indosnm 0 Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 Quote: Originally posted by Creek Boy: Im a 3rd year jhs homeroom teacher and 70% of my classes are with them. Just out of interest. Was your degree anything to do with teaching? Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted April 9, 2007 Author Share Posted April 9, 2007 my degree? Nope. But Im qualified now Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted April 12, 2007 Author Share Posted April 12, 2007 I cant belive that its already April 12th, it feels like NYs and skiing in Hakuba was just yesterday. While this year has been a bust for me being in the mountains and skiing it has been incredible in my professional development. Im so excited about my new school (though ask me the same Q in a few weeks/months/years eh? ). I have had to (hand) write more Japanese in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last 5 years. So much to write daily - which is pushing my kanji ability through the roof. Love it, just love it. Classes are awesome too. I teach a 2nd year HS writing class and a 3rd year JHS writing class. Have a 1st year HS elective which Im doing English through Music. Will be doing a mixture of debate and reading literature with my most advanced 3rd year JHS kids, and have finally decided on a natural disasters/global warming class with my 2nd year JHS kids leading into a global warming debate. Have found some awesome links online with more resource information than I could use the next 30 years so Im quite happy. Gotta love the internet eh?? Cheers Link to post Share on other sites
bushpig 0 Posted April 12, 2007 Share Posted April 12, 2007 Quote: g is never silent gnu?? Link to post Share on other sites
soubriquet 0 Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 Goody. I love a professional challenge. Well done. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted April 13, 2007 Author Share Posted April 13, 2007 >g is never silent have you ever heard a silent g?....wait, yup, I bet you have Link to post Share on other sites
bushpig 0 Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 Well I know you sure haven't! This one time, I came back from my trip in Europe, got back to Hiroshima, and... Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted April 13, 2007 Author Share Posted April 13, 2007 oh you didnt Link to post Share on other sites
bushpig 0 Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 Sorry mate, couldn't resist after your little jab! Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted April 13, 2007 Author Share Posted April 13, 2007 anytime Hope to see you up here over GW mate! Takes bout 20 mins to get to my place from Kyoto Eki so leave your iiwakes at home ~ besides Ive got BPGs snowboard cover I can hold ransom...and have a fridge stocked with Hogaardens and Duvel!! The super near me has some wicked beers Back on topic, thanks for Susans link mate. Pretty interesting stuff there. Anybody done any penpal stuff over the net before? Would like to get my kids into that possibly...ideas links appreciated Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted April 13, 2007 Author Share Posted April 13, 2007 Ill enjoy a few of these tonight after teaching 5 lessons today Link to post Share on other sites
samurai 0 Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 I had a student request a pen-pal site that apparently she has managed to keep in touch with over the last year. I forget it now, but I'll find it. I did a bunch of research for her... most of them required a fee and many were pretty creepy. But, legit does exist. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted April 16, 2007 Author Share Posted April 16, 2007 samurai, lemme know if you do find out please Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted April 19, 2007 Author Share Posted April 19, 2007 has anybody used music in the classroom? What artists/songs did you find worked well?? Link to post Share on other sites
samurai 0 Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 Hey creek boy. I talked to my student and she says her penpal site is friendsaround.com But I searched it and found nothing. I'll have to get a more thurough follow up with her. Perhaps I misunderstood during our brief 20 second hall-passing conversation. Music. I didn't like it. Seemed too distracting. Their taste in music was also way different from what I thought would pass. Green Day- sucked. Moby- sucked. Avril Lavigne- sucked. I tried all three in two classes before I accepted my defeat. When I asked them what kind of music they liked- they all said J-pop. Everything I brought to class was too dificult to understand and, quite frankly, I don't think I'll ever waste time like that again. I spent a lot of time preparing songs that were audibly clear, lyrically interesting, and somewhat repetive so they could do some listening work with choruses etc... I won't do it again. But your students are different, eh? I would just ask them... then do a vote, then prepare the music. If I did a vote, it would all be requesting J-pop. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted November 20, 2007 Author Share Posted November 20, 2007 what essay topics have you been using that were successful? One I just did with my 11th grade writing class was "Appearance means a lot more than personality." I also did "It's not good to get married young." (and set the age at something like 24 or younger but thats arbitrary) Have any suggestions for other good essay/debate topics? Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 Which is better, Hakuba or Niseko? Is Niseko flat? What is flat? sorry mate not much help!!! Link to post Share on other sites
