2005 Recitation Contest

THE speech contest. The scariest day of school for the students. A panel of judges critiques the students every utterance and gesture, while they sweat it out--trying to remember the much-too-long (usually boring) passage they have worked so hard to memorize. I had the opportunity to work with all of the students participating in the contest from my jr highs. Pictured above, Kyoko--one of my favorite ninenseis, just a total doll and she is interested in learning English! (She did not win first place, but she is a total winner in my book!) They ALL did a great job! It was great seeing the look of relief on their faces, even those who did not place in the top 3---I could tell they just wanted it behind them! Great job students! I am proud of you!

Here are all of the participants in the Speech contest.

Shocked to find out that I would be "emcee" for the event. Ironic that in a contest that praises "pronunciation and articulation", I proceeded to completely butcher and slaughter every participant's name and school. OopS!

Here are my students from Shukunohe who participated in the contest. Great job to you all!

Here are all of the winners in the Recitation contest that go to Taneichi-chu. 6 of the 9 students that won came from Taneichi! My school is so AWESOME!!! Pictured above are Kyoko, Rika, Yusho, Hidaki, Satoshi and Shirakawa. Please continue to study and improve your English! (There is another contest later this year!) Pictured below, is one of my JTE's (Japanese English Teacher) @ Taneichi-chu. Everyone calls his "Tuna", but I think his real name is like Tunyaski...!?!?! Sorry "Tuna"! I can't remember it!

Zach and I performed several baseball skits and the students had to rank who had the best pronunciation...it was pretty difficult to make up terrible grammar and pronunciation...but we managed and the kids were able to decipher what was acceptable and what was not.

I also made a powerpoint to share with the students I don't get to see each week---who go to other surrounding Taneichi junior highs. Of course the PP was full of random fave tunes...diff genres--yknow me, trying to expose them to anything new and foreign to them! The PP went really well, I felt like a star search contestant, had a whole stage to myself and a great sound system/huge movie-theater sized screen and state of the art accoustics...can't beat that!

Tuna and I are trying to rejuvenate the stressed, anxiety-stricken students before the judges announce their final decisions! We did some baseball-themed skits and I tried to get the whole crowd to sing "Take me out to the ballgame..." Wow, that was interesting!

What a fabulous day we all had! Thanks to to the students for working SO hard! I am so very proud of you! Keep it up! Your ENGLISH is GREAT!

Shown below are students collecting their prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place!Yusho, a ninensei fr Taneichi-chu, won first place in his grade. I was so happy for him, his English is really really good for only 2 years under his belt! His intonation an rate and expression were so right on, that you almost can't believe he is Japanese! Well, small exaggeration, but he does great and I am so happy that his hard work paid off!