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2011 J-LEAP REPORTJANUARY, 2012: BREEZE ISSUE #51
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF JAPANESESHOTA KINJO (WALT WHITMAN HIGH SCHOOL, MARYLAND)
Before starting off my story, I want to wish everyone— “AHappy New Year!” Looking back, 2011 was definitely an unforgettable year and was a turning point for thegame, which is my life. I was blessed to be able to meet many wonderful people prior to receiving thisposition as well as after and my success would not have been possible without their support.
My name is Shota Kinjo and I am a teaching assistant at Walt Whitman High School in Maryland. Under thesupervision of Moorman sensei, I’m in charge of teaching an entire class of mixed upper level students.
The school is rated as one of the top 50 public high schools in the nation and it is located in an extremelyrich and liberal suburb of Washington D.C. My students are very sophisticated and most of them aretalented in multiple fields. This year, Moorman sensei and I agreed to change the curriculum to include astronger focus on speaking. It is very challenging to carry out lessons that primarily engage the students’ability to speak in Japanese. Because my students seem to be stressed out by the new communicative
approach, I take about 10-15 minutes every day to teach about a cultural aspect of Japan based on
traditional events that occur during the time of year. By including these activities, I am able to retain thestudents’ interest and improve their learning abilities naturally.
Making use of technology is another method I use to keep my students’ attention and motivation. Mystrong desire to integrate technology into the classroom allows me to create lesson plans that are bothinnovating and engaging to the students. It also enables me to manage the flow of information muchbetter by using new devices to such as the iPad. By showing the objectives on the screen and posting it
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on the school website, it became clearer for my students what my expectation is and what needs to bedone for the class. I’m also trying to set up the infrastructure for Moorman sensei so that she can continue
using these devices after I leave.
In terms of the future, there is a big event coming this summer. Every two years, we organize a trip toJapan, with approval from the school, and this is the year we go. This is the 20 th year we have organized
this trip and it firmly establishes an immersion environment as the participants travel to Osaka, Kyoto,Hiroshima, Nara, Nagoya, Kanagawa and Tokyo during a 5 week period. On top of that, I had suggested
visiting the island of Okinawa to experience a different aspect of Japan. Although we are still in theplanning stages, I hope that this will be best trip yet! I can’t wait to take my students to my hometown andsee their reactions.

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2011 J-LEAP Report: Sayaka Hanami

2011 J-LEAP Report: Shota Kinjo
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2011 JET-MIP Essay: Emily Friedensohn

2011 JET-MIP Essay: Kaleialoha Nishimura

2011 JET-MIP Essay: Thomas Cude

2011 JET-MIP Essay: Dominik Mikulcik

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