My favorite season, autumn, has finally arrived. I love this time of the year not only because November is my birthday month but also because Fukuoka hosts the Kyushu Sumo Basho every November; since I am an avid sumo fan, I try to go at least two times each basho.

American or Canadian Thanksgiving is very similar to the Japanese New Year, a time of feasting and relaxing with family.

For all of us, whether we are teachers or parents, autumn is the advent of Western holidays, which triggers a three-month roller coaster of fun activities or events to share with children. It all starts with Halloween, then progresses to Thanksgiving, and then as autumn changes to winter, ends with Christmas.

If teachers cannot organize a holiday event for their students, they can at least share with them information and sentiment about the holidays. One of my colleagues in Fukushima holds an annual pot-luck Thanksgiving barbecue at his home. Students and their families are all invited. It has become a cherished tradition there. At our school, although we have a staff Thanksgiving party, we do not hold one for the students. Therefore, during the third week of November, we tell the students about how the pilgrims originally went to America and how the Indians taught them how to plant and harvest crops. We show the classes pictures of how it must have looked years ago and what a typical Thanksgiving dinner looks like today. We tell the children that an American or Canadian Thanksgiving is very similar to the Japanese New Year, a time of feasting and relaxing with family.

In December, we decorate the school and practice Christmas songs and talk about culture points, such as the custom of sending Christmas cards, Christmas caroling, and how to write "TO...FROM..." on Christmas presents so people will know who the presents are from when they open them on Christmas Day. The students are always surprised to learn that Christmas cakes are a Japanese custom, not a Western one. We also try to impart the sentiment that Christmas is the time of year when we should do something nice for someone else and expect nothing in return. We always have a Christmas party at a local venue, and we visit a "Rojin Home" to sing Christmas carols.

You, with your own classes at your home or at your school, can decide what activities best suit your needs and resources. But it is clear that October, November and December are great months to share tidbits about culture points and Western traditions with your students. You can make good use of holiday decorations, picture books, magazine pictures, CDs, videos, DVDs, stickers and seasonal workbook activities, to name a few. And the great thing is that when you have a reservoir of these materials, they can be used yearly over and over again.

Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book', an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.

See also our Interview with Helene Jarmol Uchida.

I had a great vacation, four weeks of which were spent in cosmopolitan San Francisco, where I was exposed to lots of cultural treats and enjoyed an ample amount of Greek and Thai food. In sunny San Diego, I swam, hiked and reconnected with many friends; as a result, I feel really relaxed and mellow. How I wish I could ride on the crest of this refreshing wave into September. Our students must feel the same way because I am sure it is equally hard for all of us to make the transition from the vacation mode to the school/work one.

In a nutshell, our students are a little different from what they were like when we parted from them at the beginning of the summer.

So this September, out of respect for my students, who also experienced their own special vacations, I am going to try to ease into English class activities gently. I am going to move a little more slowly than usual. In addition, since I am truly interested in knowing how they spent the summer, I am going to arrange my students in a circle and encourage them to tell me a little bit about their vacations by asking really simple questions, such as:

Where did you go this summer? Kagoshima? Nagasaki? Sendai? New York? Hawaii? (I will use a map for reference for this question.)

Whom did you go with? Your parents? Your brother and sister? Your friends? Your grandparents?

What was the best thing for you? Swimming? Hiking? Shopping? Playing with friends? Reading?

Did you finish your homework? When did you finish it? How much more do you have to do? Do you like doing summer homework? Do you know there is no summer homework in America?

Are you happy to be back at school?

What do you like best about being back at school? Seeing your friends? Seeing your teachers? Studying?

Then I plan to show the students some pictures of me on my vacation in San Francisco and San Diego. I will encourage them all to ask me one question each about my vacation. The pictures will help them envision some of the answers I give.

With higher level classes, I will try to coordinate the students in pairs so that they can ask each other these or other vacation-related questions.

I think creating this little summer-report scenario will accomplish a number of things. It will help all of us ride a portion of the refreshing summer wave into the English classroom by sharing stories. It will help the students make the transition from the summer vacation mode back to the school one. It should also offer them some form of satisfaction in the realization that they can relate to each other about their own summer vacation in English.

In a nutshell, our students are a little different from what they were like when we parted from them at the beginning of the summer. They are richer for the experiences they had, as are we. Therefore, I think this approach is a gentler, kinder way to greet them in September. I encourage you to try it. You may be surprised or impressed with what they tell you.

Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book', an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.

See also our Interview with Helene Jarmol Uchida.

Summer is here, and the heat is going to affect all of us, nationwide, no matter which island we live on. It's understandably hard for our students to concentrate on English studies and equally hard for us to teach in the scorching heat of a typical Japanese summer.

I always pick the hottest day in July to take my students out of class and go on an adventure without disclosing to them where we are going. I tell them to leave their school bags in the classroom and just follow me. This is always pretty exciting for them as they have had no forewarning and have no idea where we are going or why.

Everyone is always really surprised and happy when we arrive there and the students realize they are going to be treated to ice cream.

We then say goodbye to the school secretary, leave the building and walk through the shopping area, passing stores, and making comments about things we see along the way. Our final destination is the local ice cream shop. Everyone is always really surprised and happy when we arrive there and the students realize they are going to be treated to ice cream.

I let the students huddle together to decide which flavor each one wants; this always takes a few minutes since we go to Baskins Robbins which has so many flavors to choose from. They then tell me their choice in English, after which they order themselves.

We sit on a bench and savor our ice cream in silence. Near the end, I ask again about flavors, who got what and why. I explain that I like coffee ice cream the best and always have since I was a child.

I then take them to a nearby coin photography booth (the ones used for passport pictures). We all squeeze in and smile for the camera and then wait impatiently for the prints to be processed. After receiving them and looking at them amid a good amount of laughter, we walk back to the school with the pictures in our hands and show them to the school secretary.

In our classroom we cut the pictures up and give each child a picture as a memory of our escape from English class on one of the hottest days in Japan.

I would like to encourage you to go out on an ice cream adventure with your students this summer. If the class is too big to fit into the small, confined area of the coin photography booth, or if there is not one available in your area, you can bring a camera with you and take a group picture in front of the ice cream shop.

On my desk I have lots of pictures of me with my students after our ice cream shop adventures from years ago.

Hot summer, cold ice cream, warm memories.

Happy summer!

Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book', an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.

See also our Interview with Helene Jarmol Uchida.

I have a confession to make. I'm an eraser bandit. What is an eraser bandit? It's someone like me, a veteran English teacher, who gets a thrill, a buzz from finding erasers students have left behind in the classroom.

It started, like all addictions do, quite innocently with me tidying up my classroom after the students left. Often I found erasers left on the desk. At first, I put the erasers in a cup. But when they started to overflow, I placed them in a jar.

I think this is when the addiction really kicked in. I looked at the jar, saw it only half full of erasers, and something in me wanted to see the level of the pile of erasers reach the top. This is when I consciously started to look for erasers. And each time I found one, I would get a buzz and place it in the jar. Each week I would look at the jar and take pride in the level rising.

How many erasers do you think are in the jar? How much do you think the jar weighs?

But this was not enough for me. When we discussed our hobbies in class, I told my students, "My hobby is collecting erasers." (Which was a half-truth...I could not tell them I was an eraser bandit.) I then noticed students were bringing in their old erasers to add to my collection. I looked at my eraser jar with glee as the level rose.

I got such pleasure from looking at my jar of erasers that I decided to ask students for outright contributions. The erasers continued to come it.

As you may or may not know, I teach at three universities here in Fukuoka. Now, university students, like children, often forget their erasers. So each day, during class, while the university students are doing warm-ups, I walk around the room and look for forgotten erasers on the desks in the back of the room. So my collection has continued to increase, thanks to the forgetfulness of university students.

At Little America, we sometimes have eraser contests. The students are allowed to make two guesses. The first is to guess how many erasers are in the jar. The second is to guess how much the jar of erasers weighs. The three students who come the closest to the actual number and weight receive a present from Little America.

So, as a special service to ELT News readers, Little America gave three presents to the three readers with the best guesses of how many erasers are in the jar and how much it weighs (answers below).

Click here to see a larger image of the eraser jar.

Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book', an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.

See also our Interview with Helene Jarmol Uchida.

