Posts Tagged: school

Japan — 8 Comments
28
Sep 08

NHK Reaching Out to Teenagers with Angela Aki’s Tegami

Life for a Japanese teenager is supposedly harder than for anyone else. The pressure to study hard has driven many people over the edge, as demonstrated a couple of years ago when there were a spate of suicides among junior high school students in Japan.

The Japan broadcasting corporation, NHK, has an educational channel filled with children’s programming every evening. Currently they are playing a song by Angela Aki which is clearly targeted at junior high school kids. It’s about a 15 year old student struggling with life who writes a letter to his/her future self to ask for guidance… and gets a reassuring letter back.

There are two animated videos that NHK shows – one with a boy and one with a girl, but I’ve picked the official video to show you instead. It’s called “Tegami” (letter) and really is a beautiful song, one of those anthem-type tracks like Celine Dion’s Titanic offering. Just don’t cry, ok?

Do you think Japanese junior high school students have it harder than their peers in other countries?

ESL — 3 Comments
14
Mar 08

Arnold Schwarzenegger Calls AEON English School

ArnieWhile I’ve been (and still am) waiting for my websites to move to their new web host, I’ve had some time to catch up on my favorite podcasts. One of those podcasts is from Gaijin-in-Japan.com, and recently in Mike’s 82nd podcast, we got treated to this brilliant prank call to an AEON English school in Japan:

Arnold Calls English School

There are lots of similar ones on ArnoldCalls.com, and you’ll find a load of them here on YouTube, too. Go on, treat yourself to a few laughs! :-D

ESL — 2 Comments
16
Jan 08

Get ESL Tips from Chris’ English School

Chris' English SchoolOne of the more recent blogs I’ve subscribed to is that of ESL teacher, Chris Ballard. Born in Hawaii, but now residing in Yanai city in Yamaguchi, Chris runs his own English school out of his own home.

Another disgruntled English teacher? NO!

What makes this blog so unique is that instead of criticising the ESL industry, or even writing articles on “how to teach English”, Chris shows us exactly what he is doing with his students through a diary-type blog that includes photos of their work, and reasons for the activities he chooses.

Examples from Chris’ English School

Recent posts on Chris’ English School include Girls Up which has some great photos of his students studying hard, a look at using a Nintendo DS as a study tool, a selection of photos of his students’ diaries, showing just how much English they are getting through, and motivating posts such as January 2008’s Top 10 students.

A must-read for wannabe school owners

As an ESL teacher myself, what I find most compelling about Chris’ blog is the passion he has for his chosen profession. Very few people care enough about their work to want to blog about it everyday. I’d recommend it to any ESL teacher, but especially to those who are hoping to set up their own school in the future. Having the freedom to teach from home and decide your own curriculum is the dream of most Eikaiwa teachers in Japan, at least those who plan to stay for a while. Subscribe to Chris’ blog and watch how he does it.

I don’t have the energy to teach!

I often feel that way, and it turns out I’m not the only one. It seems teachers across the nation rely on some form of energy drink. My sugar-rush of choice is Ripobitan D (third in this list). Chris swears by the new make-me-happy Garlic Power. How about you? Do you load yourself up on these liquid energizers? If so, which ones?

ESL — No Comments
4
Jan 07

Back to School: Rule Reminders

Since I’m back to school tomorrow, I’ve been thinking again about my ESL lessons, and remembered an interesting moment from last term. I was getting frustrated with one of my kindergarten classes so right at the start of the lesson I told the children that if they crawl under the tables they will lose all their points.

I usually give my kindy kids four points at the start of the lesson next to their names on the board. Each point represents a stamp that they get on their ’stamp card’ at the end of class. When they finish their stamp cards they get a nice present. With the older kids, I start them on two points which encourages them to earn more points as well as be in a position to lose the ones they already have if they misbehave, but the kindy kids seem to respond better to losing points and then earning them back.

Anyway, I was in quite a friendly mood when I gave this ‘lose all your points’ warning and since it was the start of class, some of the kids hadn’t arrived yet. So, I was amazed to see the children pass on my warning to those late comers as they came into the classroom. Needless to say, not one kid went under the tables.

The next week however, while singing the ‘Hello Song’, H-kun snuck away from the group and started for the tables. I quickly stopped the song, and asked him if he remembered last week’s warning. Suddenly, one of the girls said “Eh? You mean we can’t go under the tables this week either?”

The moral of this little story is that young children need to be reminded constantly of the rules. This doesn’t mean disciplining them after they do something wrong, but rather reviewing the class rules before they have a chance to.

If you aren’t already doing this, give it a try! You’ll probably have a trouble free and enjoyable lesson!

ESL — 5 Comments
15
Oct 06

No discipline in Japanese schools?

One of my students is an elementary school teacher, and she loves talking about her job. Saturday was Dreamwork Day at her school so she was a bit tired by the time she came to class. “Dreamwork Day? Sounds fun!” I said, but then she explained that all the teachers had to clean the school to give the students a dream… erm… yeah, a clean school should encourage children to do their best to fulfill their dreams. I think that’s the point, anyway. Still, cleaning sounds more like ‘nightmare’ work to me.

She then told me that one of the teachers had stuck tape down the center of the corridors to make ‘lanes’ so the kids wouldn’t crash into each other, and we launched into a debate about whether they should walk on the left or the right. She said that in Japan people walk on the right, facing the oncoming traffic. I argued that you should walk with your back to the traffic so that drivers can see you and have more time to react, just like when we see and pass a cyclist. Anyway, the argument was going nowhere so I asked why the kids bump into each other so often in the corridors.

“Oh, it’s because they run all the time” she said.

“Are you allowed to run?” I replied.

She then told me how the teachers tell the kids not to run, and if they do it repeatedly, then their homeroom teacher is informed. So, I asked what the homeroom teacher does about it. She said the kid will just get warned again, and again.

So I’m sitting there wondering if the bad kids ever get punished. Sure they get warned, but never punished? I asked if they are ever sent to the principal, or if they ever get detention, and she said “no, never”.

Hmm… It may be petty. They are just kids after all. However, when you have to start sticking tape on the floor so the kids that run are less likely to crash into each other, well, that just seems silly to me.

Should we turn up the radio so we’re less likely to hear the kids swear? Should we turn back the clocks so we won’t notice if the kids are late? No wonder crime is on the rise in Japan, and the foreigners usually get the blame for it. Go figure!

On a side note, it was my birthday yesterday. Happy birthday to me! Had some drinks, ate a cake and watched a movie about a horse…. oh it’s fun to be thirty-one.