The Teaching Basket / Bag

My teaching basket!

Every ALT should have a teaching basket (or bag). I consider it to be a primary aid when teaching.

My recent "upgrade" to a bag.

The concept is fairly straightforward. Take a basket or bag to all of your classes which contains a whole host of supplies that may be necessary. By having this at every class you go to, you're always prepared and never caught off guard with a need to do activities which you aren't prepared for.

The current contents of my bag.

If you're at a single school, then a basket is preferable as it can be easy to transport from class to class, with all of the items neatly organised. I've shifted more recently to a bag, however, as I can take it easily around multiple schools in my bike basket (a lot more difficult with a basket). The downside of a bag, of course, is that objects are basically going to be shoved inside and not as neatly organised.

Click to enlarge.

I'll take you through the contents of mine, in case you want to copy some of the ideas.

(1) Eye-mask: for blind-fold games. Ideally, carry two.

(2) Plasters: mainly for elementary school, in case some of the young kids hurt themselves.

(3) Extendible Pointer: for pointing to specific things on the board.

(4) iPad Connection Cables: for hooking my iPad up to projectors, which can be useful for slideshows, videos or playing games. I have both a standard VGA output cable and an HDMI output for newer projector models. It's definitely good to carry both for whatever tablet you might be using.

(5) Bingo Counters and Shuffling Bag: for use with bingo. The counters are all home-made, from 0 to 100. Basically, you shake the bag and withdraw a number for playing bingo.

(6) 0-20 Bingo Counters: often used in elementary school classes that haven't learned up to 100 yet. These are kept separate from the main Bingo counters for ease of use. Just switch the two sets of counters between the bag.

(7) Fruits Basket Cards: always a popular game. I carry the cards around in an elastic band, just in case we have a spare ten minutes at the end of a class to play it.

(8) Magnet Box: a set of magnets for pinning slides and pictures to the board.

(9) CD of Songs: a collection of child-friendly songs, primarily for elementary schools. Contains songs such as "Happy Birthday", "ABC", etc. This was originally given to me by fellow ALT Julia Mace. I recommend making one of your own and taking it to your classes in case you need it!

(10) Spare Stickers: a set of loose, individual stickers I inherited from my ALT predecessor. Good to hand out as small prizes.

(11) Chalk Pens: holders for chalk, allowing you to get a firmer grip and not to get chalk all over your hands. You can switch out the chalk when it runs down too far, and I use them for different colours, each marked with a different coloured sticker so I can tell which is which without needing to take the cap off. These can be hard to find, but try your local 100円 store (or a 'Home Centre Daiki').

(12) Whiteboard Markers: as above, useful for writing on a whiteboard. I keep black, blue and red.

(13) Counters: great for board games and similar activities. You'll probably need at least as many as you have students in each class, which in Japan averages at about 40.

(14) Magnetic Timer: great for timed activities. Stick it on the board and set it for two or three minutes, then leave it. It'll go off when the students run out of time to complete their activity. Also great for the "Bomb Game".

(15) Character Ink Stamps: useful for marking worksheets or books which students have completed.

(16) Whistle: great for calling a class to attention at the end of an activity, or if they're getting a little too rowdy!

(17) Box of 12 Dice: again, great for board games or similar activities.

(18) Stopwatch: similar to the magnetic timer, but with a bit more flexibility. Like the magnetic timer, it can be used for timed activities or to time students. It can be carried around the classroom a bit more gracefully, too.

Wallets.

In addition to what's shown in the images above, I also carry around a few wallets full of materials with me.  I used to have space to keep these in my basket, but they don't fit so well into the bag with the other contents, so I usually just carry these along with the bag to each class. These contain as follows;

(1) Mario Cut-Outs

Characters and objects for Mario-themed activities.

A set of Mario cut out characters. These can be used for the "Blackboard Character Race" game (as listed here), or else for other activities where the student selects which Mario character they want to be their team mascot. All of the items are magnetic and can easily be placed on and moved around the board.

(2) Weather and Temperature Cards

Weather and temperature cards.