* The answers were:
Number of erasers = 537
Weight of erasers = 3,970 grams]]> http://www.eltnews.com/features/kids_world/2005/06/confessions_of_an_eraser_bandi.html http://www.eltnews.com/features/kids_world/2005/06/confessions_of_an_eraser_bandi.html Wed, 15 Jun 2005 15:28:19 +0900 by Helene Jarmol Uchida

Parents are really important people. They are the prime source in initiating, coordinating and cementing our relationship with the children we teach. In addition, they pay for their children's tuition and often transport them to and from our school. Most parents have an innate belief in their children's ability, implying that they often see the good more than the bad.

We never contact a parent if and when a child is doing poorly. Instead, we speak directly to the child.

We teachers view the child from our own domain; thus, we may see the child differently than the parent does. The interchangeable variables existing in our classroom, such as school atmosphere, class enrollment, English as the language of communication, the student's ability to learn, take risks, recover from failure, and cooperate, to name just a few, influence the child's behavior.

The rule of thumb at our school is to contact parents when we have good news, like a student graduating, doing well in class, being very cooperative, showing improvement, or being courteous.

We never contact a parent if and when a child is doing poorly. Instead, we speak directly to the child. I would like to give an example and explain why. But first I would like to mention where this concept, on my part, originated.

When I was a junior high English teacher in New York, many of my fellow teachers sent their students with behavioral problems to the principal's office. This was a common practice in the States, but I never did it. I felt if I had done so, I would have been sending a message to the misbehaving student that we were incapable of working it out ourselves. I always believed that if there was a problem, my student and I owned it, not the principal, and we had to work out a solution together. After all, the classroom is the teacher's territory, and the variables in that classroom are for the teacher to coordinate and control. This strategy worked well for me. Therefore, I have been able to use it successfully teaching English to children in Japan.

I think it is really essential that the teacher and the student solve their problems themselves. I would like to give an example. Upon occasion, at Little America, we have a student who does not do his homework. At our school, students have to hand in their homework as soon as they enter the classroom. If they have not done their homework, then they have to go to the lobby and complete it before entering the classroom again.

When this happens twice, I usually have a talk with the student after class. I ask what the problem is. The excuse is usually the same. "No time."

I then give the student two choices. We can solve this problem ourselves or we can contact the parents and ask them to monitor the homework completion at home. The student always prefers to work it out with the teacher. I then give the student the choice of coming in five minutes early each week or staying late five minutes to complete the homework. The student decides which is better and is given a quiet place to complete this task.

I then compliment the student on taking responsibility for his problem and let him know that my staff and I will always give support when we can. But the key point for me is that the student has to be responsible for his actions at our school, not the parent. At the same time, I think it is important that the student can sense the teacher respects his situation and is giving him a chance to work things out on his own.

The above strategy has worked for me in countless situations, such as incomplete homework, speaking Japanese in class, disturbing other students, being rude, and showing disrespect to the teacher.

I am grateful to my New York junior high students for responding well to this strategy that has proven successful for my whole teaching career. Please consider this policy and use what you can for yourself and your own situation.

Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book', an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.

See also our Interview with Helene Jarmol Uchida.

Dear Colleagues,

As you know, the tsunami that recently devastated Southern Asia abruptly robbed about 300,000 people of their lives. The repercussions to family members and communities are still being felt. It is hard to imagine such a tremendous loss.

All you have to do is find something good in each and every one of them and sincerely acknowledge what you have discovered.

Do we stick to our English teaching curriculum, not mentioning the catastrophe to our young student body, or do we deviate from our lesson plan and address it? At our English school, we chose to address it; we asked our students and their parents for contributions so we could offer some support in our own small way. Our goal in asking for contributions was two-fold. First, we truly wanted to help. And second, we wanted our students to think about how we are all related to people from other countries, no matter how close or far they live from us. This tsunami did not touch Japan's shores, but another one could. This tsunami has taught us that the world truly is a global community, and we all have to take care of each other.

We asked each of our students to contribute 100 yen. Some of the elementary school students came in with their own money, proudly dropping 100 yen coins into our collection jar. Some of them came in with brown envelopes filled with money from home, and some of the parents came to our office to make contributions. I am proud to report that Little America was able to collect 36,000 yen.

After we announced our collection total, I was surprised and moved when one of my Japanese staff members sent me the following email.

"Dear Helene,

I think as for tsunami contributions, Little America is a real international company, and it was a good chance for the students and their parents and even us to learn that we can do something and help the weak people if many people gather. I contributed only 100 yen for it , but it became 36,000 yen. As you said, team work is very important.

Thank you for giving me the chance to think about it.

