Japan: Dylan Finger (Our Global Classroom)

Hearing that the title of my program was “English teaching internship” you may assume that we spent much of our time in the traditional looking, American-style classroom; however, this could not be further from the truth. Our teaching was more of a summer camp format. We would either bring students into our budojo (a large gymnasium-like building located in the internship homebase of Global Arena), or we would head to the local schools and use their gymnasium to hold our English camps. The “lessons” we taught were incredibly fast paced and involved flashcards, games, races, dances, and variety of other fun high-energy activities. That being said, we still ended every summer camp with an “interview” which involved prompted one-on-one English discussion with the students. This summer camp format was not the only method we employed. When we taught grades like 8^th and 9^th, the students would have unprompted discussion where they would prepare a presentation and share it with the interns. These presentations tended to occur in a more traditional classroom setting and involved a slightly higher interaction with the interns and the students’ classroom teachers. For the younger students, grades 3^rd-6^th, the lessons tended to be more summer camp themed and took place in “active” areas like gymnasiums and martial arts dojos. For the older students, grades 8^th and 9^th, the lessons were more open-ended and usually consisted of student-led presentations. These presentations mostly occurred in more traditional classroom settings. Overall, the differing methods we used to teach our English camps ensured the maximum amount of student engagement and enjoyment.

Dylan Finger

Hometown: Oconomowoc, Wisconsin

Major: Molecular and Cellular Biology

Program: GHJ English Teaching Internship

I have always wanted to visit Japan to immerse myself in their culture and explore their landscape and urban settings.  I want to learn about the culture of the people who live there. Whether its food, things to do, clothes, or anything else that is unique to the culture of Japan. I want to be more comfortable being out of my comfort zone by being adventurous, meeting new people, and always having a positive attitude.