Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Private Business

I am sitting now at Deko Boko, the cafe/shop by my house which I visit frequently (it's basically right outside my door). The owner speaks English and is trying to study more. I come in on free weekend afternoons for lunch, which includes a nice salad bar and all the juice you can drink.

Tonight I have a private lesson, a common side-job for ALTs with spare time. I put my profile up on a Web site which lets students search for potential private instructors. I charge an hourly rate and so far the lessons with my one customer have been free flowing conversation. Tonight I'm steering into a lesson about gestures in the US vs. Japan, always a fun topic in classes at Yamasho.

Speaking of Yamasho, I started a new blog for classroom projects there. The link: yamashoenglish.blogspot.com. Soon I'll have a "letter to the editor" project posted. There is one sample letter there written without editing by one of the higher level students. In the future, I hope to use the blog for various classroom projects and for showcasing the students' work. Let me know what you think.

Time for a water re-fill. My student is late! No worries. I'm an easy-going instructor.

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