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Tuesday, June 28, 2005
the quickest of quick blogs...granpa's still here!!!
caught one of my keen students walking over to class and had a nice wee private chat, trying to encourage them as a top quality student to speak more English in class and be a model for others...the quality of the uni lies in the students, not in the name, I said, as the eternal theme of failing to get into a Japanese Ivy League cropped up, and that I do believe to be true.
vocab went smoothly, I was checking a latecomer who had learned well, and then since trains were late, I took some time to explain the exam schedule next week, and how some students are exempt, and read out the names of exempt students plus all the provisional averages so far...some students asked questions, and I had to explain the whole system again, even to the point of asking if my students could do simple math, after the third explanation.... Then since I hadn't had time to post up the answers to the Day ten worksheet in the yahoo group I explained the worksheet and talked a bit about my husband's company structure to illustrate and we took a ten minute break as I checked late-comers' vocab and addressed pleas for leniency with regard to a student absent too many times...considering their average grade is under par too i said no, sorry....
after break i asked students to network and discuss their homework with a new partner. This was happening all around, I notice I wandered up the right again, rather than the left, two students had no homework so I asked them to read an economist article, and then i started chatting to a team at the back, they said they were too tired to think of decent comments and to work in English so early in the morning, and that I should ask for a teaching slot later in the day....well, I said, I like the early slot personally, I know you students don't, you're more on the ball later on, but I personally like the mornings. But i can see how working in pairs and small groups is seen as a signal for general relax and be lazy in the privacy of your pair, and because the actual info we're working on is enjoyable, do it in Japanese and get the fun of the content without the hassle of the language...
for the last ten minutes after switching pairs and getting comments from various people, I asked students to complete a gapfill, did it myself and read out the answers to save having to post them up at the group. now I have to post up the 2004 summer review test for students to practice, and make a new one this week. On my way out I chatted to one student, and handed out back papers to a group of about seven who were skiving on the next class,,,,stopped to admire a student's gorgeous embroidered Japanese trousers, and then I was off to buy the Economist in the bookstore and poddle home on the train.
Renata 3:13 pm
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