I like to use these cards to start off a class at elementary school. Some of these are hand-drawn, while others were printed from the internet. All were coloured by hand using colour pencils to give them consistency. Again, they're all laminated and affixed with magnets for easy placement on the board.

At the start of the class, students are always asked; "How's the weather today?". They'll usually respond by saying it's sunny, or rainy, or cloudy, etc. The corresponding card is then placed on the board. If the class is capable enough, I'll also use the thermometer and say; "It's hot / cold / mild today."

There's a slight mistake in this set where "cool" looks like it's warmer than "mild". I think it should probably be the other way around, so I'll be correcting that soon.

(3) Stickers

Stickers!

Of course, stickers are always on hand to be given out as prizes for students who do well. They can also be used like the character stamps and placed on worksheets or other bits of work the students have done to show satisfaction with them.

I collect loads of these sticker sheets, and any spare ones from sets get merged onto into sets to avoid having too many loose bits of plastic. Put simply, the kids love having stickers.

(4) Novelty Erasers

Erasers shaped like a variety of fruits, animals, cakes, stationery, and other things.

These prizes are especially great, purchased from Daiso for only 105円 for a set of three. I usually stock up on around ten packets at a time, and award them to students who do exceptionally well in a game.

If a student gets one of these, though, I make sure to give the other students at least a character stamp at the same time; it's best not to try and make students feel envious of one another. It's best to give a few out at a time to a team, rather than singling out an individual student with an especially good prize.

Of course, stocking up on these can be quite pricey, so I advise not going too crazy with them. That said, the students absolutely love them.

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There's nothing worse than having a spare five minutes at the end of a class with nothing prepared, so having all of these things on standby and backup in a basket or bag is a great way to make sure you're never caught completely off-guard (or at least, you can be slightly more prepared to deal with those situations than you would be otherwise).

I'd say having a teaching basket has made my life as an ALT remarkably easier, as I always feel much more prepared and ready to adapt to circumstances.

More Elementary School Games & Teaching Ideas

Last year, I posted a small post during the summer months on a few ideas to try for teaching elementary school classes. I was subsequently surprised, and still am, to note that it remains one the most highly visited pages on my entire blog at time of writing (!). This is despite the fact it only consists of three games (and, at the time, a little English handout that I'd made).

Accordingly, I've decided to extend my writing on this topic with a few more ideas I've been using over the past year. I hope you find some of them useful in your teaching!

Rock, Paper, Scissors (in English)

Pretty obvious this one, and a lot of you will already know it!

The most obvious game students should be instructed in how to play "rock, paper, scissors". This is immensely popular in Japan, known as janken. It's very easy to slowly teach the kids the words “rock”, “paper” and “scissors”, and to play the game accordingly.

For anyone who has to play the game in Japanese, perhaps for a very young class, the words you'll need to chant are; "Saisho wa guu, janken pon!"

Janken can be very important in the event of a tie-breaker. It can also be used in a number of other games in this list, such as the "Horseshoe / Zig-Zag" game below.

You can get the full instructions here; http://jet.wikia.com/wiki/Janken

“What’s this?” Blindfold Game

Students volunteer to come to the front one by one. The teacher ties a blindfold to them so that they cannot see. The teacher then reveals a secret item that has been concealed. The teacher shows this to the class so that they are aware of the item, but they are not allowed to say what it is. The teacher gives the item to the blind-folded student, who has to guess what the item is.

One way to play this game is the conceal all of the items in a bag, which has scraps of newspaper or another material in the way, with the student pulling the items out at random. I often use this variation at Christmas time, with tinsel being used in a gift bag. The students pull out various items such as Christmas cards or a small Christmas tree, etc. It's always proved to be very effective.

This can be used as a great way for practicing the names of stationary, fruit, or any category of items. Again, the class can be divided into teams to introduce a competitive element.

Cup-Bowling Game

The class is divided into two teams. A teacher creates a cup tower from paper or plastic cups at the desk at front of the class. The centre of the room is cleared, and a line is marked on the ground around two or three metres away from the cup tower.

The teacher asks various easy questions to the student. Students who answer correctly have the chance to play for their team. These students stand behind the line facing the cup tower, and throw a small, soft item (e.g. a foam ball, or a packet of tissues, etc) at the cup tower. For each cup that the player manages to knock over, a point is scored for their team.

