Micro Teaching

Last class, I did micro teaching with my partner, Micchi.
We did a mini reading lesson. Thank you for your cooperation with us!
I would like to review and write about it.

The objectives of my pre-reading and in-reading activities
・In pre-reading activity, I read the textbook and students listened to me without it. After that, we asked them what the word they could hear and what did it mean. Students tried to think about what the story was about and what are the key words about it.
・In in-reading activity, students tried to understand the story using work sheet after reading text book. And we checked student's answer and the contents of story.

What were the strengths and weaknesses of my mini-lesson
Strenghs
・We used a very short part of story. Some students might have got bored reading it at the beginning of the lesson and we tried not to happen that. So we didn't show the story at first and students turned their attention to teachers.
・When we explained the story, we used pictures and they helped students understand the content of story, and what's more, they attracted students.

Weaknesses
・If we had given students more reading activities, our mini- lesson would become better and more cheerful.
・We couldn't finish our lesson in 15 minutes. I think there were some ideas to take less time. For example, we could have explained more shortly and clearly, and when students worked on sheet, we shoul have given a time limits and so on.
・I tryed to help students who have some question or trouble but I could have helped more students.

Discoveries about teaching
・After micro teaching, I realized that English education at Jr. high school was very difficult, especially, I had difficulty in thinking about what students understand and how to cope with students who have negative attitude to English.

It was really good oppotunity to my practice teaching in this summer. What I learned from this experience will be helpful during it, and I want to get many skills about English education.

Thank you for reading my blog and pleaes write comment about our micro teaching.

How to be a successful English teacher at Jr. high school

Last Thursday, Mr. Maruhashi came to our class and gave a speech about Jr. high scool teacher and English education. He talked about teacher's job, the present condition of Jr. high school student, teacher and education, and I learned a lot from his speech. The following 2 points were my main impression.


1.He talked about school bullying and he said that it is not enough to pity people who are bullied and we need deal with it from neutral position as a teacher. I hadn't thought like that and it told me a necessity to think about school bullying more deeply. When I was a Jr. school student, there were few bullyings in my school. However it is a common incident now, so the present condition of Jr. high school is changing and we have to receive and cope with it.

2.He talked about how should we make a teaching plan and it should be made not for teacher but for students. Only logical explanation is not enough for them to understand and they need easy and interesting explanation which they can understand. I think this is the most important thing to make teaching plan but I'm lacking this ability and I have to acquire it. He also said that teachers need English knowledge (grammar, pronunciation, etc...) and I have to study harder to get it.


After his speech, I realized what I need to be a successful English teacher. I think, as an English teacher, we need to think of students when we make teaching plan and we must have many kinds of experiences, then it will become our practices and we can learn from them.
In my practice teaching this summer I want to make use of what I learned from his speech.

Thank you for your reading!

Two Approache's strength and weekness

Today we learned about two approaches for teaching vocabulary: the Teach and Learn Approach and the Learning through Input Approach. You can see a PowerPoint presentation of the approaches here.

I would like to tell you about the strengths and weaknesses of each approach as well as the approach I would use as a Junior High School English teacher.

First, I will talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the Teach and Learn Approach.
The strength of it is that students can learn easily becsuse they use eyes, and ears through this activity. while there is a weekness of it. I think there are not enough interactive activities and students need them.

Second, I will talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the Learnig through Input Approach. The strength is that students can remember well because teacher doesn't give answer and students make their own answe from teacher's presentation.While there is a weekness. It may cost longer time for students to understand teacher's intention.

Lastly as a junior high school English teacher I would favor Learning through Input Approach because I want to use interactive activities to make students enjoy and talkative.

My Idea about Communicating Activities

Today, I am going to review two of the "typical Japanese junior high school"communicative activities presented in ETM 3. The activities I am going to review are Interview and Quectionnaire. You can view them here.

I have idea to improve interview activity. For example,after asking what your partner did at 7:00PM, we can find someone who were doing same thing at the same time.If you find a person who did same thing, you can ask ditailed question, for example, what you cooked for dinner, what kind of TV programs you watched, and so on.

I can improve questionnaire activity. For example, we ask questions (Which do you like dogs or cats? What color do you like the best? etc.) each other and discuss them. During this discussion you can express your opinion and share other opinions. If your opinion is different from other's opinion, you can discuss and persuade others harder , then this discussion may become more interesting.

My Golden Week Holydays

I have many important things to me,and movie is one of my important things.
In my Golden Week holidays, I went to the cinema and I saw "SPIDER MAN3"! I was looking forward to seeing it.It was a very exciting and moving story. It became one of my favorite movies.I can't tell details about it,but I think the highlight of this movie is new enemies of Spider man and their battle. I suggest you to see this movie.If you hadn't seen SPIDER MAN1 and 2,you shonld see them before.

Fist blogging task

・My most enjoyable language learning experience at school and an explanation of why
It's a English game which seemd interesring and we can enjoy with easy English.
・My least enjoyable language learning activity at school and an explanation of why
It's a reading and translating text book through the class. I think it's not intractive activity, and it's boring.
・My most valuable language learning activity at school and an explanation of why
When I was 14 ,I went to London and stayed with a family for 4 days. It was my most valuable learning activity. I have a great time with them and I went to British school and attended the class. So it was my most valuable language learning activity.
・My least valuable language learning activity at school and an explanation of why
It was a studying for examination. I think it's rather increacing my knowledge than stuffing English grammar into my head.
・Overall, how would I rate my experience as an English learner?
My experiences would help me study English and I want to increace these kinds of good experience.
・The influence you think your language learning experience will have on your teaching
What I got from English teaching practice at elmentary school influenced me, and I learned what I need as an English teacher.

Hello, my name is Naojin. I'm an Iwate university student. I major in English education. I like taking a nap and seeing movies. I want to become a junior-high school teacher.