The joys and surprises of teaching kids...

This summer, I'm teaching English to kids for a few weeks.

It has been quite a while since I taught English to kids, and it has been fun but full of a few surprises, both good and challenging.

I have two classes 2nd graders and am almost done with the first two week and will be finishing up with a performance for the parents on Friday. By my request, I have the lowest two classes in terms of English learning experience. Some have a bit of English background (in school or conversation classes, I suppose - hope to survey that)  but most could not respond to "What's your name?" or "How old are you?" when they started.


The Good

• Students have had good reactions to most of the songs, games, storybooks and thematic project activities I've tried on them. For most of my ideas, I'm indebted to my sempais in the program, especially my fellow 2nd grade teachers. I learn so much from talking in the teachers' room and observing their preparation and classroom setup. 
• I love the look on the kids' faces when we do storybook time. Their eyes wide and curious and reacting (not all, but most). That is really something.
• The natural communication effort. The program has an all-English policy, and I only use English and don't let on that I speak Japanese. I love the effort that the kids make to understand and communicate. They are confused at times, but it forces them to make use of the natural communication strategies that they have, and they DO it. We do fine in class, and don't worry about the small things. It is amazing how much they pick up when they need to come to me and ask for things they want for their craft project "Mark, may I have a piece of purple paper please??" This is from kids who have basically never studied English ever before. In 10 days, they learn to get what they need with short phrases.
• The openness to try to use English pronunciation as it is, even if they can't do it so well. In songs and in our simple interactions, the use English as they hear it. This is the way all foreign language learners should ought to start to study. They have trouble saying my name, for example, because the /r/ phoneme in /Mark/ eludes them. I get a variety such as Makku, Maku, Maakru, but none of them are Japanese. They are trying to approximate the English sound, and with enough input and practice, I am certain they will internalize it. Along the same line, they struggle with the word "girl", with some saying guru, some gulo. That variation is a beautiful thing because they don't take the short-cut and Japanese it as "ga-ru". I hope to get some of this on audio from their final presentations.

The Challenging...

Of my two classes, one group is a teacher's dream. Very cooperative and eager and work together well. My other group...has issues, mostly due to one single student who is disruptive. I won't go into too many details, but I've had to remove the kid from the classroom and send him to the director. The saddest part of this is that the kids who want to have fun and learn English suffer because everything is interrupted by a need to intervene in trouble happening. The good side of this is that I'm learning how to head off such problems with classroom management and discipline systems such as a yellow/red card.

From next Monday, I'll have two new groups and I'm sure I'll have new discoveries of the wonders of helping kids realize that learning a foreign language can be fun.