The teams compete for a number of questions, and the team with the highest number of points wins. If one team is losing or is generally weaker, the teacher can move the marked line forward for that team to allow them to score points more easily. The teacher can also rebuild different cup towers in different formations that are more challenging for the students to hit.

Picture Bingo

The students are given a blank bingo grid with only a few squares. The students fill the grid with pictures of whatever vocabulary is being taught in the lesson.

Following this, the students play bingo with the teacher calling the words. The use of pictures allows low-level learners to associate the words and their sounds with the pictures without the need for knowledge of how to spell the words.

"Bingo!"

To make the game last a little longer, I recommend only giving the students a victory if they have managed to get two "bingos" on the same grid.

Colour-In Activities

"The triangle is orange!"

Simple colour-in activities can be effective by providing the students with blank worksheets with images that need to be coloured in. Students should colour in the pictures according to the instructions of the teacher, for example; “The hat is green” (after which, the students would colour the hat on their worksheet green).

For example, in the worksheet above, the students have to colour each of the shapes in sequence according to the instructions of the teacher. In the worksheet shown, the first instruction would be; "The star is yellow". This would be followed by; "The triangle is blue", and so on.

This can be an effective way of both teaching the vocabulary for colours but also for any other category of simple target vocabulary which appear as the objects being coloured.

“Let’s Draw a…”

 

"Let's draw a Witch!"

Students are given a blank piece of paper and assigned the task of drawing something, such as a monster, or a house, or a general scene, etc. The students draw different stages of the picture at a time, with the teacher reading each stage aloud which the students have to incorporate into their drawing; e.g. “This monster has four eyes,” etc. This pattern continues until the picture is completed.

Volunteer students may wish to show their presentations to the rest of the class (if they have drawn a creature, they may say “This is…”, or for individual objects; “This is a…” etc).

Horseshoe / Zig-Zag Race

The desks of the classroom are arranged in a horseshoe or zig-zag pattern, with two teams of students on each side. On each of the desk are placed pictures of target vocabulary. When the teacher shouts “Go”, the students race down the rows of desks. The students must touch all of the pictures on the desk and say the words aloud (e.g. touching a picture of a lemon, the student must shout “lemon”, etc).

"Apple!"

When the students meet somewhere in the middle they must play “rock-paper-scissors” (janken). Whichever student wins gets to continue touching and moving down the desks. Whichever student loses is sent to the back of their team. Another student will step forward from that team to take their place, repeating the same process until they again meet the oncoming student and play another game of “rock-paper-scissors”.

Whichever team manages to get a team across to the other side wins a point for their team. At the end of the game, the team with the most points wins.

Character Blackboard Race (Mario)

NB. This game is based on the Englipedia entry here!

The class is divided into teams. The teacher shows the students several small character cards and affixes them to the board. Students choose which character they would like to represent their team.

The teacher draws a small “race course” on the board which has a clear start and end point, and places the character at the starting point. The “race course” is composed of spaces much like a board-game. Each team is given a dice.

The teacher asks the students various questions, to which the students answer by raising their hands. A player with a correct answer gets to roll a dice for their team, and the character of their team is moved along the “race course” in a similar manner to a board-game. The character that reaches the end of the course first wins the game.

This game can also be modified to include “power-ups” much like a racing video-game, whereby students can move extra spaces or be sent back depending on the icons which are placed on the spaces upon which they land.

“What’s Missing?” Game

Playing the "What's Missing?" Game with flags of countries.
The students shut their eyes, and a card is removed, which they then have to remember.

Pictures of the target vocabulary are placed on the board. The teacher ensures that the students are familiar with all the vocabulary (perhaps by repeating the words with the students before the game begins).

On the count of three, the students close their eyes, and the teacher removes one of the pictures from the board. The teacher then says “open”, and the students open their eyes again. The students then have to raise their hands and guess which card has been removed from the board.

The teacher repeats this process several times, each time removing more cards from the board (starting with just one card, then two, then three, etc). Each time the students have to guess which cards are missing. At the end of the activity, all of the cards are removed from the board, and the students have to remember all of the words that have been used in the activity.

