“The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future” Dune
Things I wished I had done in Japan but didn’t manage:
Actually see Mt. Fuji (I climbed it, but the weather was terrible)
See the cherry blossoms on Mt.Yoshino
See the northern part of Honshu (the main Island)
Take part in a festival
Visit Hokkaio in the winter to see the ice festival
That’s all I can think of for now, I am sure there are more. I was looking through a bunch of old online comics I had on my computer and found this one that I thought somewhat fitted the theme of today, and made me giggle.
Now for another list – things I feel are priorities for the English lessons here.Speaking – too many kids are not speaking in the class. The teachers mainly choose the ‘good’ students for speaking or giving answers
Planning – what is our focus for the lesson? Build the lesson around that.
Praise – My counterpart is quick to criticise and scold, but needs to be quicker to praise good work
Homework – very few students do it (what is assigned is often confusing and not properly planned out, but that’s another problem) so I have devised the following grading to try and boost homework and general class participation
Grade Requirements
2 No speaking/ No homework
3 Little speaking/ No homework
4 Some speaking and homework
5 Lots of speaking and great homework
I have been warned here that grading is often not related to actual achievement but to who the child’s parents are, and how well the student does in other subjects. But I hope this plan will work. By clearly setting out what the student has to do to achieve a certain grade, the idea is that is it motivating for the student. At the same time, we can clearly show the parents why their child received the grade they did, hopefully removing the fear of upsetting someone important.
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