Taru-Wheel of Fortune
...written on 2000-12-11, @ 12:09:04
Tales of Kim's Life in Japan
Mon December 11, 2000
I told you today was catch up day. This is the third entry and I will probably have three more before the end of the day.
Ok, so Saturday night I had to work at Tarui. I thought I was going to be teaching 2 classes of seventh graders. One class of 30 students and the other class with seven students.
I had to teach the big class first. I poked my head just inside the door to peer around. There was a young girl seated next to the door. We made eye contact and I smiled, but she didn't. Oh well, I walked on in and waved at everyone and started to write my pronoun charts on the board. Tonight's lesson was on possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns.
I tried to explain the chart as best I could. I then wrote a sentence on the board:
That is her dog.
I then waved my arms in the air, made magic noises, and thrust my fingers to the board and changed the two words, "her dog" into one word, "hers". I showed them how to do this with the other pronouns on the chart again using the magic noises and wave of the arms which elicited many laughs from the students (all except the girl by the door, who didn't even smirk).
You know, I think it's kind of tricky teaching English grammar to Japanese students in English and I just want to say that I earned my money Saturday night in Tarui. I explained some, then we had fun exercises to emphasize the points. I would explain some more and we would have a different exercise. I even made a possessive pronoun crossword puzzle.
After we had gone over the grammar point for the second time, I took off my watch and put it in this small paper shopping bag. I then went around the room taking personal items from the students, pencil cases, notebooks, pens, etc. Back at the front of the room, I pulled out an object and asked "Whose pen is this?" I had left the target sentence on the board behind me along with the pronoun charts, so the students could craft an answer. I asked several students, "Is it yours?", "Is it hers?", "Is it mine?", and finally would ask the owner of the item if it was theirs. I had about two items left in the bag and I slowly peered down in the bag, looking deeper and deeper until my head was in the bag. The students were howling with laughter especially when I pretended like I couldn' t get my head out of the bag. I struggled with the bag on the desk, flailing my arms about, then I held the bag to my head, and ran into the chalkboard. When I finally got my head out and tried to pretend that I was cool about the whole thing, all the students were belly laughing, except for the girl by the door, who sat cold as a stone.
I went over the grammar point again and handed out a sheet of sentences for them to change. We went over them together. Then I gave them the crossword puzzle.
I got this crossword puzzle out of a manual, but had to adapt it for my students, using simple English. I forgot one important point however. Even though the hints are new, it is critical that the new answers match the old answers. What was I thinking? Ha! So there were about three that I had them cross-off.
I wanted to go over the answers with the students, and asked for volunteers. . . Oh well, I can dream, can't I? It's still rare that a Japanese student will volunteer to answer a question, so I pulled out "Fred Fugu". Fred Fugu is my rubber blowfish. I toss Fred Fugu to a student, who then is supposed to catch him and answer the question. It was at this time that I noticed something flicker in my peripheral vision. I looked quickly to my left and saw the girl by the door trying valiantly to conceal the smile tweaking at her lips. In an instant Fred Fugu went sailing over to her outstretched hands and she caught him. She grinned widely as she squeezed Fred Fugu and felt him blow air in her face. She gingerly patted her hand on his soft rubber spines. She then answered the question correctly.
That was worth it, neh? I was so tired after that class that I was relieved that I didn't have to teach another one. I sat in the office and during the class breaks the students would come in and I would ask them a question about the lesson. If they answered correctly they got 4 stamps.
I enjoy classes like that. It wasn't all smooth sailing, and it wasn't wretched silence. I was prepared enough to fill the time with meaningful learning and flexible enough to adapt and create on the spot. I love the sound of a student shouting , "Wakkatta!" (I understand).