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Enjoy Teaching - Message from L. A. by Junko Nakamura
I am happy to let you know that I have started the Practicum for my TESOL certificate last September.. This is the final step in completing this program, and it is really a lot of work. The Practicum requires 30 hours of class observations, 40 hours of actual teaching, and 50 hours of research, planning, and seminars.
For my practicum, I work as a student teacher at a Japanese school (because this is quite similar to the EFL situation in Japan.) I also observed classes at a public high school, a public elementary school, and a private English school. Fortunately, this practicum complements my online seminar with a professor and other colleagues which gives us a wonderful opportunity to discuss the way we teach at each site and give suggestions to each other. I am the only non-native speaker of English and lots of discoveries and findings have come to me through these discussions.
The school I work at has 3 different ESL teachers who are native speakers of English, and I learn a lot from them all. They use course books for all grades, but alternate textbooks each year because the composition and level of each class can change every year. They used the Let’s Go! series for all graders last year! They will use it again next year, too. I wish I could be here to observe how they will teach it.
I currently teach three classes every day from 1st to 6th grade, and each class has different needs depending on the grade and level. Especially the younger students seem to love the way they get to use lots of body actions and gestures, and the quick MAT??? Drills make the class very energetic! My 40 hour teaching will be finished, hopefully, by the end of November. I am proud of being able to teach using MAT!
It is very exciting to be returning to "school" after such a long interval. Although it keeps me very busy, I am really having FUN!
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