Teaching Practice

Initial Demonstration Teaching

On February 12th 2025, I had my initial demonstration teaching with class 1-B. Under the guidance of my English supervisor, Koizumi sensei, we decided that I introduce the Philippines, my home country, to the class. I discussed about the country's capital, weather, national hero, values, traditional clothes, festivals, music and dance, food, tourist spots, similarities between Philippines and Japan, and other fun facts that the students may be interested in. I also taught the students some Filipino words which they were excited to learn.

During the class I spoke in a slow pace and used words that are more basic and simple for the students to understand. And in some cases, I translated some words I knew to provide the students some context, which was a decision I was glad I made because the students would react positively every time I translated some words into Japanese.

I also observed that the students can understand me completely when I only speak in English, but are just too shy to answer my questions because they may not be confident enough with their English.

I can tell that they can understand me because when I would ask questions, they would ask each other about what they think the answer could be, but since they still don't have that much of a confidence when speaking in English, almost no one would answer voluntarily. I realized that students just needed a little push, and I did so by picking some students through numbers (since the students have numbers assigned to them). And whenever students answer, I would reward them with a peso coin that I brought from the Philippines as a souvenir!

The only issue I had throughout the teaching was a technical issue at the beginning of the class where my laptop wouldn't connect properly to the projector. But thanks to Koizumi sensei, the issue was solved quickly! The only downside was I went over the time limit a little bit. I was fine with wrapping up the lesson as soon as the bell rang, but I still asked the students if it was okay that I finished the lesson quickly. The students said yes and fortunately the next period was their lunch time so they had no issues. I did feel bad that I took up some of their lunch time, so I apologized a lot to both the teachers who came to observe and the students, but they didn't seem to mind which was a relief.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable class, although I was a bit nervous at first, I still consider it a successful one! I hope that the students enjoyed the class as much as I did and I hope I get to teach them again in the future.

Final Demonstration Teaching

On February 19th 2025, I conducted my final demonstration teaching with class 1-D. Under the guidance of Koizumi sensei, it was decided that the topic of the lesson was on Grammar for Speaking and Writing, specifically on relative pronouns and omission.

Prior to my demonstration teaching, Koizumi sensei had mentioned that class 1-D had a lot of fluent English speakers, so I was confident that the students could understand me. However, I still spoke in a slower pace and chose to use basic words for the other students who weren't as fluent in English.

During the class, the students would actively participate whenever I asked them to read the sentences I was showing in my Power Point, and when I asked questions, students would volunteer to answer, compared to 1-B where I had to give them a little push.

The discussion proper included the explanation of relative clauses and relative pronouns, specifically the pronouns that, whose, and what. The approach I decided to use was explaining the topic through the use of examples instead of only explaining the meanings. I dissected each sentence and explained why the relative pronouns cannot be removed in each sentence. After the main explanation, I gave more example sentences where I asked the students to tell me the reason why the relative pronouns cannot be removed in the sentences.

After the discussion proper was the group activity where I grouped them into six groups with five members, and their task was to write an essay together on a given topic, and they had to use the relative pronouns mentioned. The issue I encountered with this (and the only issue aside from technical issues) was that the students didn't seem to understand the instructions properly, and only a few students seem to fully understand the instructions. After the class, I reflected that I should've made the instructions more clearer, which is something I will now look out for in the future.

The students seemed to enjoy the second part of the activity which was having representatives from each group read their essays in front of the class. Some students cracked jokes which entertained their other classmates, and overall the students reacted quite positively.

The only other issue I had during the class was again, technical issues where my laptop wouldn't connect properly to the projector. But it was solved quicker this time since I only needed to do what I did to fix the problem when I had the issue last time. I did went overtime a little bit, but only for around five minutes to finish the students' presentations. Koizumi sensei asked the students if it was okay for us to finish the presentations since the students seem to be enjoying it and the students agreed.

Overall, it was a class that I thoroughly enjoyed! I was nervous that there might not be a lot of student participation like my previous demonstration, but I was glad that the students were actively participating so I gave them some Philippine candy as thanks. I hope that the students enjoyed the lesson as much as I did and I hope that I get to teach them again in the future.