2009/03/26

2008 November 6 Thursday thru November 10 Monday.


During the weekend, I spent all of my time making 250 brand new laminated Question and Answer cards based on the 6W1H interrogatives 疑問詞.

Namely; What, When, When, Who, Why, Which and How.

This is the second edition of these such cards and they are based upon the 12 page textbook that I wrote about 2 years ago, that was designed for pair work in large classroom settings of between 20 and 40 students.

The first edition of these cards was made 12 years ago when we first opened our new classroom in June of 1996.

At that time, I didn't even have a personal computer, so I used Ikuko's word processor to create and print out the A4 sized sheets of paper with 10 questions each on them.

Not only did I have to cut the A4 sized paper into 10 business card sized pieces, but I also had to cut the cardboard craft sheets into the same size as well.

I even bought a big table top guillotine type paper cutter to help me get the job done.

After cutting the paper and the cardboard into their proper sizes, I used very wide transparent cellophane packing tape, to attach the printed question paper onto the cardboard, one at a time.

They weren't pretty, but they worked rather well for that moment in time.
Nowadays, things are much different.

Not only do I not need the thick cardboard to make these Q and A cards, but I can print out both the Q and A side of the card, as well as a colorful backside to each card, that shows the level of difficultly, and my classroom's logo mark. SBK

Because I spent the entire weekend making these brand new full color Q and A cards, some people might come to the conclusion that I worked overtime to get the job done.

That's only one way to look at the situation.I look at it from a different perspective.

My classroom is the LOVE OF MY LIFE along with my wife.

We are both TOTALLY COMMITTED to making this small business a big success.

All of the time I spend teaching classes and making teaching materials for those classes, is the time of my life and the objective is to make our classroom, the best in this city.

In reality, it already IS. The only competition I have, is with myself to make it even better tomorrow, than it is today.

What most people would look upon as overtime work, I look upon as PAYING IT FORWARD.

I am always prepared to do the best job I can do, on any given day.

That day was today, Monday November 10.

For my last class of this day, from 19:00 to 20:00, I had a full house of 5 students, all of them of very different ages and all of them, from very different backgrounds.

Sitting around the same table with me, and using the Q and A part two cards, as the textbook for our lesson together, we engaged in very interesting discussions, of many different types.

It was awesome. The LOVE was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.

To say it went smoothly is an understatement.

It was a most enjoyable and interesting lesson for all in attendance, because everyone became totally spontaneous in their conversations with me and all of the other students, by using the Q and A cards as a launching point.

What a blast it was. The promised 50 minutes lesson became 65 minutes, and I finally had to call a halt to the lesson time.

Phuck Yeah! 話せる 使える 楽しい スノーマン 米会話.

What you get is more than what was promised to you.
Who could complain?  Nobody. Least of all me.