This week was full of events. Firstly, the students have almost finished writing their Pen Pal projects since the two periods we dedicated meant they made significant progress. I did notice the students have yet to learn transition words so some of the letters come off as really choppy and I want to give them like an office hours to edit their letter with me, so I’m wondering if I can host an office hours to help them write their drafts. There are so many things I learned about the students reading their letters, so I know the students in Canada will really be interested in reading their letters. Also, we didn’t need parental consent for the project since no pictures being sent with the letters. That’s why this project started earlier than I anticipated, and the science camp lectures will start later (this Friday). I also had my old high school teacher in mind to do this project with since originally the project was for 7^th and 8^th graders, but because it couldn’t be fit with their curriculum, we changed it to 9^th graders. I’m hopeful they were able to ask a lot of questions and share more about their culture, as the students were struggling at the beginning. However, I gave a lot more prompts to help them with their writing. I think the grade level is perfect, given the 9^th graders in Yoron are in Junior High, and our 9^th graders are in high school.

Furthermore, I had some last classes with some of the elementary school students, so I ended it off with a jeopardy in English, and it seems it was up to their level, so I was glad to know that I was able to comprehend their English levels decently well.

What went well?

This week I had a coaching session, and I think it helped me significantly in getting rid of any remainders of imposter syndrome. More specifically, I was really hoping my work would be impactful beyond the LiA period, and I think it will be. In a way, I’m doing a pilot project on how writing can be taught to non-native English speakers without having to strictly following all these rules we teach students to unlearn later on.

So far, the days with the elementary students seem to be going well, since we as the teachers made the lessons fun. Lately, the students have been graded for speaking tests, so it makes them nervous, but after the test we do some fun things like rap battles or jeopardies, so the students forget they ever had a test.

Furthermore, the high school teacher who was with me when I gave the lectures on pedagogy to the students really loved how my lessons were structured and wanted me to give those lectures to other English classes. However, I think because it’s a logistical nightmare to coordinate my schedule, I’m unfortunately not able to come. However, I am more than happy to create more resources of the like and give them to so the material can be used in the future.

I’ve also finalized the four themes of the workshop and will be delivering the first one on Friday.

1. Creating a Research Space
2. Citation Functions and Academic Discourse (based on research by Petric in 2007).
3. Creating a Research Presentation (referencing the above 2 workshops and using my example conference presentations)
4. Presenting Research + Formatting the Final Report (referencing my reports, perhaps I’ll even give my LiA one as an example – Japanese version haha).

What could have gone differently?

I kind of wish I was able to think of the Model UN curriculum beforehand so I could stay after school and teach the students myself so as to not burden other teachers with that task. But some of the teachers are interested in Model UN so I think if this were to become an extracurricular, it would be at the start of April next year, since in Japan students usually stick to one extracurricular throughout the year. However, if it proves useful and provides more opportunities to students for public speaking, I don’t mind the late implementation.

I also wish I was able to offer or suggest office hours beforehand. I just got word after ¾ allocated periods to the Pen Pal project that another similar project took Junior High students months to complete because they did not know about transition words and lacked a lot of fundamentals. I’m thinking of making a worksheet on transition words to help make their sentences flow better. In hindsight, I should have researched what 9^th graders learned in their English curriculum so I could help tailor their sentences better. But the students have so much going on In their lives, practically doing school activities from 7AM-6PM, so I would feel bad making them come to office hours on weeknights with the little free time they have left.

What did I learn about leadership?

Leadership is a very iterative, meticulous, and slow process. I would heavily emphasize iterative, because of what I observed in the students’ writing this week regarding the lack of transition phrases. I at first did not really care if the students wrote their letters in Japanese and translated it to English because to me, the primary goal was cultural exchange, and if that was conveyed without needing to write it in English, then I didn’t mind. However, after spending all my weekdays in the classrooms, I realize that it would take away from an incredibly important learning opportunity for the students. In this case, it would be to converse with me about their Pen Pal project in English due to the lack of native English speakers in Yoron. It would force them to communicate in English due to the language barrier. So, I should have been more considerate about their learning process and not just focus on the cultural implications of the Pen Pal project.

What did I learn about myself when working with others?

When I work with others, I can take a step back to evaluate where something went wrong or right. I would say I’m very much about moving forward and doing the next thing, and that I have a hard time reflecting about something until significantly after the fact. More specifically, I really struggle with having to go back and identify what is wrong until I speak with others. Working with others allows me to keep ahold of my sanity.

What do I want to develop or focus on next?

In the next week, I aim to do the following:

• Present workshop #1 for the science camp and gather feedback for the difficulty of the lesson (this is technically tomorrow)
• Modify the lesson based on feedback for workshop #2
• Present workshop #2 for the science camp
• Review Model UN procedure in the Asian circuit and modify my introductory presentation based on that
• Create a worksheet for transition words in the Pen Pal projects so that students can learn how to switch topics conversationally in their letters

Model UN content will be created and sent to Yoron High School by the end of my fifth week, when the students have summer vacation. The remainder of the presentations for science camp as well will take place during the first week of summer vacation, and the following week we will fly back to Tokyo and prepare for the symposium occurring that same week!

Next week will be my last week with most of the students as they will be going on summer vacation the week after, so I’m upset that these will be my last classes, but I’ll make the most memories with them. I’ve been visiting the elementary students the most often, so I’ve really formed a deep connection with them and absolutely adore the children! Recently I've gotten close to the Junior High students. You can find me laughing with the Year 2 Junior High students every time they have a writing lesson.