It’s been a while, so here’s an update.
To our sudden dismay, 1st term clas
To our sudden dismay, 1st term clas
ses abruptly finished up yesterday, so in an effort to prolong the beginning of what can only be described as tortuous boredom in the Board of Education office, the Kaga English teachers signed up for the Daishoiji High School International Day. We were basically asked to prepare a hands-on lesson on something related to the culture of our home countries, in this case mine being Canada. Not being able to think past the maple syrup stereotype, I ended up teaching a pancake cooking class to some of my friend Daniel’s high school first graders.
The day before I went out and bought a couple tons of baking flour, maple syrup, milk, eggs and maple syrup, which I hadn’t counted on carrying to Daniel’s school at 8 in the morning in 30 degree heat. In any case, we got where we needed to be and started setting up. Several of my graduated junior high schoolers were in the ranks of the students attending the cultural event, including several kids who I remember having pretty decent English ability last year.
After heartfelt reunions were done, there was a brief opening ceremony, followed by my first cooking class. I had originally intended to do a test run the night before at home, but didn’t get around to it, so I instead demonstrated to the students with no practice, which I don’t think anyone noticed cuz by some miracle I made absolutely beautiful crepes on the first go—from raw ingredients to edible in 5 minutes. It was sweet. The students did just as well, and we all did our best to share ingredients and encourage one another using the wonderful medium of English. Some students in the second class tried flipping pancakes too, which was really successful. I probably would’ve thrown them into a wall or something, so I didn’t try.
The day before I went out and bought a couple tons of baking flour, maple syrup, milk, eggs and maple syrup, which I hadn’t counted on carrying to Daniel’s school at 8 in the morning in 30 degree heat. In any case, we got where we needed to be and started setting up. Several of my graduated junior high schoolers were in the ranks of the students attending the cultural event, including several kids who I remember having pretty decent English ability last year.
After heartfelt reunions were done, there was a brief opening ceremony, followed by my first cooking class. I had originally intended to do a test run the night before at home, but didn’t get around to it, so I instead demonstrated to the students with no practice, which I don’t think anyone noticed cuz by some miracle I made absolutely beautiful crepes on the first go—from raw ingredients to edible in 5 minutes. It was sweet. The students did just as well, and we all did our best to share ingredients and encourage one another using the wonderful medium of English. Some students in the second class tried flipping pancakes too, which was really successful. I probably would’ve thrown them into a wall or something, so I didn’t try.
Surprisingly, I only got to eat like half a pancake, while the students stuffed themselves with their bountiful batter. The great thing about pancakes is that you can’t really mess it up. Even the kids who seemed inept ended up with a pretty tasty end result. In the following closing ceremony, the group leaders and class leader thanked us and we were done, but all in all it was great to work with high schoolers for the first time. They were responsive, mature, and understood English enough to make pancakes. What more could you ask for?
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