I haven’t been teaching for as long as many of you have been teaching, but I have been lucky to have the opportunity to meet many wonderful teachers, authors and editors and learn about their ideas on how to use the materials and activities that can be done in class.

In the past, I worked for AEON in Izumo teaching both children and adults. I have to confess that a lot of what I did during those early years was not as successful as it could have been, due to my own inexperience and lack of exposure to other ideas. I did try my best to meet my students’ needs, but after three years was a bit burned out. Then I moved to Tokyo and began working for Macmillan, where I stayed for five years. One of the best things for me about this time period was all of the wonderful educators I was able to learn from. It gave me motivation and made me want to start teaching again.

After leaving Macmillan, I met APRICOT. Meeting APRICOT led to one of the bigger changes in my teaching of children. I have always been flexible in how I use textbooks, but APRICOT materials really opened up this flexibility for me, and helped me to realize how much more creative classes could be. APRICOT has also given me the courage to challenge my students in ways that I might not have done otherwise.

Currently, I teach English at my own slowly growing school, work with APRICOT, and teach a couple of university classes. I am constantly evaluating what I do in my classes to try and make them better. I also try to attend as many teaching seminars and events as possible so that I can meet other teachers and exchange ideas. I love to share ideas and nothing pleases me more than to hear that something I did was useful and helped someone else.

If you have questions about anything you find on this blog please send me an email and I would be happy to answer your questions and maybe address it in another blog post.
My email is sam(at)apricot-plaza(dot)co(dot)jp.

At JALT National, one of the plenary speakers (I think it was Penny Urr) said something that really struck me. She asked the audience, “Are you a teacher? Or are you a learner?” I thought about this. I am a teacher, but I am constantly learning new things, so I debated and then raised my hand with the learners. Then she went on to talk about what it really means to be a teacher and a learner. I don’t remember what she said about learners, but what she said about teachers seemed to really fit me. She said a teacher was someone who was always trying to share their knowledge and help others. Well, that seems to describe me pretty accurately. I am always trying to learn new things, a better way of doing what I am doing. Then I take whatever I learn and share it with those around me who I think it will benefit.

When it comes to teaching, I am always thinking about my students and what will resonate with them. I also love talking to other teachers about what they are doing in their classes. By talking with other teachers, I get little ideas here and there that improve my classes: ideas about teaching pronunciation, using puppets in class, making lapbooks, using crafts. I usually take this core idea that I pick up and adjust it to fit my students.

Through this blog, I would like to share some of the things I have done (am doing) with my students that have really worked out well. I will also post games and other materials with some of the posts, so that you can try them out with your classes. I hope that you will feel free to use anything you find here and CHANGE IT however you would like to make it fit your students. No two classes are the same, and often what works with one class does not work with another, as I’m sure you know.

If you have questions about anything you find on this blog please send me an email and I would be happy to answer your questions and maybe address it in another blog post.
My email is sam at apricot-plaza dot co dot jp.