A new term!

Thursday just gone, was my first day back after the summer vacation...or as we call it in the UK "the summer holidays".

To my surprise i was actually looking forward to going back because where i live there is not a great deal of things to do. you normally have to travel further-afield to find decent shops, bigger game arcades and the western restaurants if you happen to want a break from the same dishes from the local restaurants.

In the town that i live in there is one station, one mini-supermarket, a drug store, 3 snack-bars, 1 cafe, a 100yen shop, 2 petrol stations, 3 restaurants, 3 ramen shops, 1 japanese fastfood take out and some family own general store...you can literally drive from one side to the other in 5mins.

The convenient store is located on the edge of town at the main junction. About a 10minute drive outside of town you come to Homac (a combination of Argos, B'n'Q and homebase), a phone shop, a clothes shop, a dry cleaners and an octopus restaurant.

the nearest city, which is more like a large town, is about 35mins away from me and where i spend a lot of time because it is where all the local ALTs and NSs live. They have a few extra things such as a western cloth shop, 2 mini malls, lots of restaurants and even a McDonald...Its a very new McDonald because it opened in December 2009.

For fun you have 2 mini game arcades, karaoke bars, tennis, indoor sports, a grass park for soccer/Frisbee etc...

 

So compared to Tokyo and any other big city we actually dont have much to do - which is why i was looking forward to going back to school (i never thought i'd say that)

I only had to teach at my technical high school which had been doing tests all week and so my job was to play games...or as we're encouraged to call them "activities" 

I chose to play Hot Seat - heres how to play:

Divide the class into teams

Give each person in each team a number so they know the order

Place a chair at the front of the class

Each team goes one at a time and you start with the first person from the team.

The first person sits on the chair and doesnt look at the board

You write a word on the board

The team then gives hints in English

If they dont know they can pass - the next person comes up

If they get it correct they get a point and the next person is up

If they say the word on the board of the person in the chair looks they get no point and change person

each team gets 2minutes 

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To make things interesting  - if i am playing for the full 50 minutes then i have 3 rounds...in the second round points are deducted for using their own language...in the 3rd round you cannot pass, words are harder and worth 2points

If two teams draw then its down to sudden death - the drawing teams chose a player, each team only has 10 seconds - no passes, only english...If both team gets their word correct then you keep going until one team gets their word and the other doesnt...

My students love this game...it helps with vocabulary, the understanding of words and also encourages them to speak more english in a more fun relaxed atmosphere

 

So here are some questions for you (answer in the comment box below):

What fun things do you like doing?

What would be your perfect day off?

If you are/have been a teacher what games do/did you like to play?