This week, my students did Small Group Presentations. Small Group Presentations differ from Class Presentations in two important ways. First, students sit in groups rather than getting up in front of the whole class. Secondly, they receive TWO grades: one for their presentation, and one for asking questions when other members of the group give their presentations.
My students were really outstanding.
My first graders tried really hard and did really well considering that this is still new to them. They did presentations about Christmas and the O Henry story "The Gift of the Magi" (our final reading this term).
My second graders were AMAZING! They really got into the questions and they were so active and aggressive that I was really impressed. I can't wait to see how they do when we get into debates more. They're going to be so great at it! Their presentations were about Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and questions about keeping exotic animals as pets.
My third graders, though, were really, really surprising for me. Their presentations were so intelligent, and so insightful. We read about The Christmas Truce of 1914 when German and British soldiers temporarily stopped fighting during Christmas, World War I. Their presentations were about war, and they talked about SO many topics related to war and peace, including the Olympics, how eating can calm aggressive feelings (those were two of my favorites), and one students brought up an amazing number of points related to war. All of the students in my third grade class are just brilliant!
投稿者 nelp : 21:13
This week saw a HUGE change in the NELP program!
I bought a new iMac for home, brought my old iMac to the NELP room, and moved the NELP computer to a table in the NELP room to be a NELP computer for students to use (and for me to use for a few last specific windows applications that won't transfer to my Mac).
I spent the better part of this week figuring out how to connect the Mac to the projector and the Smartboard, configuring the Mic (I bought a Griffin iMic external soundcard to boost the sound), working out cables to connect the Mac to the video camera, and linking the computer to the NELP laptops so they can print.
Still having a few minor problems. Some setting on the internet router is preventing me from usingGoogle Images, but it's on my list of things to do.
I've started transferring my Microsoft Word .doc files to iWork Pages documents and transferring my Powerpoint presentations into Keynote.
It should look really good when I'm done and will really help me with a huge new project I'm planning for the NELP project.
In addition, my Mac at home has 8gb of ram and Apple Final Cut Express to help me with making videos for the NELP program. Some of our video files were challenging my old computer. This marks a big turning point in what I'll be able to do for the NELP program.
投稿者 nelp : 21:04
This week my high school first grade NELP class was visited by an instructor from Chugoku Junior College.
Once again, he did a very interesting lesson about English music! He'll be visiting again next Friday with another lesson!
投稿者 nelp : 21:01
Here are the latest pictures from the NELP writing class.
投稿者 nelp : 20:50
On Monday, we welcomed two students from the Philippines. The students had come to Japan with their teacher and they very kindly came and visited our school. I invited my NELP students ... and I was REALLY touched. ALL of my NELP students came: first graders, second graders and third graders. They were really excited to meet the students from the Philippines, but for me, this was also the first time that I saw all of my junior high NELP girls together, and it was really heart-warming for me to see the different grades talking and laughing together. Here are some pictures I took.
投稿者 nelp : 16:43