Elementary School 1

Today, I was off early to school because the elementary school I am scheduled to visit today has an English time at 8 AM. It was just a 10- minute live video broadcast in school but they asked me to be featured on English time. The in-charge told me to do another jikoushoukai or self-introduction but as the whole school already knows who I am, I thought that that would be a boring topic. Besides after two months of talking about myself, I am already sick of saying the same things over and over again that I have also come to the point of questioning whether my hobby is really such and is mango really my favorite fruit? Oh well…

So anyway, to be different I thought it would be interesting if I wear the Igorot costume that my sister lent me. It would be another good opportunity to introduce culture to the children. But as the video is also being broadcasted to the first-graders, I had to use really simple English. Surely they wouldn’t be able to understand if I explained the meaning of each line, design or the fiber it was made of. So to make things easy, it became a study of colors (red, green, yellow, black and white) and instead of me wearing it, I asked for a volunteer to join me and model the tapis and vest. Needless to say, everybody had fun and it was also a great lesson for me. I didn’t know till today the symbolism of the Igorot tapis.

Today was full of fun. The teacher-in-charge of the English program joined me in my first 4 classes and he was the main teacher. I practically don’t prepare anything everytime I visit this school as everything has been photocopied and prepared and all I do is talk and follow the prepared lesson plan. But there are also times when I think the prepared lesson was so boring and lacking. Like today. I couldn’t help but suggest a game so that the children would at least be more active in class. How to suggest? The following is a crude direct translation of what was said in Japanese:

Sensei: I think today’s lesson was great and effective. You really have a great connection with the kids especially when you play that guitar. It really drove them wild.
Sense: Really? Thank you…
Me: Yeah,. But I noticed that we have about 5 minutes left in the class, do you mind if I let the children play a game in the next class? It will not take up too much time plus, we would be using the target conversation that we learned today. But we don’t have to do this today, only if we have some time left.” (which of course he understood that yes, the lesson was good but boring and please please let me do the game!)

Of course, I don’t always get my way but I think they appreciate it that the request was worded in a way they would do it. Anyhow, after the main lesson, I let the children play the “typhoon” game again. They had a blast last time and they asked for an encore plus it is applicable in today’s lesson. I love going to this school because you can just feel their enthusiasm for English- from the pupils to the teachers.
And because it is Friday, there is no last period so the children went home early. I joined the principal at the gate and we bid our bye-byes to each of the children. It ,of course, included some high-fives, and last minute storytelling by the children, which was, all in all, fun!