Keyword Game

An eraser.

As above, pictures of the target vocabulary are placed on the board. The students sit in pairs with an eraser or other small item sitting in front of them. The teacher slowly chants through the words of the vocabulary, which are repeated back to the teacher by the students (e.g. fruits: the teacher says “lemon”, which is repeated by the students saying “lemon”, etc).

Before the round begins, a keyword will have been selected and told to the students by the teacher. While chanting the words, the students need to listen for this keyword. When the teacher says the keyword, the students need to grab their eraser (or other item) as quickly as possible. The student who manages to grab the item before their partner wins a point.

The process is repeated several times. At the end of the game, the student with the most points wins.

Whisper Race Game

Pictures of the target vocabulary are placed on the board. The students are divided into teams based on the rows in which they sit, and these teams stand in their rows in a straight line facing the blackboard and the pictures.

One student from each team moves to the back of the room, where the teacher will whisper a keyword to them simultaneously (e.g. “lemon”). When the teacher says “Go”, the students need to run back to their team and whisper the word from person to person down their team line. The person at the front of the team, upon hearing the keyword, needs to run to the blackboard and touch the picture of the keyword on the board. The first student to touch the picture wins a point for their team. The player at the back then moves to the front, so that a new player will be hearing the keyword and passing it forward. The game continues at least until all students have had a turn at hearing the keyword and trying to touch the keyword on the board.

At the end of the game, the team with the most points wins. Teams can be disqualified by the teacher’s discretion if they skip players or are seen cheating in any way.

Bomb Game

The teacher takes a simple timer and sets it for a limited time, such as twenty or thirty seconds. The timer is put into the bag, which becomes a "bomb". The students pass it around within the allocated time (it's best to have the students pass it in the rows or columns they are sitting in to avoid throwing).

When the bomb "goes off" (ie. the timer starts beeping), the student with the bag has to stand up and is given a penalty, such as having to answer a question in English or such. This game can become quite frantic and very fast-paced, which occasionally means the timer might get dropped or broken. As such, don't use a very expensive one - remember that you can probably get them very cheaply at the 100円 store.

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So, there's a few more games to add on to my previous list! A lot of these are very straightforward and will be known by a lot of you already. Hopefully a few of them, however, are new to you and might prove helpful in your classes.

Happy teaching!

More School English Boards

Last year, I posted a few of the English boards I'd made and displayed on the space at my school. While generally only a handful of students from each class seem to really pay close attention, they generally get a good response and they've proven to be a good way of engaging the students outside of class time. Occasionally I've even had conversations with students about them, which has been very encouraging.

Here's a selection of a few more of the English boards that I've used over the last year.

Snake!

Eep.

The Japanese Rat Snake.

Arriving at school yesterday morning, I encountered a wild snake in Japan for the very first time.

I'd just arrived at Kinashi Elementary School when the serpent made it's appearance. The students typically arrive about an hour before I do to play sports in the morning, and so by this point they were all inside the school. I was by myself in the grounds as I wheeled my bike around to the staff bike sheds. The snake was directly in front of me, about six foot long, and slithering beneath the wheels of the other bikes. It was only when I was about three feet away from it that I finally spotted it, and I froze completely with fear.

The snake was moving away from me, luckily, and while undoubtedly it had seen me it seemed to take no interest. It continued to move under the bikes until it left the shed and made it's way towards some bushes by the ball. When it was finally several feet away, I quickly locked my bike down and walked very cautiously back to the school, keeping my eyes on it until I was a good distance away.

I reported the snake to the school, and whatever happened next took place without my knowledge as I had to teach classes throughout the first two periods. Whatever happened, the snake must have left the premises, but as is often the case in Japan I wasn't given any more information than that. I was thanked later in the day by the school principle for reporting it, and they told me that it was apparently quite a big one. I hope that it caught rather than simply spotted leaving, or else just assumed to have left. The Kinashi area is full of rows and rows of beautiful bonsai trees, and it would be incredibly easy for a snake to hide in amongst them.

The bonsai fields in Kinashi.