Y.N."

I think this email reflects the sentiment some of our younger children may have felt but could not express in English. Our school asked its students for 100 yen each. We proudly sent a total of 36,000 yen to the Japanese Red Cross. When we looked at their website, we were amazed to discover that they had been able to collect 6,708,000,000 yen from the fine people of this country.

In closing, the British writer, John Donne, wrote in Meditations XVII:

"No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

I think our students were given a chance to think about this, and I think it was a good reason to deviate from our regular lessons. We do the best that we can in our own way.

Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book', an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.

See also our Interview with Helene Jarmol Uchida.

Happy Valentine's Day. As you know, Valentine's Day is a special day on which we show our affection to those dear to us. Back home we give cards or presents to parents, friends, colleagues, spouses, "significant others" and even teachers! May I make a suggestion to you on how to earn and receive the affection and loyalty of your students?

All you have to do is find something good in each and every one of them and sincerely acknowledge what you have discovered.

It is really very simple; all you have to do is find something good in each and every one of them and sincerely acknowledge what you have discovered. It's human nature that students are attracted to teachers who notice their good points.

As Dr. Mel Levine points out in his book "A Mind at a Time", all children's brains are circuited differently. I believe it our responsibility as teachers to find the talent and special abilities of all our pupils, not just the gifted or fast ones.

If you, yourself, look back on your studenthood, I am certain the teachers whom you admired the most were the teachers who recognized your shining attributes. As for me, my favorite teachers were my music, PE and English teachers. Why? Since I was good at those subjects, it was easy for those teachers to find good things in me. But I even liked Mr. Geddes who was the high school teacher of my worst subject, math. Why was he in my favorite teachers group? He made the comment that he thought the name Helene was a beautiful name of which I should have been proud. It probably was a minor comment which he didn't think twice about making. But it was the first time I had ever heard someone say something positive like that about my name, and I have never forgotten it.

Please try to find good things in your students. The quiet child may have the best penmanship; the noisy boy may have the best pronunciation; and the slow child may be the most helpful putting the chairs back into place, erasing the blackboard and helping you out at the end of class. I believe it is our job as teachers to find the good points in our students and to acknowledge those outstanding characteristics both in private and public.

Our comments should not be contrived or insincere, because children can see right through them if they are. Our comments should be from the heart. This is how I firmly believe you can earn the adoration and loyalty of students not just for Valentine's Day but all year round.

Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book', an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.

See also our Interview with Helene Jarmol Uchida.

Many years ago while I was teaching a preschool class, I was pointing to the ABC chart with the children reciting the ABCS after me. Suddenly Jun (a four-year-old boy) interrupted me saying, "Spider! Spider!" I looked at him and smiled. I guessed he wanted me to sing "The Eentsy-Weentsy Spider" song, his favorite. I motioned for him to wait and I continued with the ABCs, because I did not want to skip a beat in terms of keeping the rest of the class within my hold.

Even though I was his preschool English teacher, he was my preschool English learning mentor.

But as soon as I started again, he shouted out again, "Spider!" and got my attention by pointing to a space on the wall above the ABC chart. I turned around and to my amazement there was a small spider making its way across the wall. I stopped for a moment, smiled again, pointed to the spider, acknowledged his discovery and said, "Yes, Jun, it is a spider." And I continued with the ABCs.

A few moments later he shouted out, "Sensei, sensei! Two spiders!" I stopped, turned around and looked at the wall and, sure enough, there were two small spiders crawling across its surface. The other children understood and also looked at the spiders. The class did not lose a beat in terms of tempo because the other children, too, not only understood his English but were also interested in his find.

I turned in amazement and looked at this boy named Jun who was beaming with his discovery. How did this little child who had learned his ABCs and his numbers and the "Eentsy Weentsy Spider" song in my class put it all together? How did he have the confidence to interrupt me in English? How did he know how to put the number "two" in front of the noun "spider" without my teaching him how to do that? That moment was a tremendously profound one in my teaching career. Tears filled my eyes as I gazed at the wonder and majesty of childhood. I sat there in awe of him. Such is one example of the precious outcome of teaching English in Japan.

Jun is an adult now. We have lost contact, so I do not know where he is, what he is doing or even if he continued with his English studies. I like to believe that he is an English speaker. But one thing is for sure. Even though I was his preschool English teacher, he was my preschool English learning mentor. He taught me to never underestimate the ability of a child.

Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book', an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.

See also our Interview with Helene Jarmol Uchida.

Christmas is coming! Since I am a musical person at heart, Christmas means not only crisp, cool weather and the suspense of how the holiday will unfold, but also the advent of nostalgic Christmas songs. When I was young, I loved Christmas caroling with my friends. Sometimes our neighbors gave us hot apple cider after we sang for them. Even though I am in Japan now (and older, too), I still love listening to and singing Christmas songs. I also enjoy teaching them to my precious students. So in December, I make a great effort to introduce the lyrics and melodies of my four favorite Christmas songs to everyone in my English classes, from elementary school up to university and adults.

Even though I am in Japan now, I still love listening to and singing Christmas songs.

The Christmas songs we learn in ALL my classes are: "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," "Jingle Bells," "White Christmas" and "Silent Night." These songs are played on our class CD player when the children enter the classroom, or while they are copying the blackboard or writing in their workbooks. This way, they absorb the melody and lyrics subliminally and become familiar with them naturally. The music also creates a rather soothing Christmas atmosphere for us all.

Ten minutes before the end of the first December English class, I hand the students Christmas prints with the lyrics to the four songs; all the prints are illustrated with Christmas images, which make them appealing to the eye. I then recite the lyrics, breaking them into easy-to-understand phrases, after which the students repeat. I then sing the song once for everyone to listen to while the class follows along on the print. We then sing each song together. I encourage the students to take the prints home and practice during the week.

The songs become more familiar and enjoyable for the students to sing as each week in December passes by and Christmas approaches.

The following scenario has become a tradition at our school. The last week, before the winter holidays, since the students know the songs pretty well and do not need to look at the prints, we can sing them from memory. I ask a student to turn the lights off in the classroom; I then ask another student to light an array of Christmas candles situated in the middle of the table we study at. Now the time has come for us to sing our four Christmas songs for the last time before winter break.

It is really beautiful for me to see the warm, soft candlelight shine on the precious faces of the darling children (or adorable university students) as we sing our Christmas songs together. When I look at their beautiful faces adorned in the candlelight, for a molecule of a moment I feel as if I were back home in New York with my friends Christmas caroling our neighbors. It is always a lovely moment for me. As is the tradition at our school, we then all make a Christmas wish and blow the candles out together. Then we all hold hands and say, "Merry Christmas!"

Please give it a try this Christmas if you can.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book', an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.

See also our Interview with Helene Jarmol Uchida.

Do you ever prepare tea for your students? I sometimes do when I feel l need a breather and I have a private lesson or there is a small class of six or less. While the children are copying the blackboard, I may ask them, "Would you like a cup of tea?" They learn how to reply, "Yes, please," or "No, thank you." Most of them say, "Yes, please," without any hesitation. I then go to the next room to prepare the tea. Upon my return, I place a cup of tea by their notebook and say, "Here you are," to which they reply quite naturally, "Thank you."

It is a small gesture on my part, but the students sense that they are special in my eyes. Since everyone copies the blackboard and does a dictionary exercise at the beginning of each class, it is soothing for them to sip some tea while doing these activities.

Sometimes a student refills my cup for me without my asking and I always reply with a big thank you and an equally big smile.

Sometimes, if I am busy with a lot of homework to correct, I will ask another student to go to the next room to prepare the tea. The student looks at this as an honor. When he or she returns to the room, the student, too, speaks English to the other students saying, "Here you are," to which the others say, "Thank you."

We keep a teapot in the center of the table, and students serve themselves if they want more. Sometimes a student refills my cup for me without my asking and I always reply with a big thank you and an equally big smile. Sometimes a dish of cookies is placed by the tea.

Sipping tea together is a simple yet intimate activity. And I think it sends signals to the students that they are grown-up in my mind and worthy of my respect.

When class if over, the students always put their teacups back on the tray as a courtesy to me so I don't have to do it.

Now that winter is approaching, that cup of tea may taste more delicious than ever; you may want to think about initiating this custom for special, small classes. It's amazing what a cup of tea can do to promote camaraderie in the English classroom!

Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book', an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.

See also our Interview with Helene Jarmol Uchida.

