Student speech recital + Building our castle

Yesterday was the first time I had overseen an English recital from start to finish. It was quite a challenge for the students when I think about it, but they performed very well.

Around one month ago, I gave my 1st year high school students (Year 10 Australia) a story/song/poem that they had to memorize for a recital in front of the whole junior high school, some teachers and the students' parents. They were able to choose the one they would most like to do from my selection, however I allocated the maximum number of students per piece. They were then allowed to decide on how much and what each person would be saying. Here are the selected pieces:

- A Little Bird, a Bell, and Me (Misuzu Kaneko)

- Nowhere Man (The Beatles)

- This Lullaby (Queens of the Stone Age)

- Oh, the Places You'll Go! (Dr Seuss)

- Nature Boy (Nat King Cole)

The students did very well to infuse meaning through gestures, stress and intonation, but of course it was very difficult for nearly everyone in the audience to understand the real meaning of each piece. That was expected. However, the parents in particular were very proud of their child speaking with feeling in another language, and I was very happy with the effort the put in to do this.

Next year their challenge is even greater. Before I go any further, I should explain that this is a special kind of school. It it called a "chuukou ikkan" school (中高一貫校), which is a continuation (bridging) of junior high school into high school. They wear the same clothes as the other students in the adjacent high school, but remain in the same class as their junior high school years. Their curriculum is slightly different from the high school, with the most notable difference being the chance for them to study abroad in 3rd year JHS in New Zealand for 3 months. This means that their English ability is actually a little higher than the equivalent students in the high school. However, because of this, they will not go on the school trip to Australia in 2nd grade HS, instead they will visit historical places in Japan (Kyoto, Nara etc.). Getting back to the challenge. This year they did a memorized speech in English. Next year, after going to Kyoto and Nara, they will make a presentation on their trip in English. It should be interesting to see their progress by then.

Some photos from the recital can be found on the school website here: Tokyo Seitoku University Fukaya Junior High School website

Other news. Our roof has now been filled with solar panels. We ordered 12kW of panels to suck the light in and produce enough energy for our "all-electric" ("all" denka, オール電化) house.