Monday 19/05/08
Prac Block Day Six

Another day of teaching! Today I had a more relaxed approach to the classroom. Mostly because I felt like I had been quite hard in my approach last week and the students had responded quite well, I felt like it was time to relax a bit. Japanese was first up and I supervised and facilitated the kankyou unit. I also played a game of Kanji Snatch at the end (at the suggestion of my teacher).

Kanji Snatch involves putting the kanji cards on the table and then calling out the readings or the English meaning of the kanji. The students have to be the first to grab them. At the end you count who has the most – they are the winner! It’s a pretty fun and relaxing game that is good for kanji recognition.

After this I did Money games with Boat F who were better than they were on Friday, but at the same time, still quite rowdy. I had to start one of the students on other work because he continued to be disruptive and not wanting to work. Other wise the lesson was uneventful. Boat E was the same.

In the afternoon I attended the music class. The prac teacher who is taking the class had the students play their homework (making a 12 bar chord progression) on guitar. It was really interesting to see her challenge the students to put their theory into practice on guitar. It might have been better to have a keyboard or piano available for the students who were not so capable on guitar, but all the students had a go – which is an advantage of a small class!

After this we listened to The Land Down Under where we looked at the lyrics and other musical characteristics and how they were uniquely Australian. One of the students protested at having to study a song they didn’t like, but the prac teacher dealt with it really well by saying that to be a musician you need to understand all types of music, not just the genre that you play.

And that’s pretty much it for today.