Week Ten

31/05/08

Today I decided to work towards my aim of improving my social skills because I feel this is the area where I haven't improved that much. So I decided to talk with some of the other teachers around me in the staff room at lunch time. I couldn't relate all that much because they were mostly either talking about their children, husbands or students but it still made lunch time a lot more interesting than usual. There is one teacher who I have talked to heaps during my placement though because she used to teach at my old high school and she was my favourite teacher.

04/05/08

Today was my last day. I was hoping to say something at staff meeting to thank everyone for letting me do my placement there but Amara was late and I was too nervous to just stand up and say something by myself (also you're not really allowed, you have to write your name on the list prior to the meeting)

Today was a little disappointing because I thought my last day would be a little more eventful. We had a shared lunch but it wasn't really well prepared so there were a lot of students in the class who've I've never met before because they didn't wanna stay outside in the cold. Most of lunch time was the students who went to Japan showing photos of their trip again.

However, after school I was talking to a few girls outside of class as I was waiting for Amara and I told them that it was my last day. They wanted to have a group hug which I thought was really cute and really really nice =)

After school, I tried to sort out as much as possible. But as there are a lot of tasks that I haven't completed yet I promised Amara I would come back in after I've finished exams to sort everything out. I was actually quite sad to leave Sancta Maria but at the same time extremely relieved because I can focus on studying now.

Week Nine

24/05/08

This being my second to last week I thought it would a good idea to get in as much class time as possible. However it is also important to complete the resources I've started so I am not leaving Amara with extra work to do. I'm still feeling a little sick but I don't have a kidney infection any more so I'm finding this week less stressful than last week.

I helped the year 12 students with translation work again. They confided in me saying that they're worrying about exams because they don't feel like they've learnt enough. I tried to give them some good advice and they were really grateful, they even told me they would be sad when I left. I felt like i have had a good impact on them and it makes me feel like the time I've been spending at Sancta Maria College has been worthwhile.

I also worked with year 13 students again and this time had no negative encounters.

I have been trying to get a copy of the interviews from Amara to include in my portfolio! =)

28/05/08

Amara and i were talking about my future career options today and the more I think about it the more I think that I want to apply for the JET programme when applications open this year. I think JET will be a good opportunity for me to utilize the skills I have developed during my placement as well as improving my Japanese so that when I return to NZ I will have a better chance at obtaining a good job. Plus I really don't want everything I've learnt over the years to be forgotten.

Week Eight

17/05/08

Today I was able to get more classroom time which I am happy about. I helped the year 12s with their translation work. I feel I would get a lot more done with them if they didn’t have to write down their translations into their book. I asked Amara if because I’m here they could take advantage of their time by doing it orally as opposed to writing the English translations into their book. However, she said no. I kinda don’t see the point in writing the English into their books because English is not the language they’re learning and they can’t even take the books home anyway as they’re kept at school. Despite this, the year 12s were still happy to have my help.

I also attended a year 9 class today, which is one of the few classes with other 30 pupils. Amara left me alone to conduct a listening exercise with the students which seemed easy enough as all I was really required to do was play a CD to them. But when I wanted to ask them if they wanted to hear the question for the second time I couldn’t speak loud enough for everyone to hear. I had to ask a girl sitting near me to get their attention. I found this a little embarrassing.

21/05/08

Today I was sick so I had to go home early. I actually had a medical certificate which stated that I could have the day off but I was scared of disappointing the students so I went in anyway. I probably should’ve just stayed home…..

Week Seven

10/05/2010

Today I had my first "difficult" encounter with a student. It was just minor however. One of the students asked me if I was cold and I said yes. The student that I've noticed to have attitude problems commented that it was because I was wearing "fake leather" which is not something that I would usually get offended by but I found it was uncalled for. The rest of the period I worked with the year 13 students, him being one of them, and he was constantly complaining about how bored he was. I tried not to encourage him by paying too much attention to him so I kept the period quite light hearted as I talked with them as well as helped them with their work. However, I did find it difficult as I was still annoyed about the comment he made earlier.

14/05/2010

Today was another day spent in the office making resources. This time it was a lesson outline for the year 9 students. I was basically copying learning outcomes from the NZQA website and transferring them into MS Word then adding more examples and translations. This was another task I found quite tedious. I hate wasting my time doing tasks that Amara is so certain have to be done but in my opinion there are better ways to do them...

