Category Archives: English Lesson Plans

Discussions of lesson plan theory and application.

スミス英会話高円寺 What is an Oxymoron?

I recently received an unsolicited email in which there was a list of oxymorons (or oxymora) and it prompted me to share them with my ESL pupils at Smith’s School of English in Koenji part of the Smith’s School of English,pay by the month, franchise English conversation schools throughout Japan. An oxymoron is a figure [...]

スミス英会話高円寺 WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

One day during the Golden Week holidays I decided to go to Koenji railway station and catch up with some of the locals and some students who were still working. I usually wake up early, cannot sleep in, and I needed some exercise so why not say “good morning have a nice day” and kill [...]

スミス英会話高円寺 Temples of Tokyo – Hanazono Shrine

Hanazono Shrine is in Shinjuku on Yasakuni Dori . It is is tucked away behind some buildings and is painted bright red and white.- the colours of the fox. To get to it you walk down a narrow lane under numerous red torii. This shrine is where businessmen and women pray for the success of [...]

The Kansai Boat Show

This weekend saw the arrival (and departure) of the Kansai Boat Show at Shin Nishinomiya Yacht Harbour in Nishinomiyahama 西宮浜, where I have lived since I moved from England to Japan just over 2 years ago. I could see the preparations for the show from my balcony, and really looked forward to making a visit. For [...]

Coming Soon! In-class lessons related to the weekly online TOEIC Listening Lessons!

John Coleman, the owner and head teacher of the Kawanishi Smith’s School of English and I (Al Bartle of Smith’s School of English – Okamoto) have been working hard to make TOEIC Part 3 type listening lessons for the Smith’s main site. So far we have made 11 lessons. You can see the free online [...]

スミス英会話高円寺 The Power of Dogu

I have become a fan of the Tokyo National Museum and the other museums that are found throughout Ueno Park – Japan’s first public city park that was founded in 1873. They regularly have exciting exhibitions that feature unique antique treasures and naturally they also have regular exhibitions which can be found at this webpage. [...]

スミス英会話提供の無料TOEICレッスン (Free online TOEIC Listening Lessons from Smith’s School of English)

Smith’s School of English is now providing free online listening lessons for students to practice over and over at home. There are three ways to access these videos. From the Main Site TOEIC Lesson Page 無料TOEICレッスン From the Japanese Blog 無料オンラインTOEICレッスン From the Smith’s School of English YouTube Channel: ssejapan Listening practice is good for all [...]

スミス英会話高円寺 Flying High

During last week another birthday crept up on me and so my son planned, for Sunday (my next  day off ) a day that I will always, Alzheimer’s free, remember. The day kicked off at about 10:40 when he came to the school and collected me. We quickly set off for Koenji station, which I happen to [...]

Fresh and Fascinating

I recently did a soapbox posting about using a contemporary event with great popular appeal as the subject of a lesson at my English conversation school 英会話, Smith’s School of English, Kawanishi スミス英会話川西校. This made for a really successful and very popular lesson. My lesson featuring the (not quite total) success of Japanese figure skater Mao Asada at [...]

The Lesson Sandwich

“Wait a minute,” I said to my friend, “How is the start of an Smith’s lesson like a piece of bread?”

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