Certain snakes are particularly dangerous in Japan, including the infamous mamushi (the Japanese pit viper) that occasionally pops up around rural areas Kagawa. Mamushi are notorious for (according to Wikipedia) attacking around 2000-3000 people a year, having severely powerful venom that can take up to a week in hospital to be treated for, and which kills several people every year who can't handle it. I had no knowledge of what snake it was at the time, but it certainly doesn't appear to fit the description of the mamushi. It seems far more likely that what I saw was a Japanese rat snake, which is apparently non-venomous. Still bloody terrifying, though.

I'd gone two years without having seen a snake, yet I'd come within very close distance of one and had taken quite the shock at the time. I'll certainly be keeping my eyes peeled on the ground whenever I visit more rural areas in Kagawa again!

風立ちぬ (Kaze Tachinu): "The Wind Rises"

Kaze Tachinu (2013).

Following our recent trip to the Pokemon movie (and Man of Steel a few days prior to that), Angie and I decided to head along to 風立ちぬ (Kaze Tachinu) on Wednesday evening. The new film from the acclaimed Studio Ghibli and director Hayao Miyazaki (called "The Wind Rises" in English), we were excited to watch it - albeit without subtitles, as with the Pokemon film - making it the third film we'd seen in the space of a week (I was also keen to check out World War Z and Star Trek Into Darkness, which have just been released here, but I haven't gotten around to those as of yet).

Unfortunately, I currently have quite mixed feelings about this film.

It appears to be the personal labour of love (and swansong) of director Hayao Miyazaki (famed for Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and other Ghibli classics). As what has been announced to be the final film of his career as he head's into retirement, a lot of people don't quite know what to make of this film, as it's been attacked by both the political left and right in Japan (on the left for being too kind to Japan's war effort, and on the right for being too harsh on it).

To put things into context, I have to make it clear that without subtitles it is very difficult for me (with my limited Japanese language ability) to understand the full context of the visuals and dialogue of the film. Reading it purely on a sensory level, however, the whole thing appears to be a bit overly simplistic, with a rather dubious moral position which suggests that the pursuit of one's creative spirit is fine if that individual is ignorant of the acts of war their creations are used for.

The film's protagonist: Jiro Horikoshi.

In this case, we are asked to accept a very positive reading of the film's protagonist - Jiro Horikoshi (based on a real historical figure, making this something of an animated biopic) - who designed planes which were used by the Japanese military during World War II. I'm not one to delve into the politics of this in detail, but it is a bizarre choice for a film studio to make which is usually associated with child-like wonder and fantasy (with some exceptions, of course, such as Grave of the Fireflies).

It's incredibly frustrating, because without the necessary language abilities, I can't really interpret the film accurately or appropriately. I'm missing a huge chunk of the context, and I feel that my subjective opinion is really difficult to validate without a deeper knowledge of the language. I'm only interpreting from what I saw, which could well be off the mark.

It's worth noting that, as always with Studio Ghibli, the animation is simply sublime, and the music is breathtaking. Just listen to this stunning theme; it will take your breath away.

It's very, very difficult to read this movie impartially.

I'll definitely be watching this again with subtitles, and giving a more thorough analysis of the movie then. Right now, I'm trying to reserve judgement until I really know what I'm talking about. At present, I've found this particular article from the Asia-Pacific Journal very useful in contextualising the film, which I'd highly recommend to anyone.

Regardless; a curious film, by all accounts.

 

A Trip to a Pokemon Movie: Mewtwo vs Genesect

Mewtwo vs Genesect!

As is probably well known by now, being in Japan somewhat reignited my love of Pokemon somewhat (to the point that I even set up a local Facebook group for Fife Pokemon fans back home in Scotland). The games still continue to engage me on my DS, and it's been quite fun to get back into such a good RPG franchise.

Still, I'd given up on the Pokemon anime series years ago (around about the time I started high school, naturally). I hadn't watched a single episode of Pokemon since then. Well, no matter; with a new Pokemon movie coming out this year, I decided I simply had to go - as something I owed to my eleven year old self. So, last Sunday, Angie and I went along to the Aeon Cinema in Takamatsu to check out the new movie; "Mewtwo vs Genesect".

Well, it was... er, not great.