With the advent of autumn comes the wonderful progression of seasonal holidays so popular with children in Western countries, the first of which is Halloween. Many of us here in Japan are successfully introducing and integrating Halloween into our cross cultural curriculums by planning parties with activities like dunking for apples, best costume awards, Halloween Bingo, etc. Dressing in a costume and scampering through the neighborhood for goodies is lots of fun, but it cannot be done without support from the community. How does one receive support when the holiday is still unfamiliar to people in Japan?

Dressing in a costume and scampering through the neighborhood for goodies is lots of fun, but it cannot be done without support from the community.

This month I would like to share with you the letter our school writes to our neighbors to inform them about Halloween and ask them for their support during this special holiday. Please feel free to use portions of our letter and make the necessary changes for your own situation. Of course, we send it in Japanese. It is my hope that it will motivate you to take the steps necessary to harness community support and help make Halloween a tradition in Japan.

"Halloween Walk Flyer for Neighbors and Shop Owners"

Autumn greetings. As you probably know, I am enjoying teaching English to children in this wonderful neighborhood. This month, on October 31, all children in America and other Western countries look forward to celebrating Halloween. I would like to create a "Halloween Walk" for my English students as a cultural experience, but I need to ask you for your help, because the community is the "heart" of Halloween.

On Halloween, young children dress up in costumes and, with bags in hand, visit the houses in their neighborhood, knocking at doors, ringing doorbells and asking for a treat. Their greeting is "Trick or treat," which means, "Please give us a treat or we will pull a trick on you!" Of course, all the neighbors have treats all ready for the children, and while handing them some goodies to put in their big bags, the neighbors usually comment on how cute or how scary the children look. The children then say, "Thank you!" and run to the next house. Of course, you can do not have to speak English to the children. Japanese is fine!

Would you be willing to let the children from my school ring your doorbell and ask, "Trick or treat?" If so, I would be happy to schedule you in on our Halloween Walk. Our Halloween Walk will take place _________(date) between ____ and _______. After I receive responses from various people in the neighborhood, I will be able to inform you approximately what time the children will arrive. I will also make arrangements to deliver some treats to you the day of the Halloween Walk so you will have them on hand. If you would like to prepare some on your own, treats usually consist of: gum, candy, cookies, crackers, 1-yen or 5-yen coins, o-sembei, etc.

My goal is to make this day a special one for my students, and I hope that you, the wonderful members of this community, can help to give them this fun experience. I promise it will be fun for you, too!

I am looking forward to establishing a fun holiday for our children which will hopefully turn into precious, warm memories of their youth here in this community.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or suggestions.

Thanking you,

Teacher's name
School's name
Address
Telephone number

Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book', an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.

See also our Interview with Helene Jarmol Uchida.

I am a strong believer in never letting a student lose face in class or in public. I think it is the teacher's responsibility to build an environment that enables a student to feel safe physically, mentally, socially and emotionally in the teacher's domain. If a student knows the teacher will not embarrass him or make him look bad in front of others, that student will give the teacher the most priceless gift of all, the gift of loyalty.

If a student knows the teacher will not embarrass him or make him look bad in front of others, that student will give the teacher the most priceless gift of all, the gift of loyalty.

I make it a rule to praise in public and criticize or correct in private.

It is important to acknowledge merit in the English classroom. Some ways of doing this in class are:

Give students compliments for doing well in the following areas: Penmanship, reading, pronunciation, homework, workbook completion, aural comprehension, assisting newcomers, tidying up the room, putting games away, erasing the blackboard, bringing things to the office, handing out class work (notebooks, homework, workbooks) to classmates, to name a few.

Compliments can be given to the child individually or can be made in public, in front of the other students, the school secretary, observers or parents. When I acknowledge a student's merit individually, I do it briefly and sincerely with a smile. "Great pronunciation," "good homework," "excellent writing," "nice job," "thank you for helping." We also give a student of the month award once a month to outstanding students.

When I praise a class in public, I do it with a flourish. Sometimes when I am impressed with a class's blackboard reading, I may ask the school secretary to come in and listen to the students read the words on the blackboard. The secretary is duly impressed and expresses her amazement. I stand there rather proud and acknowledge how great the students are. This is always a happy moment for all of us.

If and when a student exhibits behavior that needs attention or correction, the student can be spoken to outside of the classroom. I take students outside the classroom and talk to them in the hall when they do one of the following: forget their homework, speak Japanese, or treat another student rudely. If it concerns homework, I give the student the option of coming to school early or staying after class to complete their homework or giving me permission to call his mother to ask her for support. The student always prefers to solve the problem on his own without getting the mother involved. If this is agreeable with them ( which it always is), we go back to the classroom.

