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BREEZE #108

OCTOBER, 2016: BREEZE ISSUE #108
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF
JAPANESE

2016 J-LEAP REPORTBY ERI KANDA
Glenbrook South High School
Glenview, IL
Hello. My name is Eri Kanda. I have beenworking as an assistant Japanese teacher at
Glenbrook South High School, which is locatedin Glenview, Illinois, 40 minutes away fromChicago.
Glenbrook South High School（GBS）is apublic high school which serves approximately
3,000 students. I am a member of the world
language office. The GBS World Language
Department offers six different languages
which are American Sign Language, French,German, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish andJapanese. Teachers at this school are verykind and friendly. We sometimes say Hello in our own language to each other like Niihao,
Bonjour and Konnichiwa .
GBS has a lot of fun events throughout the year like field trips, home coming week, Glenbrookmusical etc. I already attended a few fun events including lip dub and a football game. Lip dub
is a video made to showcase the variety of clubs and activities available through GBS. For Lipdub, GBS partnered with Glenview Youth Services, a local organization that offers counselingand therapeutic support to students in the community. During the football game, students
collected money to donate to Glenview Youth Services. The football game was played at night.
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Many people, including students, parents and community members, came to watch the gameand had BBQ making it very festive. Finally we watched the Lip dub movie that the students
made. The video was premiered on a large screen set up on the track around the footballfield. All of the lights were turned off in the stadium as the video started. I was impressed by
how much fun they were. I look forward to attending a lot of school events in the near future.
There are a little over 90 students learning
Japanese language and culture dispersed fromLevel 1 to Advanced Placement. We have aJapanese exchange program with Ritsumeikan
Moriyama High School in Shiga, Japan. GBS
hosts Japanese students in March every year,
while we visit Ritsumeikan Moriyam every otheryear. GBS Japanese learners have a good
opportunity to speak Japanese in context; andit is one of the reasons they study Japanese.
The main goal of our Japanese classes is to function in an authentic context with language andculture skills. Students are expected to use their cultural knowledge to engage in conversation,increase reading and listening comprehension and make oral and written presentations. Inorder to achieve our goal, we speak Japanese as much as possible and my lead teacher
Makita-sensei and I prepare various activities. In the beginning of class we always do warm-up
activities such as singing songs, doing Siritori (word game) , and viewing online resources.
After that students have conversations in pairs, work on online activities on the computer,provide listening exercises, and do some activities using textbooks.
My roles as an assistant teacher include walking around the classroom to support students,
showing an example with the LT, grading class activities and homework. The lead teacher and I
teach Japanese in small groups because it is easier for students to practice Japanese; they canhave a lot of opportunities to speak Japanese. I definitely speak Japanese to the students inthe class. Some students will be confused, especially level 1 students, but they are trying tospeak Japanese to me. If we cannot understand each other the first time, we use gestures,pictures, and some easy words. Most of the AP students speak Japanese to me; even level 1students try to speak in Japanese using the words that they already learned. One of the rulesin our class is to always give a proper greeting so they say Ohayougozaimasu (good morning),
Konnichiwa (hello), sayounara (good by) in the classroom. When I see my students in thehallways or at school events, they greet me in Japanese. This makes me very very happy.
GBS has over 80 clubs. The Japanese club activities include art work such as origami, cooking,fun games and community service by fundraising. We will participate in the homecoming banner
painting and parade in Glenview. The club members made onigiri as one of the club activities.
They made rice balls with various flavors; and enjoyed talking to each other. It was a good
opportunity to learn different cultures and having a nice conversation. I hope that more
students will come to Japanese club so they can enjoy Japanese culture.
Privacy - TermsOne and half months have passed since I came here and I have enjoyed teaching our students
and working with the teachers. I am very lucky to be able to work with Makita-sensei. I reallyappreciate Makita-sensei, Glenbrook South staff, and my lovely host family. I learn American
culture and English through my host family and school work. I would like to obtain new
knowledge through the teachers of the local Japanese teachers organizations and various
workshops. I also want to learn how to teach Japanese from my lead teacher; and to become ateacher who can make my students smile.

Breeze #110Breeze #109Breeze #1082016 J-LEAP Report: Miharu Hayazaki2016 J-LEAP Report: Eri Kanda

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