April 25, 2008 – 11:38 pm
I am not artistic.
But sometimes i am inspired, and with the help of a friend or a pc, i can create art. Recently i was inspired to make something to personalise the classrooms in my school, Smith’s Ohtsu.
I made a simple sandblasted 2 colour mirror with the Smith’s logo and the location of my [...]
There is a cute little bakery near my English conversation school, Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi, and my home in Tsukaguchi, Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture. It is called Feinbrot. They make absolutely delicious croissants and other things there. I love going there on Sunday mornings, picking up some croissants and pastries, then biking back home to have them [...]
I just wanted to congratulate Heidi on finishing her first full year at my Smith’s School in Kotoen. Heidi has settled in very nicely and doing fine. Good job and I’m looking forward to another, even better year!
Martin
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addthis_title = ‘Congratulations+Heidi%21′;
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With the Golden Week holidays fast approaching I guess many owner/teachers at Smith’s Schools of English are planning overseas and local trips. I say Smith’s Schools of English because we have more days off than teachers who work for other schools and therefore can take a well earned break.
I am going to use my days [...]
Japan is truly a nice country in which to live. For the most part the people are very pleasant and a lot has been done to make Japan a comfortable, clean and convenient place to live for all residents. I like the U. S. too but it is difficult to [...]
By Al Bartle
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Posted in English School Articles, Fair to teachers, Living in Japan, SSE Okamoto Corner, a reward in itself, english in japan, enjoyed this a lot, rewarding job change, teaching: why i do it
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Tagged スミス英会話岡本, Life in Japan, Smith's School of English, スミス英会話
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Smith’s- why do i love thee so? Let me see……. when i “worked for the man” at another English school in Japan and we had a slow day, i would be assigned some boring paperwork or cleaning job. Lately Wednesdays have been quiet at MY school, Smith’s School of English FC Ohtsu
By Edward
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Posted in English School Articles, SSE Ohtsu Corner, a reward in itself, enjoyed this a lot
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Tagged 大津ã€æ»‹è³€, broadway, broadwaymusicals, English school Japan, 英会話ã€è‹±ä¼šè©±å¤§æ´¥ã€english, love, musicals, of, Smith's School of English, teaching, trip
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“M” has been with me for nearly three years now. She is in her late 50’s and has been slow on progress…Until tonight, I thought that she would not be able to handle anything other than a very structured lesson. As my “item” tonight I pulled out a picture book which includes about [...]
Last night I had a great lesson with two of my newest students, a husband and wife. He is a Japanese engineer and she is a Chinese housewife. They are a very nice couple and get along very well during the class. Their participation is great. They are beginners but I [...]
While students are divided by levels at Smith’s School of English that means sometimes there’s a large age gap between students. I’ve had 25 year-old students studying with 65 year-olds or high school students studying with housewives. This just adds flavor to the lesson. The younger students can teach the elder students about the latest [...]
My 6:00 p.m. Saturday lesson this week included two students. We worked on making requests and went through the normal lesson plan with no problems but when I asked them to think of and make requests on their own, they seemed to stumble. In some cases I give them a simple scenario such [...]
The laughs are abundant at Smith’s School of English. This week my Saturday 3pm lesson included three students who were tasked with miming some activities to get their partners to guess what they were doing and to use the past continuous tense. It never fails that one of the students does something [...]
On April 6, 2008 Smith’s Tsukaguchi, Okamoto, Fuse, Horie and Otsu schools held a cherry blossom viewing party(hanami) together at Osaka Castle Park in Osaka. We had a great time! My school brought 23 people and a total of over 80 people attended the event! I arrived early in the morning (at about 7:00am) and [...]
April 10, 2008 – 11:29 pm
Students who are “Normal” can get very comfortable with their teacher and classmates, so it’s always an interesting twist when a new face pops into class.
Recently, two of our more mature students had their first class together. The last time that Mr. T and Mr. S saw one another was at the Smith’s Halloween [...]
I found a great phrase cards lesson plan in the English Lesson Plans section from Gideon at Kyobashi. I have used it several times and really enjoyed it, as did my students. I have now expanded on it, and added a couple more sets.
In summary, here’s how i run this lesson.
1. Write the [...]
I would like to write about a certain very special new student of mine at Smith’s School of English in Fuse who is an absolute pleasure to teach!
She is so focused on the lesson, she asks for time to write down everything on the board, especially the new vocabulary words, she does her [...]
As Edward noted earlier, he learned an interesting technique from Gideon about how to get the students to really work with the Phrases and I have been using this method recently with my higher level students to get them to find the missing words and put them in to complete a passage that I have [...]
I’ve recently been on a nostalgic Star Trek kick and have had trouble finding someone to share my trekker feelings with. It’s very fortunate that Smith’s School of English Kyobashi has such a wide range of students with a vast number of interests. Unable to contain my excitement one day over the new [...]
What a beautiful day it turned out to be for our cherry blossom picnic in the park. The sun was shining and the yakitori was grilling. What better an accompaniment than the greatest of Japanese beers, an Asahi!! So off I went in high spirits ready to kick off the afternoon with some merriment under [...]
The weather forecast was predicting that it would rain this past Sunday, but thanks to some good luck and quite a good deal of sunshine, it turned into a beautiful day. The perfect day for a picnic! It was just a wonderful coincidence that the cherry blossoms were in full bloom at the [...]
Everyone, I just wanted to let you know that Michael starts semi-F/T as my manager at the Smith’s Fukushima school, just as Heidi is my F/T manager at my Smith’s School in Kotoen. Michael will attend the Curriculum Training Seminar on Routines at Head Office Thursday April 10th and I urge all of you [...]
We had an amazing day Sunday with over 80 students attending Smith’s School of English Hanami Party at Osaka Castle. Al already mentioned some details in his article “A truly fun English School: Smith’s” but i wanted to express how wonderful it was to plan this event with 4 other schools. Everyone at Smith’s has [...]
Students often ask what steps they can take to become better at English. Of course there is no single answer but if I were pressed to give one, it would be to simply “use” English every chance you get. Though there are not millions of native speakers in Japan, there are a [...]
Yesterday’s 2008 Smith’s School Cherry blossom viewing party ( スミス英会話お花見会 ). Was a great deal of fun for all! Excellent weather, beautiful blossoms sometimes fluttering down like snow and terrific conversation were had by all. Students from the Okamoto, Fuse, Otsu, Horie and Tsukaguchi schools got together to enjoy great food, drinks, conversation, [...]
Smith’s School of English provides a very different kind of experience for our students. Our teachers care about each and every student and we really try to stretch their ability in as many ways as possible. We often arrange for special events to give them the opportunity to practice the English they have [...]
Last night, I met one of my students in front of the station. He has been going to company introduction meetings and interviews all week and he stopped to tell me about his experience. As we were standing there, a young woman who was obviously a new company employee passed by and as [...]
Last week I gave a free trial lesson at Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi in Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture. My trial student joined! I asked her how she had found out about my school. She said that she had first seen me doing flyers at Hankyu-Tsukaguchi station and had received a flyer there two [...]
Nearly two months ago I gave myself a flyering S.T.A.G. for the duration of February and March. It certainly wasn’t my favourite time of year to be out promoting スミス英会話 in front of the two stations that sandwich my school - 長岡天神 (Nagaoka Tenjin) or 長岡京 (Nagaokakyo). It was often cold, sometimes snowing [...]