It has been a long time since writing my last relay talk message. A lot has happened at Nihongakuen this year. Due to the coronavirus, Nihongakuen had to close to prevent the virus from spreading. This was a big challenge as we had to continue teaching students without being able to see them.
The teachers came up with several ideas to teach students using the internet. We used Classi, Google Classroom, Zoom, YouTube etc. to upload content for students to watch. I used recording software to record classes for senior high school 3rd year students. I worked together with Horikoshi Sensei to create interesting classes. I also decided to use more Japanese in my explanations than usual as I thought my all English classes would be difficult for students because they could not ask me questions or interact with me online.
It has been a long time since I have seen the students faces, but now that the lockdown is finally over, we have begun letting students come to school again. We are currently in the third week of homeroom classes. We will begin regular classes starting from the 22nd of June.
This year I will be teaching Junior High 2nd and 3rd year students as well as Senior High 1st and 3rd years. I will be mainly using the iPad to teach my classes, creating more visually interesting content to help students engage more in the lessons.
I look forward to seeing students gain more confidence in their understanding and speaking of English. It is my goal to encourage students and help them gain confidence in their skills which will be a big challenge as they have not had much practice due to the lack of classes from April until now. However, I think the students will soon get back into the swing of things and we will make good progress.
