and make sure they were marking the right word after I said it and this one kid was like “zebra!!!” cause that’s the last word he needed to make bingo. I’m gonna call him zebra kid from now on. That was fun cause I could tell they were like so close but I kept picking different words. After bingo they have to write down each word on their sheet twice and then we had to check that they wrote them all correctly. If they did ok then they get a stamp on their English passports. It’s like the cards you get at Tea Garden, you buy so many drinks you get one free. Same idea, you get so many stamps and you get a prize! Probably will be a sticker or stickers...
Later today we went to the elementary school to practice for the sports festival on Sunday. The elementary kids are SO CUTE! They all wear these matching hats..and they’re just kawaii!!! I can’t wait to do my elementary visits. We mostly had to supervise them. The best part was when one of the students couldn’t untie the towel they used to tie their legs together for the 3+ legged race. They handed me the knotted towel and when I undid the knot, they were like “SUGOI SENSEI!!!” and clapped. (Basically means, wow that’s amazing!) They were adorable. The sports festival is going to be exhausting but fun I think. I’m also going to be in the relay part of it so we’ll see how that goes. I’m definitely not in shape, but relay might be ok because I just have to sprint a lap maybe. I haven’t practiced yet and I won’t get much time to. I basically have school all weekend because of the sports festival. The kids practice everyday until Sunday. BUT! We will get Monday and Tuesday off because we worked over the weekend. Thank goodness for that.
Tomorrow night I have my first enkai (drinking party) with the teachers from Koto chugakko. That’s the bigger school with over 600 students. I’m really excited to meet all the teachers and hopefully have some of them talk to me more even if they can’t speak English very well. Enkais are very common to welcome people and I will be having one with the other school, Konan, after the sports festival on Sunday. This weekend is going to be so tiring, but I'm gonna have a lot of fun!
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Aria
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lol
Hooow Cuuute!!! ^-^ Your lessons sound really fun!! :) You really planned it well!! How old are the kids in the 1st grade by the way? (I know that there could be some age differences depending on which country you're in.) And yey for them being excited by getting stickers XD that makes it all easier ^-^ Have fun at the sport festival and teacher party!! :D (you have to win at the sport festival!!! XD lol I can't believe they make teachers compete too!!)