Scribbler's Cafe

Skipping Chapel and Other Outrageous Sins

I am currently skipped a chapel service at the school where I teach. Nothing new, really. But, I happened to notice that everyone is looking especially sharp today. Mid-terms are this week. I have just about nothing to do all week, except attend a big meeting on Wednesday, but I can suffer through that if it means I don’t have to interact with the students for an entire week.

While I enjoy talking trash about them, I really do love my students. I particularly love the class that I have completely to myself – a group of first years that have previously lived in the U.S. and so have a higher level of English ability than their classmates. Those kids are great.

My returnee students expected to do nothing but sit around and play board games – as their last teacher allowed them. Not in my class, kiddo. The first couple of classes they were rather shocked to learn that I expected them to do actually work. Not only that, but the work I give is very challenging. They don’t know all the answers. While difficult, the work I do give is a lot of fun. We write our own comics and play communication games. They each had to make their own hand-stitched journal and they write weekly essays with such topics as “the day I shrank…”

An amazing thing happened. After just a few classes, the kids started showing up excited and ready to work. Not only have they completed every single one of their assignments, but they can’t wait to show me what they’ve written. They’ll even ask if they can read their stories out loud. This is incredible participation by Japanese standards. The kids are still befuddled by my grading system. I work on a pass/fail basis. If you do the assignment, you get 100% - no matter what – even if it’s crap. If you don’t do it, you get zilch. This way, the kids try everything I throw at them, even if it’s above their level or comfort zone. I think the teacher I report to is also still befuddled by the 100% scores that keep coming out of my class, but my students are obviously working hard and engaged with their English in way they haven’t been before.

Man, those kids are great.

posted by Scribbler @ Tuesday, October 12, 2004