October 30, 2007 – 9:46 am
It’s that time of year again, I dress up for nearly all my classes and give them a heavy dose of Western culture. Each year I try something different and spend the money to make it authentic. Two years ago it was STAR WARS with a real lightsaber, last year it was a soldier with [...]
October 30, 2007 – 7:42 am
Music was my life for so many years. I got paid a decent salary to play the trombone, and during that time I learned to love jazz. Ten years ago I pretty much stopped playing but it is impossible for me to stop listening. I listen everyday. Jazz goes daily, for hours in [...]
October 30, 2007 – 4:47 am
ET:
The student I saw today came in straight away and said his one point, not just from his last lesson but from the last time I saw him.
Routine:
The routine we did was The Meeting. My student claimed that he knew the story already so, I jumped to the questions to test him. This caught him [...]
October 29, 2007 – 2:26 am
Last week a student of mine asked me for a brochure to give to her friend who is interested in studying English. Great! Then today, another student showed up to her lesson with a friend of hers, who asked for brochures for her and her friend, who are interested in studying English too! Wow! Today’s [...]
October 29, 2007 – 1:56 am
Just a little note here to say, flyer helpers ROCK!
Today my first helper and I were out there bright and early. The time zoomed by; people stopped to talk, ask questions, smile, and take a flyer. The waves of rushes weren’t bad because I knew “J” was there catching some of those people I missed. [...]
October 28, 2007 – 8:04 am
Usually when I write an entry here it’s to talk about how lucky I am to be a teacher here in Japan and to have the opportunity to help the people in my area but tonight I thought I’d focus on something else that I love - technology.
I’m an avid computer user (mac and windows) [...]
October 27, 2007 – 2:57 am
I’d been reading about the flyer helpers in Kyobashi, wishing I had access to those people to come help me in Kofu. I found it so much easier to do flyers when Gavin, my trainer, was here training me, than after he’d left and had to face me trotting over to the station by myself. [...]
October 26, 2007 – 11:47 pm
Today’s first high level student came in all excited because she had a very interesting recent news article that she wanted to discuss. After reviewing the ET: I am sick of (a) because (b), her example being; “I am sick of gossips because I am not interested in their private lives,” we moved onto [...]
October 25, 2007 – 4:55 am
E. T.
Will you eat lunch tomorrow? I asked, hoping to prompt the previous lesson’s one-point, “I’m sure”. This did not happen, but only because the student was confused about her one point, thinking it included their whole example from last lesson - “I’m sure I will go shopping tomorrow!” Not a bad general case, but [...]
October 24, 2007 – 11:40 pm
It has been a great day today so far. First I got up a bit before 6:00am, had breakfast and went out and handed out flyers at a train station from about 7:10am to 9:00am. As always I greeted people with “good morning”, ” hello” or “how are you”. Some people kindly replied and that [...]
October 23, 2007 – 9:14 pm
I had a lesson with 3 orange students last week. 2 of the students I hadn’t seen in a while and the other was a new student who recently started here at Smith’s school. I noticed that they had been doing some basic items recently so I chose the more challenging intermediate ability 2 item [...]
October 23, 2007 – 9:11 pm
Last week, my regular Saturday afternoon high level student caught a cold so it was nice to see her back and healthy again today. She was also back to her regular joking self as we started out the lesson by discussing the new responsibilities that she’d been appointed with at her son’s school.
As usual, [...]
October 23, 2007 – 7:53 pm
Don’t you just love this fall weather? The temperature during the day is just right. And in the evening it is not yet very cool so the evenings are nice too.
It makes me remember all those years that I worked from dawn to dusk and hardly even saw the daylight. Being a [...]
October 23, 2007 – 3:46 am
It is really quite scary how fast time passes! Here I am in Japan, for 5 years now, and, approaching 30!!! Yes, I just spent my 29th birthday last Tuesday at Kyobashi. Well, I didn’t get a full-on birthday party, which isn’t my style anyway, I was congratulated by my closest colleague and handed a [...]
October 23, 2007 – 3:43 am
This evening I met with my pink student for the third time. Three weeks ago he saw The Morning Routine for the first time, and struggled over new words and phrases. After a week off, he was here last week and had a bit of review, then learned a few new questions and phrases. He [...]