Week Six

03/05/2010

Today was another productive day. Mostly I assisted Amara with technical things so that she could show the year 9 classes their self introduction assessments that were recorded earlier.

I asked Amara if instead of trying to make resources from the books that they have at Sancta Maria if I could instead make one myself from scratch as I didn't find any of the ones they have very useful or relevent. She (kinda reluctantly) agreed.
The resource had to be focussed of people descriptions so I created 5 short descriptions of celebrities and matching picture cards. (I'll upload the file). Ill copy them onto card and cut them up next time. I'm really happy with how they turned out actually and so was Amara.

07/05/2010

Today was a little disappointing. Amara had printed out about 50 copies of a card matching game similar to the one I had created but straight out of the resource book. She asked me to cut them up for the students to use. I don't really know why she printed out that many copies considering it is an activity she wishes to use with the year 10 students and there are less than 10 students in the class. I'm feeling a little frustrated because I'm not having much say in what I do.

Week Five

26/04/2010

Today I continued to mark exercise books. I am getting a little frustrated because I am spending a lot of time in the office and not much in the classroom. I would like more chances to improve on my leadership skills because I don't feel like I've improved very much in this area yet. Also my Japanese hasn't improved but I have noticed that I am finding the classes incredibly easy (obviously). The kids have actually been saying my Japanese is better than the teacher's.... I noticed they don't really show much respect towards her =(

30/04/08

I felt like today was a really productive and satisfactory day.

Last week I created a work sheet for the Year 10 students where I asked them questions about Japan (if they had gone on the exchange) or their holiday. Today I gave them the worksheet and gave them some time to work on the answers. A few of the kids were very enthusiastic and asked me for help in creating complex sentences so I got to work on my leadership skills taking control of the class. This was good because thus far Amara hasn't given me much opportunity to do this before. After they wrote their answers I then recorded them in an interview style. I was more confident in conducting this than before but that may have been because I was able to speak from behind the camera.
Overall, this was a really successful class and I'm proud that I was able to take control of the lesson by myself.

Week Four

19/04/2010

Today was the first day of term two at Sancta Maria College and it was also the first time I met with Amara since she came back from Japan (she came back on Tuesday).

I attended staff meeting as usual. Today was a particularly hard day as it was FREEZING and raining. Plus it sounds silly but I didn't wear heels today so my pants were way too long on me and were dragging on the ground so they got soaking from the rain.

After staff meeting there was a senior celebrity (years 11, 12 and 13). At the assembly one of the deans reinstated the standards of dress at the school and it amazed me how strict they are on uniform.

Today we had four teaching periods. The first was year 8s and they were the only class I haven't met before. I've found the younger classes harder to teach as the students are either shy or stubborn and don't really want to talk to me.

The year 9 class next was good as there are a few students in that class who are really enthusiastic about Japanese and its good to see that in kids that age. I basically helped with hiragana this period. I'm hoping to organize some activities to do with the year 9 students as I think they would really appreciate it.

A student from the year 11/12/13 class had just come back from Japan so for most of the period she talked about her experiences.

During the free period I photocopied an activity from a resource book onto card and made them into an activity I can do with the younger students. I also made five sets of miniature flash cards for the year 10 students. I am yet to complete these though.

The last class of the day was the year 10s. A few of the students had been to Japan so they each read an entry from their reflective journal. It was interesting to listen to.......

However, I am finding that not much gets done during the periods I observe/ aide in... I think that we were made to learn a lot more when I was in high school (which I am grateful for)

After school I marked a test the year 10s did on katakana and sorted some things out for Amara

23/04/2010

Today I marked the year 9 student's books basically all day.

I'm quite pleased with myself in terms of my aims so far. For example, I have not been late one day and have been arriving long before 8am. However, I am finding this more and more difficult as because of traffic I either have to leave at around 7.20am and arrive there as early as 7.35 or if I leave even 5 - 10 minutes later I will be late. I have been getting a bit slack with getting up early in the morning however as I'm not a morning person and its getting increasingly cold.

As for my other aims, I'm yet to really see any improvement in my Japanese speaking probably because I am unable to have a challenging conversation because there isn't anybody with an advanced ability in Japanese. However, I have been revising some basic structures that I had forgotten. With my teaching and social skills, I am feeling improvement but definately no where near the level I would like to be. Unfortunately today I didn't get a chance to work on these aims.

