Club Drawings

Yesterday was my last day at one of the schools I work at, though I'll be going back to this particular school in January. I've been working at this school since 2020 so I've formed a real attachment to it. I said goodbye to the art club and the colour guard, the two clubs I hang out with. I watched the colour guard practice a new dance until 7pm. It's great seeing how committed they are and how rigorously they repeated the same dance moves in the increasingly humid weather.

In the art club, I drew pictures for some students. Here are a few doodles I've accumulated this year, some things I've drawn in the art club:

A dragon.

I was doodling the Fourth Doctor on the right and explaining how to draw a cat to a new student on the left. I told her to study cat skeletons.

I'm afraid I blathered on about John Milton and my take on his daughter, Deborah, for my webcomic.

I was trying to find a way to explain how "view" is used as a noun in English. The text book, written by an esteemed committee of Japanese professors, gets it wrong, as it does many things. Some of the mistakes in the books are hilarious. My favourite is a page from the second year text book in which the students are taught sentences for offering assistance to tourists. One sentence they're encouraged to use is "What's the matter with you?" I found a supercut on YouTube of Robert De Niro using the phrase to explain why it's a very rude, unwise thing for students to say to tourists. For the rare occasion when a Japanese English teacher accepts my authority on a subject over a text book. I'm routinely reminded why Japan has the worst English education in Asia. It's not so funny when you remember how students suffer for it.

Deborah Milton again.

Pictures for Words

I haven't had much time to work on my comic but I make a lot of art for work. This is a series for teaching subjunctives. I made some drawings and broke the class into groups. Each group had ten to fifteen minutes to make as many sentences as possible for the picture currently on the screen. One point for each sentence, two points for using subjunctives, and the group with the highest score won the round.

One of my favourites for this picture was, "If I could eat my hair, I could live." There was also a sentence about cocoanuts falling on his head but I can't remember how it went.

Many students came up with simple sentences for this like, "There is a child," or "The girl with the black hair is the same height as the girl with the red hair." One of the more fashionable girls in the class came up with, "If I had style, I could dance." Which made me smile.

I also made a series of pictures for the difficult task of explaining present perfect to the second year students but haven't had a chance to put them in practice yet.

I made two sets to show somethings present perfect and simple past sometimes mean two very different things and sometimes they literally mean the same thing, that the choice to use one or the other is like choosing colours of paint.

This could be, "I crawled to Mama," or "I have crawled to Mama." Both would have the same meaning but slightly different emotion. I'm also planning to show the class U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" despite the fact that Bono says things like, "I have spoke," using the wrong verb form. I'm always trying to think of ways to show the kids how inconsistent English is for native speakers.

Twitter Sonnet #1515

Containing heat became the giant's job.
A silly man was drinking carrot juice.
Emerging whales requested air to lob.
Entire worlds submit a loose caboose.
Before the walking back, a path was wet.
For treasure's weight, the shell was hardened fast.
We settled late a sharp but festive bet.
The reel revealed the cats in love with Bast.
The thoughtful car could carry cases home.
We timed the cake to rise above the corps.
Our little talk reminds the lad to roam.
There's less to say when kings expected more.
The steady waltz progressed across the ice.
A loaf of bread could house the hardy mice.