Before and After Mid-Terms
Things have been going very well in the NELP program. The first graders are doing fantastically in their reading.
They've been reading a lot of books.
They've also written a lot of book reports, and some of their book reports have been amazingly detailed.
They've also been reading some very difficult books (but I'll be honest ... not everybody reads books as hard as this one). Still, the reading level of the class is very impressive.
Second Grade has been doing well also.
In this picture, we can see reading day.
I wish I could put up more pictures of 3rd grade ... but every time I go to take a picture, they make faces at the camera! (But it's okay ... I like my 3rd graders a lot. They're a fun class).
The third graders have also been working hard on their speeches for our in-school speech contest.
In our last picture we can see 2nd grade.
I'm hoping to do more on the computers this year, including a lot more multi-media learning activities.
Date: 17:08｜Permalink｜Author：mark
High School NELP Program
Our high school NELP program is going well. I currently have 4 students in my English Conversation class. We study the same oral communication textbook that the SELP students use: Totally True from Oxford. However, we study it at a much faster pace. It also helps that we have a multi-media classroom because it becomes much easier to show how the textbook relates to things in real life.
For example, Lesson 1 was about a man named Scott Ginsberg.
So we looked at Mr. Ginsberg's webpage:
and we watched a news report about Mr. Ginsberg (available on his webpage):
This helps keep our lessons current and relevant, and really helps students see that we're studying things in the real world, and not merely reading textbook examples.
In Addition, our class will be visited periodically by university professors who will give one-day lectures/seminars/lessons etc. from time to time. I'm sure the students will be looking forward to that as well.
In my 8th Period Independent Studies Class, the students are preparing for the STEP test and the TOEIC test. We have a lot of study books in the classroom, and the students, as the course name suggests, mostly study by themselves.
My job is mostly to make materials available and help them learn the best ways to prepare for and take a standardized test.
Date: 10:47｜Permalink｜Author：mark
New Books and Bookshelves
Just a short update about our library:
We got new bookshelves!
Now all I have to do is finish cataloging all those book!
Date: 09:28｜Permalink｜Author：mark
Second Grade Grammar
From this year, second grade NELP who have passed the Second Grade Eiken STEP Test were able to join a special second grade NELP writing course instead of attending the SELP English Alpha grammar class. The minimum class number is five, and this year we have six students who have passed the Second Grade STEP Test.
However, starting this year, I am not the only NELP teacher at Seishin! This year, we have a new teacher at Seishin, Mr. Brian Timms. In addition to teaching SELP oral communication for junior high school first and second grade and high school first grade, Brian will also be teaching the 2nd grade NELP writing class. I look in on him this morning and snapped these pictures.
I've known Brian for many years, and have worked with him before. He's a very talented, dedicated and popular teacher, and I'm overjoyed to have him here with us. I'm sure the students are too.
Also, this year I completed the 2nd Grade Self-Access Grammar Library.
Here it was before filing:
And here it is now:
I'm not sure how often it will be used, but I suspect it will see more use after first term (in other words, after they see their first term oral communication final exam scores and realize that they don't know everything).
Date: 09:09｜Permalink｜Author：mark
Start of the New Year
Here are our new classes for the year:
Junior High School First Grade:
Junior High School Second Grade:
Junior High School Third Grade:
High School First Grade:
The Junior High School First Graders have already written their first essay, today they will give their first presentation, and most of them have given me their first book report! In short, they are doing wonderfully.
The second graders and third graders, meanwhile, are now working on their second topics for the term.
all in all, it's shaping up to be a great year.
One new change that's going to have a direct effect on the NELP program is our Saturday course for elementary school students. The Notre Dame Seishin Alumni Association sponsors Seishin English Hills, a saturday course for elementary school students.
http://www.nd-seishin.ac.jp/school/primary.html
We currently have two very high level students. One is a sixth grade student in Seishin Elementary School's International Program. The other is the younger brother of one of my third grade NELP students. I had hoped the sister of one of my second grade students would come as well, but I haven't heard back. Because these students have a level of English proficiency many times higher than the average Seishin English Hills students, we've decided to make a special high-level class. It's my hope that this class will not only help prepare students to enter my NELP program, but will also help students with a high level of English proficiency to maintain and improve their English skills, even if they will not someday apply to NELP.
Date: 08:49｜Permalink｜Author：mark