samurai 0 Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 school uniforms bombed for me. I thought they would want to express their opinion about why they wanted to wear something different. they didn't. Their uniforms were great to them. debate is tough in this country. Personally, I fade away from debate-based lessons. Think cultural upbringing... when have they ever argued about anything in Japanese? It's just not that kind of culture, they just don't grow up fighting their parents. yes, I think that debate is a necessary skill in this world. But I'll admit that debate is not the best avenue for any students not at the upper levels. Perhaps your students are at the upper-level: I would develop the language involved in a debate and find a topic that fits that language. Organize and outline some statements and (dis)agreements on a piece of paper. Then... apply those to local language. Don't choose the topic first. You'll shoot yourself in the foot. Link to post Share on other sites
gerard 6 Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 Pop culture. For example, you could try debating Hirai Ken's sexual oreintation. Link to post Share on other sites
gerard 6 Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 OK, Hirai Ken's probably not a good idea. Impact issues has got a lot of good ideas and is good for listening practice too, depending on the level. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted November 21, 2007 Author Share Posted November 21, 2007 Samurai, Ive taught debate for 4 years now so the fundamentals arent a problem...and Im not doing it so much in this class. Its a writing class focusing on paragraph essays including thesis sentence, transition words, conclusion etc... really just want some topics which worked well for people Link to post Share on other sites
gerard 6 Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 I haven't had many writing classes these days but I've taught a few. I use a couple of really old texts which I'm looking at now like "Process and Practice: activities for composing in English" by Michele Chan, and "Great Ideas" (CUP). Another new text that should be widely availabe is "Paragraph writing: from sentence to paragraph" published by Macmillan. It looks OK. Here's an idea that I've expanded out from "Process and practice": Each person presents information about a car accident from the perspective of 1 subjective witness. In small groups they exchange information and then try to write an objective newspaper article about the accident. Then later, assign students to represent one party in the accident and have them develop an argument. This covers a range of skills such as: -speaking (describing events) -note-taking (which is important and often gets neglected) -describing sequence -objective writing -subjective writing/newspaper writing as a genre -developing an argument. The gist of the task is as above, but after identifying the various skills that students need to complete the extended task, I'd design a serious of smaller activities to develop those skills. It's better to use authentic material and real-life situations, but textbooks are very convenient sometimes and offer a good starting point. I haven't taught a lot of writing classes so I'm still at a stage where I depend on textbooks a fair bit, expecially if its a general purpose course. Link to post Share on other sites
me jane 0 Posted November 22, 2007 Share Posted November 22, 2007 The topics don't need to be that serious to get the language point and techniques across. I've done things like "Western style toilets are dangerous" or "Riding bikes with umbrellas kills". The kids did a great job and produced some very creative ideas. Serious topics are good in one way cos they are also learning about the content of the topic but something more lighthearted lets them focus on the discussion or exposition structure and techniques. Link to post Share on other sites
gerard 6 Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 I've recommended some of my students watch English movies to practice listening. Hard to find movies with simple dialogue and interesting content. I've recommended movies like 'School of Rock' and 'Mr. Baseball'. Any other recommendations? Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted November 28, 2007 Author Share Posted November 28, 2007 I've used these this year: Meet the Parents (Fockers too) Philadelphia Dead Man Walking Supersize Me Day After Tomorrow Tangerine Dream (yes, the ski video ) and am pondering quite a few more like: Stand By Me The Outsiders Meet Joe Black Link to post Share on other sites
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