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 [...]
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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Also posted in English School Articles, 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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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 [...]
Every one of my regular 6pm students knows that if they come a little early, they can watch the last couple matches of the Sumo Basho with me before their lessons. After the last basho, students got to know my love for sumo, and every 6pm student last week and this week came early and [...]
Not the most exciting thing, but i noticed some other schools have some great location shots, and as we recently had new signs installed, i thought it would be nice for other schools to see what we look like now. As our school is on the 8th floor (the penthouse as it were), we need [...]
As strange as this may sound…… on Australia Day we have a special event night called “Canada Event Night”! This was unplanned, obviously i am not aware of Aussie holidays. Anyway, we had a very multicultural event night, including Canadians, Australians (my flyer guy), Brazilians and of course Japanese! We had fun playing trivia and [...]
February 28, 2008 – 7:04 am
Last weeks seminar was all about asking yourself what you want in life, and how to get it. And today i randomly found this little gem:
“If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.” [...]
February 25, 2008 – 3:29 pm
For those of you who don’t know me yet: my name is Edward, my partner Chiharu and I bought Otsu School from Craig and Sonoe. We took-over December 1st and have been loving every minute.
Last Sunday we attended our first seminar at Smith’s Kyobashi. From the beginning, we had a sense of support from Smith’s, [...]
January 16, 2008 – 8:13 pm
On Saturday December 15th we had our first event night at Smith’s Otsu. 6 students and 2 coaches attented. We played “The Kanji Game”, with 1 student at the white board and the other 2 students trying to explain how to draw a kanji on the board. After about 20 minutes, we pitted the teams [...]
January 16, 2008 – 7:17 pm
Hello! My name is Edward Iwaskow and I am the new teacher at Smith’s Otsu as of December 2007. I live in Otsu-shi, about 15 minutes bike ride from the school. I have been in Japan since January 2007, and I really love it here. My hometown is a small city on the west coast [...]
Foreigners in Japan
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. The same can be said about Japan. What attracts foreigners is its uniqueness. It isn’t hard to see westerners go to and participate in local festivals, drink vast amounts of sake and carry miniature shrines through the street. Dress up in [...]
Idiom Lesson part 2
Number of students: 2
Kind of student: OL (Office Lady) & Retired business man
A powerful course student joined the second part of this lesson, due to this I checked his file beforehand on whether he had studied these idioms before. He had taken the lesson 3 months previously, so I [...]
A Narrative Structure of The Idiom Lesson
The Benefits
High student talking time. No prepping. Active and fun interaction. Common idiom sentence building. Limited board work. Student to student course lesson manipulation. Board game play
Preliminary Information
Level: Advanced (Green/Yellow)
Class focus: Materials/Resources – Board game
Aims: to raise further awareness of the listener’s active [...]
Vocabulary Lesson part 2
Number of students: 2
Kind of student: Housewife & Secretary
A powerful course student joined the second part of this lesson, due to this I checked her file beforehand on whether she had studied these vocabulary words. She had taken the lesson 2 months previously, so I thought it would make [...]
A Narrative Structure of The Vocabulary Lesson
The Benefits
High student talking time. No prepping. Active and fun interaction. Popular vocabulary word building. Simple format board work. Student to student course lesson manipulation. Story telling. Board game.
Preliminary Information
Level: Advanced (High red onwards)
Class focus: Materials/Resources – Board game
Aims: to [...]
Phrase Lesson part 2
Number of students: 2
Kind of student: Office lady & High school boy
Both students turned up for my lesson and had prepared their homework for the class. I looked over their questions in their note books. Here are the students’ questions they produced:
High school boy
Have you ever broken into [...]
I’ll post a series here about three Item lesson styles intended for High level students as narratives. These aren’t full lessons start to finish, just this one part of the Loop: the Item. You can use my experiences here as a model for how to fit them into your own Loop. I’ll [...]
Hi, this is Craig. I’m the owner/teacher at Smith’s School of English Ohtsu franchise. I’m also the author of the Curriculum Items used throughout the Smith’s system. I’ll use this soapbox to share my thoughts about teaching and living in Japan and also to talk about using the curriculum! Have a [...]