If the child speaks Japanese in the class or exhibits negative behavior, I explain why it is not acceptable in my classroom. If they cannot refrain from speaking Japanese or being rude, I give them the option of going to the lobby and watching an English video. They always say they would prefer to come back to the class after promising me not to speak Japanese or be unruly.

All of the above usually works because the students in their heart know I am treating them with respect and being fair. I have never publicly given students attention for negative behavior. At the same time, the student who has disappointed me has never lost face in front of his classmates. The student appreciates me for this and usually shows improvement in the area where he was lacking.

I think praising in public and criticizing in private is a win-win situation for all involved. I encourage you to try to incorporate this concept into your classroom according to your own specific situation and needs.

Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book', an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.

See also our Interview with Helene Jarmol Uchida.

How could such a tragedy, the intentional slaying of a classmate, occur at an elementary school in Sasebo, or any place else for that matter? People are discussing possible causes, including lack of parental guidance, the inability of teachers at school to notice problems before they occur, the alleged murderer's fascination with the novel "Battle Royale," and the pitfalls of children chatting on the internet. Only those directly involved have an inkling of where to point a finger. How teachers could have possibly prevented it is a powerful question that all of us should ponder.

We, as teachers should be able to heed signals indicating to us that there are potential problems in our student body.

Yes, we, as teachers (of any subject) should be able to heed signals indicating to us that there are potential problems in our student body. There are many things right with our public school systems, but from my ongoing work in the public and private school sector as a non-Japanese, there are three glaring weaknesses which have drawn my attention and concern.

First is class size. As long as teachers, who are overworked to begin with, have classes consisting of 40-50 students, inappropriate behavior - which is always a signal for help from students - will most likely be missed by the teacher, who is out of necessity trying to administer to the needs of the group; as a result, There is little chance for individual attention and support for children with problems.

Another deficiency as I see it is that there are not enough clear and consistent consequences for unacceptable behavior in schools. I am a strong believer that punishment is not the answer for inappropriate conduct. Instead, students need individual support via consultation or advice from a sympathetic and understanding teacher, adult or administrator when they display inappropriate behavior.

Why are they displaying negative behavior? What is their problem? And what is the root of their problem? How can we help? Children will not let an adult into their psyche to find the answers to these questions unless they trust the person asking.

When some of my students exhibited anti-social behavior in a class at one elementary school I was teaching at, I asked the teachers and principal if we could provide appropriate responses/consequences for unacceptable behavior. No one knew what I was talking about. They thought I was talking about punishments for the offenders. I explained to them I was talking about individual support, from a concerned adult, whether it be a teacher or an administrator. Obviously, because of my lack of Japanese language skills, I was not the person to help the students, so I asked if someone at the school was capable, available and interested in talking to the offenders. I was told they did not have this kind of system and would consider it, but nothing ever happened.

The third weak link, which is connected to the first two, is the absence of guidance counselors in schools in this country. As much as dedicated teachers may care about their students, they do not have the training, education, skills or time to recognize and take care of students with psychological, social or emotional problems. I believe guidance counselors, trust-worthy, non-teaching professionals should be on the premises all the time. They could be good listeners for children with problems, could talk to them about anger management, and could help them see issues from other people's viewpoints. I believe all schools from elementary to high school need guidance counselors on the premises full-time, not once a week, or once a month or two times a year.

The Ministry of Education lags way behind on the education, training and hiring of guidance counselors nationwide; it is an issue that needs to be addressed soon.

I believe if the aforementioned three weak links could be addressed, there would be a greater chance of preventing another tragedy such as the one in Sasebo or the one that recently occurred in Niigata. I personally find it appalling that the school principal in Niigata sent the two elementary school students home from school after the knifing incident. This is a clear example of how elementary schools have not set up any guidelines for consequences concerning inappropriate behavior.

I firmly believe we should all try harder for the children, starting now.

Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book', an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.

See also our Interview with Helene Jarmol Uchida.

Songs are a wonderful vehicle to help facilitate positive feelings about being in an English-speaking environment. They naturally create a pleasant atmosphere by virtue of the universal appeal of melodious music. I strongly recommend that you consider incorporating a theme song that represents YOU and your school.

