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I have been teaching English to kids in Japan for more than 20 years: public elementary schools in Tokyo for 11 years, and Hello Kids Komazawa for the last 9. For 3 years I have been teaching weekly lessons to students at Tsutsujigaoka Kindergarten. As I tend to stay at the same workplace for a long time, I've been able to see the long-term results of my work. Being able to really see children's English communication ability grow has been very rewarding. I mainly use APRICOT materials in my classroom. They best suit my goal of having students use as much English as possible while developing confidence and self-esteem. I enjoy teaching development, and I love discussing English education with other teachers!
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  • 38. HAPPY NEW (SCHOOL) YEAR!!

    HAPPY NEW (SCHOOL) YEAR!!
    I hope all your goals and objectives for yourself and your students come true this year!

    Well the big news from me is that from today I’ve returned to being a full-time teacher!! For the last 8 years I’ve been working only part-time in my school – afternoon elementary school kids classes only. Before that I was full-time as the main teacher in one of the pre-school morning classes. From today I’ve returned to those responsibilities!! It’s Back-to-Pre-School or me!!
     
    Understandably I was rather nervous all weekend! Over the last 8 years I’ve gained good insight into various aspects of teaching, and my classes had included many preschool aged students, but being responsible for the same group of 3~5 year-old kids every day from 10:00~2:30 requires energy and focus that I’m not used to, and of course I’m also 8 years older…!

    To my great relief it wasn’t as stressful as I was expecting, and I fell right back into the necessary frame of mind!

    My class has 17 kids. 11 of them come every day. 6 of them come once a week. Today there were 12 kids. The very first thing I did was make an effort to remember all of their names!! They were perhaps as nervous as I was, but we worked well together and got accustomed to each other quite quickly. They’re very cute!!

    Going back to preschool full-time will provide many interesting classroom experiences to share with you here!!

    I can already tell: THIS YEAR IS GOING TO BE a BIG, BIG YEAR!!

     

    Matthew pre初日

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