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BREEZE #87

JANUARY, 2015: BREEZE ISSUE #87
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF
JAPANESE2014 J-LEAP REPORTBY HIROMI NAGAI
Thomas Jefferson High SchoolCedar Rapids, IAHello. My name is Hiromi Nagai. I have been working as aJapanese assistant teacher in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which isthe second largest city in the state located in theMidwestern part of the country, sometimes referred to as“America’s Heartland.”The Cedar Rapids community school district has three highschools with Japanese programs and one without. Two ofthe programs at John F. Kennedy high school and George
Washington high school have been in existence for over ten
years and the program at Thomas Jefferson high school wasestablished six years ago. I mainly assist in teaching at
Jefferson high school with Ms. Rachel Henkelmann and I
also visit Kennedy high school, taught by Mr. Dan Carolin,and Washington high school, taught by Ms. Julie Cain, tohelp out for a week each every month. They have a great working relationship and establishedtheir own curriculum, which is four years starting in ninth grade, and culminates in a 4th year
Advanced Placement class. All three teachers have their own teaching methods and I learn alot from them every day. They are very cheerful and always make students have a lot of fun inclass. I am very fortunate to have these opportunities to work with great teachers and to see
different classes and teaching methods.

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While co-teaching with Ms. Henkelmann at Jefferson high school, we hope to increase thestudents’ ability to speak and use Japanese in class. Our biggest goal is to help make thestudent’s feel comfortable speaking Japanese. Because of the location, opportunities tointeract with Japanese native speakers are particularly rare in Cedar Rapids. We have
implemented daily speaking time between the students and teachers and Ms. Henkelmann
speaks Japanese as much as possible and I only speak it with students in class, even if they
don’t understand what I say. This is really one of the most challenging parts of my roles at themoment. It may also be very challenging for the students as well, but we believe that becoming
familiar with Japanese is an essential part of their learning experience and as a result they areslowly improving their speaking and listening skills. Our other goal is to get more students toenroll in Japanese class. Ms. Henkelman and I are thinking of visiting middle schools in thedistrict to give cultural presentations so they are aware of Japan and the Japanese language.
My main roles as an assistant teacher in class are to assist the teachers by walking around theclassroom to help out the students, answering any questions they may have, bringing authentic
Japanese to class, modeling Japanese speaking and creating class materials and activities. I
try to introduce a variety of grammar, vocabulary, kanji and cultural topics to create mixed
lessons. Luckily all of the teachers are very open-minded and always welcome new ideas. They
let me try new activities in class such as listening and speaking practice, and kanji quiz
competitions using electronic devices.
Five months have passed since I came here. As a Japanese native speaker, my challenge is to
add more value to the classes and I’m still in the middle of finding out what I can do to beeffective and how I can motivate my students to study Japanese by finding ways to improveteam-teaching with Ms. Henkelmann, Mr. Carolin and Ms. Cain. Though I will do my best to
make the most of this great opportunity.
Lastly I would like to thank all the people who provided me with this wonderful opportunity andhave supported as I adjust to my new life in Cedar Rapids. I would not be able to handle thisexperience if it were not for the people around me, especially the Japanese teachers, Ms.
Henkelmann, Mr. Carolin and Ms. Cain, and my lovely host family Laurie and Ellen. I trulyappreciate the experiences that J-LEAP provides.
Thank you.

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2015 Kakehashi ProjectJapanese Langauge Education Update 142014 J-LEAP Report: Hiromi Nagai

2014 J-LEAP Report: Shunji Iwasaki

2014 JET-MIP Report: Thomas O'Donnell

2014 JET-MIP Report: Michelle Peterson

2014 JET-MIP Report: Gwenyth Nicoloro

2014 JET-MIP Report: Claire NordPrivacy - Terms

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