English Camp

Last week I participated in two English camps. One was with freshmen from my school and one was with older students from Minami high school.

Here's Jeremy, who is actually a basketball coach at my school, presenting his group's team name for Nishi's camp. They were called "Peace, Love and Happiness".

Other group names were: Team Zezt, Hot Gym, Fantastic 7, Pene Rangers, Positive Peanuts, and The Kooky Crocodile.

Here, Tracey sits in with a student during a mock news broadcast.

All in all, there were eight foreign teachers at the camp for around 40 students. The kids had many opportunities to speak with a natural English speaker. As one of the main goals of the camp, I hope the kids gained some confidence when it comes to conversing in a second language.

Four members of the Fantastic 7 make a presentation on Japanese food.

The kids, with help from their English teachers, had to do a newscast, present an aspect of Japanese culture, create a team name and chant, and introduced their ALT to the rest of the group through a variety of activities. However, the best part of the camp probably happened during conversations at meals.

Minami's camp was different for two reasons. 1. I wasn't in charge of it. And 2. Older, more confident (more fluent) students attended the camp. It was a long 24 hours, but a great experience. The Minami kids were motivated and had the ability to hold long, intelligent conversations in English.

At the Minami camp, which my friend Steve helped organize, we started with a scavenger hunt. The kids had a great time, and so did we. They ran all over the camp grounds and got American candy as a reward.

Some of the students are planning a school trip to New Zealand soon, so they worked on presentations that they'll preform while there. These presentations included things like Japanese food, origami, traditional new year's food and the Tanabata celebration.

The other students prepared for an held debates. The topics included: Part time jobs for HS students, English education in elementary school and baby hatches. These are all controversial topics in Japan. Most HS students are not allowed to have jobs while in school. English education is currently not required, but encouraged. And, the first hospital in Japan has recently opened a baby hatch in which parents can "deposit" unwanted children.

At the end of the camp, we were headed back to our cars when we happened upon the biggest earthworm I have ever seen in my life. I was a bit shocked to see something like it without being in a nuclear melt-down zone.

And that was camp.