My young kids class on Tuesday was a qualified success. The first thing I did was explain the new system in Japanese, and then asked each student if they understood. Then we got started with the lesson and all the students that didn’t participate last time stayed with me this time.
The only troubles I had were with the two younger students, Yuzuha and Kento. If I could I would have them in a separate class – they are just not really adapting well to a classroom situation.
Yuzuha wants to be held the whole class, or else she just does her own thing. She’ll try to talk during the lesson about important issues like what she had for dinner last night or what cartoon was on this morning. Yuzuha’s sister will steal stickers away from her or push Yuzuha away when she feels like she is being a pest, and that always means lots of crying and the class completely stops.
With five minutes left in the class I usually get everyone started gathering up their pencils, papers, books, and homework and putting things away. I learned early that this takes a long time for the little guys, so I’ve allotted more time, even though the older kids in the class are ready in about 20 seconds.
Tuesday Kento was sitting there staring at his activity book during cleanup time, and when it was time to go the older kids left. He was shocked that the class was over, and he still hadn’t packed up, so he started crying. Yuzuha was still around waiting for someone to pack away her mess of paperwork, so I had to help them both get gathered up.
I usually get only about 20 minutes of teaching time during a 50 minute lesson. The rest of the time the older students are on their own coloring or chatting with each other in Japanese while I solve little kid issues. It’s too bad – the class is expensive and I don’t think they are getting their money’s worth.
Still, the system seemed to get people all on one page, and I learned a lesson for next time… get a system in place early and make it a visual one.
