Sunday, June 25, 2006

Day 32: Goodbye Otsuki's

This morning I had my last meal with the Otsuki Family. I gave them a thank you card and several gifts for the family. It has been great staying with them, despite the fact that we only had a few days together. I will always remember their kindness and their great personalities. Mayuko and had fun together playing baseball and always singing Do-ray-me together as we walked down the street. Yoko always loved to practice her English with me, and she would always tell me a story for her English class at school called Freddy the Leaf. I have never heard the story before, but it was entertaining to hear her tell it. It is always difficult saying goodbye in the morning, because it always seems like there is not enough time.

Today I had four classes of fourth graders to teach. The lesson I prepared for today included a greeting, prayer, counting to one trillion, review of time (What do you do at __?), and an introduction to past tense. I really wanted to make the past tense clear to the students, so I really emphasized the difference between to day and the past. Before reviewing their schedule for today and having them say, "I study English at nine o'clock," I first asked them what day today is. When the review was finished I told them, "Okay. That is today's schedule, but what did you do yesterday?" I went through several examples with the students, having them repeat after me: I played basketball yesterday, I played soccer yesterday, etc. Next, the students had to speak the phrases on their own using pictures of the classroom subjects: I studied Japanese yesterday, I studied math yesterday, etc.

To draw a concrete connection for the students, I used their actual class schedule from yesterday for the game we played. The students had to choose the correct cards to place on the board to complete the phrase, "I _______ _______ yesterday." I would read a class from their schedule (I studied math yesterday at nine o'clock) and they would decide what terms I used. As another adaptation, Chuck had three students come up and memorize yesterday's schedule for ten seconds. By memory, the students would then have to answer the question, "What time did you study science yesterday?" The first student to answer correctly got the point. I enjoy teaching English and I think that Chuck and I work well together. It is always best when team-teachers can sort of feed off of each other and make the lessons more effective, and I think that is what Chuck and I are able to do.

Back at the Hotta's after school, I met Junpei's English tutor and helped with the lesson. After
the lesson Junpei and I watched some of the movie Madagascar. He just likes the Move-it song part of the movie, but I think it is more entertaining when he sings the song and dances. For dinner tonight we actually had lasagna and pizza! I love Japanese food, but this meal really put a smile on my face. Junpei always says to me before I am even done eating, "Ryan. Second floor. Play." He says it like I have a choice; Of course I will come upstairs to play. We played a few computer games and then went to bed.

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