常時英心:言葉の森から 1.0

約10年間,はてなダイアリーで英語表現の落穂拾いを行ってきました。現在はAmeba Blogに2.0を開設し,継続中です。こちらはしばらくアーカイブとして維持します。

ミシガンから

アメリカはミシガン州ホランドに留学している白金台の学生からのレポートです。英語には手を入れていません(一言:「できた」=couldと結ぶのはやめよう。couldは仮定法の意味で用いられることがほとんど!)。

ありのままの今の彼女の英語で綴られたレポートを楽しんでください。しかしながらミシガンは極寒でしょうね...(UG)

Since last August, I have been staying in Holland, Michigan to study as an exchange student at Hope College, which has a long relationship with Meijigakuin University. I am taking some education classes here with regular students to learn and experience more as a future educator. It was enriching that I could have so many experiences and learning in educational settings. This applied especially for elementary level kids, not only in classes but also outside the classes.

I took three education classes last semester: Educational Psychology, field placement, which is a co-requisite to Psychology, and Art Education class. I learned a lot about children’s behavior through a textbook in my Psychology class, also the learning was reinforced in my field placement. I visited a 1st grade class at Roosevelt Kindergarten for two hours every week as a student teacher to observe and assist children to learn better.

First of all, it was surprising how different the children’s behavior and learning styles were from each other. Some kids had difficulty paying attention to the teacher, and some chatted with each other while the teacher was talking to children. On the bright side, since these children are still learning how to listen in class, I gave cues to them for paying attention.

Teachers can also help students by using special teaching techniques. For example, when the children needed to write numbers on a piece of paper, one boy struggled with it, but the teacher noticed this and wrote numbers for him in yellow crayon, allowing him to trace.
One more thing that I learned was that there are some ways to scold or praise children such as “No thank you!” or “Great job!” Those are effective to understand what acceptable classroom behaviors are. I could adapt this learning into actions to praise children by telling them, “I like the way you sitting nicely” or “I like the way you guys working together.” These phrases can not only reinforce their good behavior but also correct behavior of other children who were not doing so.

I also learned both in my field placement and Art Education class that arts have a great impact on children’s learning. In my mentor’s classroom, we learned all of the letters by singing and dancing. One of the kids in the class displayed unfocused behavior, but when we sang, he was completely engaged and enthusiastic to learn. Even after the singing and dancing activity, he was still singing the song and I realized how important the arts are in the learning process.

Through my classes I took in fall semester, I realized how fascinated to teach and see children grow. I still remember that my mentor teacher once said, “I like to see children grow.” I absolutely agree with it because I saw children were learning and growing little by little every day. For instance, at the beginning of the semester, some of the kids struggled with zipping up their coats before going outside to have recess. However, as we helped them and taught them how to do it, they gradually can do it by themselves. It is fulfilling to help kids grow in the early stage simply because teachers are a great affect on children’s basic daily skills, which last for rest of their entire life.

I also tried to have opportunities to talk with small children and get involved in teaching settings outside my classes, too. For example, I asked my advisor to have a host family with small children so that I could interact with them regularly playing video games or roller-skating together. In addition, I visited a Japanese class at Hope every Wednesday as an assistant teacher. I sometimes helped students by correcting their Japanese during small group discussions or sometimes I checked their homework. Another thing I have done for my learning in Education is that I visited my language partner, who used to be a teacher and now living in a retirement house, every Friday to have a small chat. She talked a lot not only about her experiences as a teacher but also about her experiences in Japan for more than twenty years with her family.

A few weeks ago, spring semester started and now I’m taking a special education class and a field placement, which is a co-requisite, to learn about students with disabilities. In my field placement, once a week I meet my mentor teacher, Louise Shumaker, who has a visual impairment and is a director of Disability Service at Hope College. The aim for this placement is to spend time with people who have disabilities.

Since I came here, I’ve gone through a lot of things that I have never experienced in Japan. As a future educator, I would like to learn, experience, and see more on educational settings rest of my stay in the US.(S win Temple)