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2015 J-LEAP REPORT: MIO TSUTADAOCTOBER, 2015: BREEZE ISSUE #96
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OFJAPANESE

2015 J-LEAP REPORTBY MIO TSUTADA
A.J. Dimon High School
Anchorage, AKHi, I’m Mio Tsutada, an assistant teacher at A.J.
Dimond High school in Anchorage, Alaska. My
lead teacher is Ms. Victoria Gellert. As a JLEAP assistant teacher, I am enjoying many
new experiences. The best part of this programis the co-teaching. I had heard about thebenefits of co-teaching previously, but now that I am actually helping in everything from theplanning, to the instruction, and assessments, I’m experiencing the impact of having twoteachers in a classroom working together toward the same goals.
Let me tell you a little bit about Anchorage, Alaska. First of all, the scenery is terrific. Whether I
am walking out of school at the end of the day, or out in nearby Chugach National Park, theviews of the mountains and Cook Inlet are always stunning. When I first got here in thebeginning of August, the sun didn’t set until around 11:00pm. With winter coming, the days aregradually getting shorter. It will be quite a change in mid-December when we are teaching thethird class of the day, and the sun is just starting to come out!
Recently, I was pleased to find out that Alaska has an active community of world language
teachers. On September 18-20, I attended the AFLA (Alaskan’s For Language Acquisition)
Conference and learned a lot about the need for comprehensible input in second language
acquisition, and how to include the target-language culture more explicitly in class. I also
gained ideas for presenting new vocabulary.
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Anchorage is special because it is home to a K-12 Japanese Immersion Program, one of only
two such programs in the US. The Immersion Program students complete their last four years
at A.J. Dimond High School. At the Immersion Program Completion Ceremony, graduates givespeeches in Japanese and receive a prestigious cord that recognizes their achievement ofcompleting the Immersion Program. It’s an honor to teach their last years of Japanese.
Although having one Japanese teacher at an American high school can be rare, Dimond HighSchool is especially unusual because there are three Japanese teachers. All together, theyteach a total of 12 sections of Japanese classes. In the high school, students study Japanesethrough novellas, articles about current events, songs, and movies. Two special classes offeredat the high school are AP Japanese Language and Culture class, and a class called Honors
Japanese. The Honors class has a very unique program called the Adopt-A-Student Program(AASP). In AASP, students spend three hours each month outside of the classroom together
with a Japanese native speaker. The Adopt-A-Student hosts and students make this timeenjoyable by doing things like going shopping, cooking, and talking about each other’sbackgrounds...all while speaking Japanese. The great part about this program is that students
can use their Japanese outside of class to interact with native Japanese speakers. Aftermeeting my AASP students at a kickoff party later this month, we will start our monthly
meetings. Through the Adopt-A-Student Program, I’m looking forward to hearing about whathigh school students are interested in and how Japan and its culture attract them.
Classes started on August 18th. I have been in the classroom
for only a relatively short time so far, but there are many
interesting things I am picking up. For example, students in
the Immersion Program have studied together sincekindergarten, so I can tell that students feel comfortable inJapanese class. They are like a big family. Also, this is myfirst time teaching without using a textbook. Everything is
new to me and I already have learned many things. When I
taught previously, I would teach easy grammar items, andthen move on to more difficult grammar. However, Ms.
Gellert teaches new expressions and sentence structures
through materials and from songs, so students learn
Japanese without consciously “memorizing.” She draws a lot
from Comprehensible Input methods, which I didn’t knowmuch about prior to coming to Alaska. At the J-LEAP
interview I said I want to learn new ways of teaching, so I
think they gave me a great chance to learn a new approach. With Comprehensible Input
methods, input through listening and reading is the main focus, so teachers should wait until
students are ready to output on their own. I was surprised that students start to speak whatthey learn when they are ready to use it. I was thinking that learners should practice grammar
points using drills, like how to conjugate verbs, but I learned that it is not the only way to study
a language. Ms. Gellert notices when there are students who are having trouble following alongand shifts to easier questions to clarify what we are studying for the students. She alwaysPrivacy
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attention to every student. I noticed that student’s reactions are different in each class, even if
we are doing the exact same lesson plan. I rediscovered that teachers and students make class
together. Ms. Gellert and I plan our classes together. Luckily, Ms. Gellert is a teacher wholistens to my ideas and thinks how to insert the ideas in class. I didn’t know it could be so muchfun to teach with another teacher.
To close, I’d like to talk about my goals for the next two years. I met a 1st year J-LEAP Assistant
Teacher when I worked at the University of Wyoming. At the time, I remember thinking that it
sounded like a wonderful program. I didn’t think I could be a part of this program 5 years later. I
want to learn and continue to gain skills. Also, I want to get skills using Comprehensible Inputand I want to be able to organize my own class because right now I need Ms. Gellert’s help
when I teach. Once I can accomplish this, then I can say that I am team teaching. There’re many
way to do co-teaching and I want to try many ways of co-teaching as much as possible.

Breeze #98

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