Now, the students have returned from vacation, the part time teachers are back occupying their desks, and the ALT’s have officially held classes, it all is happening again like a flick of a light switch.
The 2nd year students will have a speech contest in 12 days, September 15th. I feel bad for them because I think very few have memorized the speech or are likely to do so before the date. Good luck, kids. I think this is very obvious, and I feel like the teachers are responsible for this. Even though their English teacher is very, very good, there wasn’t much goal setting during the 2 months of summer. Or, maybe there was and the ALT’s didn’t see it. You can’t tell by listening to the students struggle through the first 2 lines of their speeches.
We have four sessions, with different students each time, before the contest. Let me put it on record on my blog: this is stupid. I won’t see the progress anyone makes and I won’t really know what anyone else is doing with their groups, so my plans will be general and shallow. Next year, when it comes time to plan the period after vacation and before the speech contest, give each teacher a group to stick with.