October 23, 2007 – 2:44 am
A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Kyobashi Wine and Cheese Party. The highlight of this evening was not only the chance to try a variety of new wines and cheeses but to also have the opportunity to meet and get to know a lot of new [...]
October 22, 2007 – 8:26 am
I try to keep in touch with all my students even the ones that leave. Sometimes meeting up with then even after they have graduated and gone on to university in Tokyo or that have gotten married and moved to another city. Hearing how their life has changed is a great joy for me and [...]
October 22, 2007 – 12:04 am
Halloween is part of my culture in Canada and so I decided to put up some Halloween decorations at my school for my students and me. I bought a real-looking plastic jack-o’-lantern, which I put in the entrance. Next to it I put a goblin puppet that laughs when you squeeze the mouth inside! This [...]
October 21, 2007 – 7:28 pm
Today I had a student who is high level.
ET
We worked through the previous one point rather smoothly and then moved onto the…
ROUTINE
Last week I had covered routine 13 with this student so I took this opportunity to go over reported speech with her to see of she remembered by asking her the last question in [...]
October 19, 2007 – 10:04 pm
Today’s high level student managed to do the ET and Routine without any problems whatsoever. He’s used to the format of the loop by now so he smoothly goes through all 4 areas with confidence. However, when we got to the item, which was the ‘Ghosts’ unit from the Let’s Talk folder, he [...]
October 18, 2007 – 2:48 am
I had a student the other night who has only been at Smith’s for 4 weeks. His English is quite basic so when he gave me an example of his one point, I had made a comment and then he replied with a one point from two weeks ago, I was very impressed.
It was [...]
October 17, 2007 – 9:53 am
On October 14th I and my wife attended the latest Smith’s seminar in Osaka with a couple dozen fellow Smith’s franchisees. Smith’s seminars are great. I get a chance to talk with fellow franchisees/coaches of communicative confidence from different Smith’s schools and hear about the latest news in the system. Seminars also remind me [...]
October 17, 2007 – 5:25 am
I referred previously to the system working well in my absence, and in the past I had been worried about whether that would be the case. I’ve been running the Smiths school here in Nagaoka for a number of years, and having experienced a few birthing pangs at the beginning, feel entirely justified in treating [...]
October 16, 2007 – 9:11 pm
KOENJI is in Suginami Ku in the western part of Tokyo on the Chuo line just four stations west of Shinjuku.
KOENJI received its name from the temple – Koenji - which was visited often by Tokugawa Iemitsu, who regularly rested in its tea room on falconry hunts in the area. There are a few other [...]
October 16, 2007 – 6:32 pm
This morning was clear and beautiful. It was nice to get outside to enjoy the sunshine and the just-right coolness of 13 degrees (C). I got to the train station and began handing out flyers ~ or trying to. This morning it didn’t feel quite right. Was I having an off morning? Were other people? [...]
October 16, 2007 – 5:54 pm
Thanks Mark for a great informative meeting. I got a lot of good info from it that will be very benificial. Also met some great new franchise owners and had a few drinks afterward.
All in all very rewarding. Cheers!
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October 15, 2007 – 3:45 am
E.T.
I’ve been folding origami recently. At first I found it quite tricky, but once I got the knack of it - it’s easy!
This is how I introduced the one-point to my high level student. I wanted to see if he’d recognize his one-point in a natural catch-up type conversation about what we’d both been doing [...]
October 15, 2007 – 3:28 am
I first found out about Smith’s School on gaijinpot.com when a job was advertised for at Kyobashi school. I applied, then came in to meet Gavin for an interview and really liked the sound of the school. Having the curriculim available to plan the lessons, the flexibility and the dresscode all appealed to me.
Gavin [...]
October 15, 2007 – 12:13 am
Good morning! How are you?
You probably think it must get frustrating to say this over and over a thousand times while trying to establish eye contact and smile at those prospective students when I pass out flyers. I would be seriously remiss if I were to say there is never any frustration, but there are [...]
October 14, 2007 – 9:06 am
Just like every other teacher here in Japan. I wake up each day and head to work. The difference is that I actually like going to work. My students are what keep me going. Seeing students improve as English speakers is great but what really moves me are the students (younger ones usually) that grow [...]