Week Three

Day Five 29/03/2010

Today was a pretty cruisy day as there was only one class that I needed to attend.

Amara was away today so I was left with the students and the reliever during that one class. It was the year 11/12/13 class though so I didn't have any problems with the students.

The rest of the day i worked on the Kanji flash cards I started creating last week and finally finished them off!

02/03/2010 --> GOOD FRIDAY

Week Two

Day Three 22/03/201

Today I worked individually with the same year 12 student that I worked with last week. I decided to do oral Japanese exercises with him as he said that was the area he is weakest it. Its hard to speak slowly and clearly so that it is easier for him to understand but he seemed to understand better as we went along.

I also attended a year 9 class which I hadn't been in before so I introduced myself and they asked me a few questions. I did hiragana flash cards with them and wrote the answers to their hiragana quiz on the board so they could mark their answers. While Ms. Kevern was teaching them the new hiragana I walked around and checked everyone's homework. I was active throughout the whole class so I gained good experience.

During the non-contact periods and lunch time today I typed out the year 10 kanji then used that to create A4 kanji flash cards that can be used like how I used the hiragana ones earlier today (I will post photos when they are completed). I started to type out the readings and examples of the kanji that i will paste onto the back of the A4 kanji and finally laminate. However, as there are 74 kanji it will take me a couple more hours to type up the rest of the readings so I will complete that in my own time.

Day Four 26/03/2010

Today was a pretty full on day as Amara (my work place supervisor) and six students are leaving for Japan tomorrow for just over two weeks.

The most important thing I did today was interview the year ten class on video. When interviewing the students who are going to Japan tomorrow I asked questions such as: What do you wish to learn in Japan? Where do you want to visit the most? (in Japanese) etc etc. There wasn't so difficult except I wasn't thrilled about being on video. Also, I had to translate most questions into English for the year ten students and most answered in English.

I also marked year nine students books and checked their progress in the hiragana drills. I felt bad having to tell Amara on a couple of students that had done little or no work but I guess that is something I will have to get used to!

Today was a very long day as I worked through the whole lunch period helping the students going to Japan organize the 1000 cranes that have been folded so they can bring them to Japan with them. I found myself getting a little frustrated as the kids didn't want to stay inside during their last lunch period before they leave so they weren't really doing what I asked. In the end we got everything done though.

Week One

Day One: Monday 15/03/2010

Today I started my placement at Sancta Maria College in Botany. Sancta Maria is a Catholic school consisting of years 7 through to 13. My first impressions of this school were that it is a very pleasant, modern school. There are only 800 students so it is completely different to my old high school.

First of all, I attended the staff meeting and was introduced to the faculty. Everyone was very welcoming and a few of the teachers came over and talked to me after the meeting as they were interested in hearing about my studies of Japanese.

Today was a good day to start on because it is the only day that Ms. Kevern (the Japanese teacher and my work based supervisor) has classes from all year levels (starting from year 8). I introduced myself to all the classes I attended in Japanese which actually quite difficult as I wasn't sure how much Japanese each class understood. But most students took an interest and asked me many questions about studying Japanese and visiting Japan. I really enjoyed talking to the students.

Other than the self introductions I basically just observed Ms. Kevern as she took her classes but did however help a year 12 student who is doing correspondence in different level classes (due to timetable clashes I assume).

Overall, I feel like I had a productive first day

Outside of school hours:

I went through a research book looking for relevant tasks that could be utilized during class time.

Day Two: Friday, 19/03/2010

Today I attended staff meeting again as well as Ms. Kevern's form class. I introduced myself to the students and helped Ms. Kevern with general housekeeping but that was about it.

Today I was able to involve myself more with the students. I worked with the four year 13 students playing a game where they had to draw a grammar structure from a box then create a sentence using that structure. I was impressed with the ability with all four of the students and that they were very courteous and willing to learn. After the game we went over the level two structures which they would have learnt last year for revision.

In one of the year 8 classes I conducted a random quiz about Japan. The students answered enthusiastically but it was quite difficult to get them to raise their hands before answering a question rather than just shouting the answer out. However, they did have quite an extensive knowledge of Japan for year 8 students.

As we had non-contact or "free" periods today I was able to create the resources I prepared earlier on in the week at home. I made a travel game for the senior students and am quite anxious to try it out.