The first in an N-part series (where N is an as-of-yet undetermined positive number) on my work as an English teacher.
E-Space is an idea created by Kathy Sedlacek to replace the normal hour-long sessions we had for elementary and kindergarten English students the last time I was here. We’ve only been doing E-Space since a week or two before I got here, so in many ways it’s still in the experimental stage. Right now there are two E-Space days—Tuesday and Thursday—with an elementary session from 4:00 to 6:30 on both days and a kindergarten session from 2:30 to 3:45 on Thursday only. I am the lead teacher for the elementary sessions, and I assist Stephanie Shipp during the kindergarten session.
The idea behind E-Space is to allow the students to participate in any hour-long block of time during the available sessions. Each session is divided into half-hour segments that alternate between “work time” and “group time”. “Work time”, which is the first and last segment of each E-Space session, is for individual study using activities set up by the teacher. These activities could include spelling practice, handwriting, vocabulary games, or whatever the teacher can think of. Ideally the students will be able to mostly direct themselves through work time, but so far almost all of the students require teacher assistance when doing some activity.
“Group time” is when everyone gathers together for half an hour to learn things like conversation or play group games. While brainstorming activities for work time can be hard, group time can actually be the most difficult, since you have to balance keeping the students interested while also keeping things under control. Some students make this more of a challenge than others, naturally. During Thursday E-Space, Kaori is a particularly spunky first-grader with more interest in playing games than in learning English. So I have to concentrate more on keeping her energy down than I would for other students, who may simply be tired after a long day at school and are kind of out of it.
Because it can be two and a half hours of teaching (especially on Thursdays, when we have the most students), E-Space can be tiring. Tuesday’s E-Space is followed by three straight classes, so I am typically at the church from 3:30 until 10:30. Naturally that’s not the day of the week I most look forward to. But for the most part, E-Space is a fun class to teach. I get to use a lot of Japanese alongside English to talk with the students, and I think that’s helped things go much more smoothly than if I didn’t use any Japanese.