Entering and leaving the classroom is always a positive, pleasant experience cushioned by an upbeat tempo and a corresponding happy atmosphere.

Playing this song in your classroom is a signal to your students that it is time for their lesson to begin. When youngsters at our school, waiting out in the lobby, hear our theme song, they come running to the classroom, smiling, eager to greet their teacher and excited for class to begin. I believe the recognition of the song, and their identity with it, prompts such a sentiment.

We also use the same theme song again to signal to the students that class is over and it is time for them to leave. Thus, entering and leaving the classroom is always a positive, pleasant experience cushioned by an upbeat tempo and a corresponding happy atmosphere.

Selecting your school theme song should be a fun experience for you in that it should reflect your personality or teaching philosophy. If you are Australian or have visited Australia, you might select "Waltzing Matilda." If you are American or have been to America, you might like "Country Road" or "You Are My Sunshine." "London Bridge" is a possibility for those attracted to England. Every country in the world has beautiful songs from which to select.

Walt Disney's songs are also excellent choices because children are familiar with them. Possibilities might be "It's a Small World" or "Hi-Ho" (the march of the Seven Dwarves in "Snow White ") or "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah" from "The Song of the South."

Standard children's songs are appropriate for nursery schools or kindergartens. "This Old Man", "If You're Happy", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," or "Skidamarink" are good selections. The list is endless, but the point is that the song you chose will come to symbolize you and your school. And when your students grow up and hear that song, they will think of you and their memories of English class with you.

If you have an answering machine for your school, you can also use this song as background music to your message. In addition, if and when you have a "happyokai," this theme song can be used as background music to help relax the students and get them "in the mood" for English.

If you do not have a school, but are teaching English, you can still use this concept to teach your classes. You just bring your own atmosphere and song with you wherever you go.

At our school we also use our theme song for outside lessons at kindergartens to create our own special English mood. The students are lined up in a semi-circle in the classroom waiting for us at their school. We put the CD on and walk around the semi-circle, shaking hands with each child saying, "Hello" as our theme songs plays. We also do the same thing at the end of class: the students line up in a semi-circle to say goodbye and shake hands with their teacher while the music plays in the background.

This theme song concept is an example of how a little thought and a little preparation can be a strong catalyst to help you nourish in your students a positive and happy attitude about you and the English classes you create for them with a song in your heart.

Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book', an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.

See also our Interview with Helene Jarmol Uchida.

I believe a classroom is a garden, the students are seedlings and the teacher is the gardener. Each time the students enter the garden, it is the responsibility of the teacher to orchestrate interesting activities, filled with nourishment and challenges, which will enable the students to grow strong and tall into their natural splendor.

The gardener cannot control their growth. Yet one thing is for sure. If the seeds are not planted, nothing will grow at all.

The teacher should be patient with the seedlings, because no matter how much water or how much sunshine they receive, they are all individuals, and, as a result, they will all grow at their own rate, in their own way, during their own time; no two are the same.

Some students will blossom early and some will blossom late. Some will require extra attention and some will need additional encouragement. Some will grow with a wild will of their own, as if trying to contain them would be as fruitless as trying to lock wind in a room. And once in a while, sadly, there will be one who refuses to grow at all.

The gardener cannot control their growth. Yet one thing is for sure. If the seeds are not planted, nothing will grow at all.

I, as a teacher, am only as good as the flowers which grow in my garden.

Over the years, thousands upon thousands of children and parents have put their trust and faith in my care; this is a responsibility I have not taken lightly. It is one I have cherished and treasured. Such trust has given me a great sense of warmth and worth.

Once in a while students return; I always marvel at who they have become and how they have evolved. I cannot stop myself from taking a moment to gaze at them as they stand before me in all their regal splendor. I want to say, "Look at you! There is only one of you, and I was fortunate enough to be a part of your life when you were a seedling." This is always so overwhelming for me.

What a noble profession this is; what a fortunate human being I am. What could be better than this?

Now after thousands of students, thousands of lessons, thousands of challenges, I take great pride in my ever-expanding garden whose flowers are scattered all over the world.

I am a teacher; I am a gardener, and that has made all the difference.

Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan. She is the director of the Fukuoka-based Little America English Schools and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book', an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.

See also our Interview with Helene Jarmol Uchida.