Contact UsSEARCH

Site Map

2014 J-LEAP REPORT: KIYOMI TADOKORONOVEMBER, 2014: BREEZE ISSUE #85
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF JAPANESE

2014 J-LEAP REPORTBY KIYOMI TADOKOROEl Marino Language SchoolCulver City, CA
Hi! I'm Kiyomi Tadokoro. Students call me Tadokoro
Sensei. (Not Takorokoro Sensei, which one of my student
called me the other day...) I have been working as aJapanese assistant teacher at both El Marino Language
School and Culver City Middle School in Culver City,California.
It’s hard to believe that nearly three months has passed since I arrived here. The reason why I feel thisway might be because of the climate. The weather hasn't changed much during the last three months as
California has a warm climate throughout the year. Also, annual rainfall is very low, which means it has
been very hot and dry. I feel like it is still summer even though it’s already October. But I’m enjoying thenice weather.
I would like to introduce my schools. El Marino Language School is not just a regular public school; itoffers both Japanese and Spanish immersion programs. One of the goals of the school is to make all theirstudents bilingual and biliterate. There are 6 grade levels at the school starting at the age of 4 whenstudents start kindergarten to the age of 9 when they enter 5th grade. Most of our students continuelearning Japanese / Spanish for another 3 years at Culver City Middle School where I also teach 2 days aweek with Takahashi Sensei. In middle school, she teaches an immersion program in Japanese as well asclasses in English. Over 150 students are taking Japanese this year and it is very popular.
This year, I mainly help Horiba Sensei teach 3rd graders. In the mornings, students are taught Language
Arts and math in Japanese and in the afternoon, they learn Language Arts in English. We also provide
science classes in Japanese too. During Japanese and math lessons, Horiba Sensei and I divide our classinto different levels, so we can offer students suitable tasks. Surprisingly, more than half of the students
have a Japanese background. Some are native Japanese and others are second generation or half
Japanese. As you can imagine, their Japanese abilities have a big gap. So if we carry out the class as one
level, then students without a Japanese background would be left far behind of the ones who do.
Privacy - Terms

Therefore, teaching in small groups based on their levels is a very important part of the education at thisschool. There are also many events like Undoukai (sports festival) and Gakugeikai (school arts festival)
that will be held during the school year and I am very excited to join them all.
It is a great honor to have the experience to work at both an elementary and middle school. For me,teaching elementary school students is more challenging as I had been working at middle school in Japan
before coming here. Moreover, I found that I tend to help students right away even if they don't ask me forhelp. It is just because I can anticipate their needs, but I have to be more patient with them. I need tolisten to them and ask them what they need help with to develop the student's initiative. Even if they
complain, I need to remember to keep being "a teacher"!!
Lastly, I want to thank all the support from the people around me. Especially, I want to thank my LTs and myhost family. It must not have been easy to have me around, but they make my feel at ease and comfortable
all the time. The proverb, "Time flies" reminds me the importance of each day. I try not to waste any
moment during my time in here and will try my best for my students.
Thank you.

Breeze #86

Breeze #85

ACTFL 2014

Japanese Langauge Education Update 122014 J-LEAP Report: Yoko Nishikawa

2014 J-LEAP Report: Kiyomi Tadokoro

2014 JET-MIP Report: Victoria Lockhart

2014 JET-MIP Report: Jenna Louie2014 JET-MIP Report: Tristan Lundy

2014 JET-MIP Report: Lovely Matias

Breeze #84

Breeze #83

Breeze #82

Privacy - Terms

Breeze #81

Breeze #80

Breeze #79

Breeze #78

Breeze #77

Breeze #76

Breeze #75

Headquarters

New York Office

Center for Global PartnershipJapan Related Links

Volunteer

ボランティア募集

Job Openings (Updated)

5700 Wilshire blvd, Suite 100
Los Angeles, CA 90036
P. 323.761.7510

Annual Report© 2019 The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles
Web Design.

Privacy - Terms