Post-screening blues: you can tell I look a tad deflated.

(Spoilers ahead.)

The film is basically your typical story, and a bit of a rip-off of the first Pokemon movie (which is the only other one I've watched). Basically, five laboratory-grown Pokemon named Genesect break out of their lab and search for a new home (we're never given any backstory as to who made them or why). Meanwhile, a brand new (!) female Mewtwo has been born in what appears to be another secret lab by another group of scientists (?!). This Mewtwo has since learned the value of friendship with it's Pokemon pals before the start of the movie (?!?), though distrusts humans (like the original Mewtwo). The Genesect attack a Pokemon sanctuary / park where Ash (and his rubbish new friends) happen to visiting in order to make it their new home (no idea why they had to aggressively invade it, mind you). Ash and Pikachu do almost nothing for the whole film while the new Mewtwo fights the Genesect and eventually teaches them the power of friendship and love, with the usual clichés, etc. Yadda yadda yadda... Uninspired, and almost identical to the plot of the first movie that I watched when I was a kid.

It's... terrible. It really is. Unless you're five. Maybe.

Also, Team Rocket show up for a couple of very brief cameos and do nothing of any note. They have no bearing on the plot or any interaction with the main cast whatsoever. Very disappointing considering they were the best part of the show when I watched it (they have pretty much nothing to do here). Additionally, Brock and Misty are nowhere to be seen (though apparently they were written out years ago, for some reason). Their replacements are terrible - especially the green-haired goon who keeps spouting nonsense in English like "SU-PAH SU-WEET!".

I honestly don't know why they didn't just use the same Mewtwo character that's been in the films before. If the character has exactly the same backstory, then what's the point? There's tons of flashbacks to it's origin anyway, so would it really have been so difficult to sync them up?

The movie is also preceeded by a twenty-ish minute short where Pikachu and a few of his Pokemon pals meet a new Eevee evolution and have various fun adventures with it and other Eevee evolutions. Fairly harmless, but I did feel a bit stupid at 25 watching something clearly intended for the very, very youngest members of the audience. Danny Glover has this covered. It also has an extended five minute sequence where the cast stare at various screensavers (and no, I'm not making that up). It's really just too long for what it's supposed to be, but maybe the kids enjoyed it.

What struck me most about this was how little the characters seem to have grown in the decade or so since I stopped watching the show. Ash appears no better a Pokemon trainer than the last time I saw him. There seems to be honestly no point in watching this series, because the character will simply never catch them all. As soon as Nintendo brings out a new game, he has another hundred or so to catch - yet he hasn't even caught all of the last set each time (in fact, he used to actively let them go for some reason). Essentially; the series becomes pointless as there is no conceivable end or conclusion to it. It will simply endure in perpetuity as long as it is profitable.

You can watch the full trailer for the movie here (or below). Strangely, a lot of footage from this trailer isn't in the actual movie itself - these scenes seem to have been animated specifically for the trailer. Many of the events pan out completely differently here (it must also be said that Team Rocket has almost as much screen time in the trailer as they do in the film!).

Overall, I have to say that I don't think I'll be going to any Pokemon movies again in future. It's clearly aimed at kids much, much younger than myself. While the game series continues to be a great RPG franchise that I still love to play, I'm reminded that I stopped watching the anime on TV years ago for a reason; I had simply outrgown it, and the nostalgia factor sadly didn't make up for it's limitations on this occasion.

Still... I can't say there wasn't just the *tiniest* part of me that didn't remember the good times when I was a wee boy, watching this show after school.

Don't get me wrong, though. This movie was awful.

Lantern Walk in Mure

On Friday, fellow ALT Julia Collie held a Tex-Mex party at her house. It was a lovely way to spend the evening catching up with some friends I hadn't seen in a while (following my recent break away back to Scotland). I also got to meet a brand new ALT in the form of Adam Simonini (another Canadian!).

Following dinner, we went out onto the streets of Mure where Julia lives. At this time of year, they display a lantern festival where all of the houses display fascinating lanterns of all different types on their doorsteps, as well as a few more public ones scattered on the walk.

Here are a selection of some of the highlights from our walk.