Back to School... Part 2

Well... what better way to welcome students back to school for this fall semester than with EXAMS in all their subjects? (How else can you measure what they learned from their SUMMER VACATION HOMEWORK?!)

I started the week off on Monday by helping mark the 420 exams. (Fortunately, there are five English teachers who teach the same grade, so we divide the exams into parts and mark just our part of the exams for all ten classes. A bit of a different system, but it's all about cooperation & teamwork here!)

I started teaching again on Tuesday. I teach "Conversational English" to the first year students (sophomores), which means that I teach the same lesson ten times. Hopefully it's a lesson I like because it's hard to be remain enthusiastic about anything by the 7th or 8th time you do it. It has been made clear to me from the start that my classes have to be mostly academic in nature, which means we don't play too many games in class and instead have to use the textbook for at least part of the lesson. Since I think they get enough grammar in their other classes, I TRY to make lessons that are both practical and fun, because I don't really think they consider learning English to be "fun". It's just one more thing they have to "cram in" for the entrance exams.

Luckily, the classrooms are air-conditioned, because it's still pretty darn hot outside... like, 32 degrees celcius (or 9o degrees F for those of you who are not metrically inclined!)

So, my lesson this week was about holidays and festivals, since my high school's School Festival is coming up next week. We then talked about the different names of Japanese national holidays in English. They actually have about 15 national holidays in a year, which I think is about twice as many as in the U.S. (but they definitely need the time off!) I also started to tell students (through a listening exercise) about Homecoming & Spirit Week in America, since it is the closest thing we to their School Festival that we have in American high schools.

Speaking of the upcoming School Festival... My high school has a Rock Music Club, and some of the boys in the club came up to me a few months ago and told me they would be playing some Bon Jovi... and that they needed a vocalist. Would I be interested? Like, totally! (I've become a bit of a "Karaoke Addict" since coming to Japan, if you didn't know.... and haven't we all secretly wanted to be rock stars?) Don't think my students realize how old some of Bon Jovi's music is... probably about as old as them!

I saw the preliminary program for the School Festival, and found my name as "Ms. K, Guesto" right alongside of the band "name"..... MICHIGAN, of course!

Being a rock star is not as easy as it sounds. And it's definitely not as easy as karaoke where you can follow the words on the screen. Anyway, I practiced with the boys a few times after school this week. The music, as loud as it is, has actually been kind of a stress-reliever for me. It definitely doesn't fit in with the conservative image of our school. It's been fun to get to know those students outside of the classroom, too, since they aren't typically the ones who are the most involved in class... they're too cool for that! Music is definitely an "international language," though... and they're so impressed that I knew some Eric Clapton, CCR, and Green Day, too, since they're not exactly big in Japan.

Anyway, my throat has been a little sore from teaching and belting out "It's my Life" all this week, but MICHIGAN will be ready to rock for the fans next weekend! WOOOOOOOOOO!