Day 2 - Teacher observation

As students of the Teacher Training Course, we are required to sit in Elem 1 and 2 classes to observe different teaching techniques from more experienced senseis.

The first class we attended as a group is Keli-sensei's Elem 2 morning class. I have to say that I loved Keli-sensei's class. Her method might seem ordinary to students. But to teachers, it is not. Her lessons flow seamlessly from one topic to another. She uses a lot of materials (nothing too bongga, like the ones we had during the first 模擬授業) to make lessons more interesting.

Here are a few shots I took of the class.

I also took a pic of my classmates, without them knowing, of course.

Gotcha! Natutulog si Gail, nagte-text si Peewee at inaantok si Sherrie! Susumbong ko kayo kay sensei!!!

Mogi jugyou - 4 days and counting

I only have 4 days to go till my mock class 模擬授業. I will be teaching in the first half then Sherrie-san takes off from my lesson in the second half.

I am almost done with my 絵カード but I am yet to make my vocab paper. I also prepared the flow of my lessons. Mentally, that is. I wasn't able to put it down in writing last night because I was so sleepy.

Basically, what sensei wanted us to do is to show how exactly we plan to do the following:

導入 - Introduction
基本練習 - Basic Practice
応用練習 - Practical Application

I already have a pretty good idea of how I'm going to do it, but I really have to put it into writing, maybe prepare a little script, especially for the intro part, just so I could be sure that I won't be forgetting any important point.

This is on top of that article I'm writing for Japinoy. I hope to finish it by next week so we can have it posted ASAP.

Yoshi! This is it, pansit! I'll be counting down to Saturday...and praying that everything will go smoothly. (crosses fingers)

Happy 1st birthday, Japinoy.com! ^_^

It's Japinoy.com's first year anniversary this month. Yay! We're one year old! ^_^

All Japinoy members are invited to the anniversary celebration on Sunday, May 27th at Music 21 Plaza, Jupiter Street, Makati City at 3:00 - 5:00pm.

It was early May of last year that Schatz and I started building on the concept of an online Pinoy community about Japan: anime, music, TV, Nihongo, culture, even Visa. We eventually came up with the name Japinoy, which is the fusion of Japanese and Pinoy. As a web site, we aim to foster greater interest in anything Japanese through a fun and informative online community.

We got the domain and bought hosting services, and voila, Japinoy.com was born. But it was only in June that we started accepting members because we had lots of little details to fix. Schatz wanted an auspicious date so we officially 'opened to the public' on June 8th.

Being only a year old, Japinoy.com still has a long way to go. But in the past year, we've made good progress in the WWW: 318 members and over 4,000 different discussions. A lot of improvements are about to come soon and I don't want to talk about them yet because we don't have a fixed date for the changes but I'm sure the wait will be worth it.

I look forward to more Japinoy years for our community. I hope that we get more active members, and that we make a bigger difference in promoting Japan in the Philippines.

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

On the way to becoming a teacher ^_^

はじめまして。

私はキャットと申します。２月からマニランの日本語センターで日本語教育コースをやっています。前は私はキャリアウーマンだと思っていますが、この考え方が段々変わっています。Corporate slave で、もういやだと何回も繰り返しています。

学校にいると、すごく楽しいです。教師になりたいですが、いい教師になれるかなとかんがえています。ほかのひとによると、キャットさんはいい学生だそうです。でも、いい学生はいい教師になれるとはかぎらないでしょう。ですから、ちょっと心配です。（笑い）でも、一生懸命頑張っています。

In this diary, I will chronicle my life as an aspiring teacher. Teacher? Me? Who would've thought, huh? But then again, I already am doing my teaching course since February...and did a serious assessment on where I really want to bring my career. I already talked to the person who matters most (that's my boyfriend, you know ^_~) and he says he is OK with it, as long as he knows I am happy with the move.

OK, all systems go!