My apartment is decorated for Christmas and just in time; it was decided that the apartment complex needed a fresh coat of paint (No, it didn’t), so bright and early Saturday morning the scaffolding and tarps went up. Now the light that filters in is tinted blue and there are strangers outside my second floor balcony. It’s weird. Thankfully, the guys have been cool so far. They seem to be taking extra precaution to work facing away from the windows as much as possible. Nevertheless, I’m pretty bummed that they are going to be working from now until Christmas.
The semester is winding down, as evidenced by the stacks of final exams and notebooks on all the teachers’ desks. I finally feel like I can breathe a big sigh of relief. It’s been fun, but I’m ready for a break!
Despite believing that teaching is not the path for me, I’ve been trying really hard to improve as a teacher the past six months. This past weekend I gave a very short, mini-presentation at a “My Share” event with my local chapter of JALT (Japan Association of Language Teaching).
In the beginning, I wasn’t very keen on attending these meetings, but I’ve certainly seen the light. I’ve learned something I could use the very next day at each meeting I’ve attending.
For my part, I chose an activity I teach with my 2nd year students in their Cross Culture class: A UNESCO World Heritage poster and Scavenger Hunt. Sabina and I developed this in response to the zombie-like states our students slipped into after relying on the textbook too much. It’s a simple, 4 days project and is malleable to younger or older students.
A rough outline is as follows:
Day 1- Pair assignment and research.
I used a deck of cards and had students find their partners. While that was happening, I wrote a list of 20 UNESCO sites on the board. I tried to make as even a spread as possible, and this time I did not include any from Japan since the goal of the class is international awareness. Students were free to choose any of the places written on the board, but it was first come, first serve.
For research, I allowed them to do so in Japanese but warned them that they needed to translate without using the internet as it usually transforms Japanese into a pile of unintelligible “English” goo. They needed to find out: where their site was located, when it was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and five additional interesting facts.
Pretty straightforward, right?
Day 2+3: Making posters
In their pairs, the class made posters advertising their sites. I had allowed them to use one photo they printed up from Day 1, but any other drawings needed to be done by hand, or using pictures they printed up in their free time. They were given freedom to design their posters however they wanted. The results were mixed paragraph styles of information, ordered lists, and bullet points placed helter skelter over the paper.
My favorite one had to be the poster done by the poor group that got saddled with Auschwitz. It was surprisingly lighthearted, but that may have been due to the fact that the Japanese co-teacher, my co-ALT, and I made guest appearances. I’m not sure what it says of the students’ opinions of me that I’m the “Gas Chamber” mascot…
Day 4: Scavenger Hunt
This is where all the hard work pays off! I went through each poster and made a question using the information the students had provided. Sometimes the questions had the location name, so they were pretty easy to zero in on. Other questions required careful reading of each poster.
For the scavenger hunt, each pair was given a set of 4 questions. They had to work together, go around the room, look through the posters, and answer the questions. When they finished the first 4, I checked them and gave them the next set. All together there were 20 questions- one for each poster.
Reaction: Students really enjoyed getting to socialize with their classmates during Days 2 and 3, and the competitive element of Day 4 was positively received. The students do not practice speaking English but they do have to comprehend written questions. They particularly liked seeing their classmates artistic abilities!
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| Looking all professional |
During my JALT presentation I admit I was a bit nervous. However, this is a project that I am very confident about, and I only had to be up in front of others for 15 minutes to explain, so it was no problem. The other teachers reacted kindly, and many nodded their understanding and approval. One even told me that he planned to implement it for his own classes! That made me feel very proud.
Like I said, I don’t think teaching is my career calling, but I’m striving to make my classes efficient and enjoyable!
