Third Class

I returned the song WS (A Whole New World) and began a new listening activity from a book called Introductory Topics. The listening was an archaeology topic: The Iceman. Time was short, but we did a True/False quiz at the end.

Second Class

On this day the computer system was working! I tried to take attendance with it. Is it good, or is it better to talk face-to-face?

I talked about the results of last week's Note Card activity. Students come from a variety of places! Ibaraki (7), Saitama (7), Tokyo (4), Chiba (3), Hiroshima (3), Shizuoka (2), Tochigi (2), Tsukuba, Fukushima, Gumma, Iwate, Miyagi, Nagoya, Niigata, Oita, Saga, and Shimane were mentioned by those who wrote about their hometowns. Many students are interested in history (7), philosophy (7), and teaching (5). They mentioned teaching Japanese, history, or other subjects. Students also expressed interest in German, British culture, literature, music, folklore, religion, and cultural anthropology. Students are interested in improving their speaking and reading skills as well as their vocabulary and listening skills. Other interests were drawing, geography, the global community, travel.

Our main listening activity consisted of a song: A Whole New World. There were many high-frequency words and idioms in this song.

First Class

Hello! We did a Note Card writing activity today. This helped introduce students to the teacher and the teacher to the students. It was my first day to meet the students. I found that the class was large and the students were a little different than I expected.

I introduced the syllabus (no handout to save paper) and showed my e-mail address. Another way to send me a message is to post a comment on this blog. There are two main plans for the course and a middle way. One plan is to use a textbook heavily. Another plan is to use "Free Culture" audio resources heavily. A third option would be intermediate between these.

The computer system was not working.