Hello everyone,

This week we have parent-teacher meetings for three days, and then closing ceremony on Thursday. Hopefully you can use these three days to start your summer homework. The earlier you finish, the more time you have to relax!

The other thing you can do on these hot summer days is watch the Olympics on television. These Olympics have been controversial because of the corona virus, but now that they are happening I think we should support the athletes who have worked so hard.

Last night I enjoyed watching the judo competition. I don’t know much about judo, but the announcers were so excited because Japan’s althetes were doing so well. At the end of the day, I was amazed to see that a brother and sister, Uta Abe and her brother Hifumi, both win gold medals on the same night. Can you imagine how happy that family is today?

Hopefully there will be more positive stories to come from these games. Of course, there are negative points that need to be talked about too, but balancing both of these things should be our goal. Have a good week,

Allen

Hello everyone,

The term is almost finished, and we only have two more days of classes left. This week in my M1 class, we talked about long and short vowel sounds.

Unlike Japanese, which only has five vowel sounds, English has 20! So we took some time to practice some of the long vowel sounds that you see on the left, and the short vowel sounds you see on the right. How did we practice? By playing karuta of course.

After I said the card color, I said the vowel sound. Students had to be the fastest to get the card, and then hold it up for me to check. After we finished our karuta game we had 5 minutes left. So, what did we do?

We made card towers of course!

The next two days are holidays, Ocean Day and Sports Day. You can watch the start of the Olympics if you like. See you on Saturday!

Hello everyone,

Your tests are finished and summer vacation is coming soon. You only have a couple weeks left. During this time we try and have some different events and speakers. For example, in my M3 class today, we will listen to Mr. Yuasa talk about Nagasaki because of our trip there in November.

For my H3A class, they will soon start their news training in their online lessons. Before the lesson they will read a news item. For example, this week is about protests in Thailand:

Then, they will think about the topic, and also how it relates to themselves in Japan:

I think that by studying many different topics from around the world, my students can reach a better understanding of what is happening outside Japan, and how it relates to their lives in Japan.

Have a good week!

Hello everyone,

Today is the first day of the term one final exams. I hope you have done your best and are ready to show your teachers what you have learned. Good luck!

Two days ago I was walking to the store to buy lunch, and I heard a lot of noise from Yakatamachi Church. After finishing my purchase I walked over and took a look. Here is a picture of what I saw:

I knew that there were plans to build a new church, and that on Sundays the church was using our school chapel for their services, but I didn’t realize it was going to start so soon!

There are a lot of memories in that building for both the congregation and our students. We have held many services there, and it was a hub for the Shin-ai community. Of course, it will be exciting when the new church is completed a year from now. However, there is still nostalgia for the old one.

Hopefully the construction goes well, and we can celebrate together in the new church in 2022. Have a good week,

Allen.