I had a five-hour seminar with school teachers from across Japan. Under the present guideline there is a subject called "English Expression". Learners are expected to build their ability to express themselves both in speaking and writing in various socially meaningful situations. However, the reality is many textbooks have grammar syllabus, and teachers having trouble doing
fun and meaningful communicative activities with a textbook of that kind. My goal today was two-fold:
1) To show a few different types of communicative model lessons.
2) To have participants practice one of the techniques shown in the model lessons.
I received some overwhelmingly positive feedback that made me forget how physically as well as mentally demanding to teach the seminar was. I also got a couple of constructive suggestions that were tremendously useful for revising the seminar for next spring.
I taught a 90-minute regular lecture for advanced learners in the evening. By the time I was home, my mind's batteries were dead. I had to do something purely physical to reset it. So I took off my shoes and hit the road in bare feet, and ran a 6 K shuttle course. I started off slowly, and then gradually picked up the pace toward the end to finish at 33:44.29.
When I took a shower and hit the bed, I quickly fell asleep. Next time I opened my eyes, it was 5:30 a.m. I felt refreshed, ready to go to work to teach the last few lectures before the summer break.
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