My Portfolio - Mik Yoshioka

*Portfolio*

Mik Yoshioka

(Hitohisa yoshioka)

Contents:

Introduction
Educational Teaching Philosophy
Student Observation
Classroom Management
English Classroom
Language Center
School Events and Activities

Hello, I am Mik Yoshioka and welcome to my Portfolio,
I am a passionate and result oriented educator, committed to engaging students
with different abilities and helping them how to express their thoughts and feelings
while developing essential life skills.
I have been teaching English Language in Japan and Thailand for over the last
couple of years.
At present I am teaching at Rayong Technical College in Rayong Thailand.
My area of expertise:
Creative lesson planning / Preparation / Standardized Testing / Experimental
Learning / Classroom management / Workshops / Experience in Training all CEFR
levels- A1/A2/B1/B2/C1/C2/ Awareness of trends in education and new teaching
methods.

EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATION:

Bachelor of Engineering (B.E. Civil)
Institution: University of Pune

Japanese Language Diploma
Institution: Tokyo Cultural Academy-Tokyo, Japan

My Teaching Philosophy:

People often believe that if you speak a second language then that automatically means
you are able to teach it to another person, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Language teaching is a detailed process that requires careful preparation and scaffolding
to promote genuine communication in the classroom. Without genuine communication,
students leave class knowing and remembering nothing more than the material from their most
recent exam. From my experience both as a learner and a teacher.
In class room I, with the students participate in genuine language scenarios.
In contrast to the traditional language classroom, the focus of the class is on meaning and not grammar.
Grammar is taught only as a means to being able to complete the daily predetermined objective.
I speak and encourage the students to speak English 100% of the time. This allows students to be exposed
to a genuine language model. In order for this to be feasible, I provide language input in a comprehensible
manner by using images to support what is being said and using effective pausing, gestures, and repetition
to emphasize and clarify meaning. This method helps students be prepared to speak English outside of the
classroom. With this method, teacher becomes architect and students become the builders of them
language acquisition. I prepare with a lesson, serve as a resource, and guide student learning. Students, in
contrast, take initiative and responsibility in their own learning by coming prepared to participate in the
class, ask questions, negotiate the meaning of new words and concepts, and utilize their resources.
The options in the classroom are endless. As long as the activities planned are student centered, have a
meaningful exchange of information, and are guided by a predetermined set of steps, students are able to
see success in their language journey.
The most important objective for me as a teacher is to provide my students with real word language
application so they can foster an appreciation and love for other cultures and languages.
The days of dry grammar lectures are phasing out, and I believe there is a pressing
need for class time to be spent towards building language competency.

FOCUS ON STUDENTS:

Focus on students with no background in the English language and is a true first-time language learner.
Academically, they maintain grades. After a few weeks of observation, I found that they are easily
frustrated and quickly give up or are distracted by their drawing notebook when they don’t understand the
material. Students put in the least amount of work needed to achieve the daily goal and does not like to
communicate at the presentation or interpersonal level in the target language. When individually
prompted, they will eventually do as instructed, but it is done at a significantly slower rate than their
peers. I believe this comes from an insecurity with the material.
Keeping my personal observations in mind, I strategically group and interact with focusing students so
they are able to participate to the fullest degree. When students are involved in communicative activities
with their peers, I frequently pair and group them with students outside of their friend groups.
When the students are given the opportunity to work with peers outside of their comfort zone and at a
table away from their drawing materials, they are able to stay on task. On the instructional side of
learning, I always model activities, give oral and written directions, and when needed, individual
explanations and conversation setups. When giving directions, I am careful to watch students and gauge
their comprehension by their facial and body language.
During activities, I always take the time to check student’s work, on task behavior, and answer
individual questions.

During COVID- On Line Class-room Learning/Planning-

Earlier this year, I was in the same position as many other teachers to find ways to provide direct
instruction to students in a new format.

One format that I trialed, used the idea of flipped lessons as a basis, however modified to suit the lack of
face-to-face interaction. The creation of videos/live work sheets and using them to support ideas with
students as to how to best use for on line learning. This included having no video run for more than 5-8
minutes. I used this strategy in my online class room and it was fascinating how the students engaged
with the material.

To implement this strategy, I developed material, live work sheets of learning activities which students
would use to help guide them through each key idea – with activities linked throughout to allow students
multiple entry points and an ability to access information if they needed follow up. This meant that during
lessons, I was able to support small groups of students with key concepts, rather than attempting to
support student understanding without the crucial visual that face-to-face interaction provides.

I found that students were challenged by the responsibility they had during online learning. Many
students would engage with the meeting and videos, but complete limited practice outside of this.

The main I reason chose to develop videos/live worksheet to help with content delivery was:

I anticipated that students may not engage with learning online at the specified times and may be more
likely to check-out if they are at home – so videos would theoretically allow students to engage at their
own pace and at other times of the day if that suited them more. For some students, this was the case, and
they would get in touch to ask whether it was okay.

When face-to-face teaching, warmups and review activities are included in your program regularly to
check for understanding and address misconceptions. This was challenging in an online world –
especially with a class of 25-30 students, and so using the video to deliver explicit content meant that I
could spend more lesson time checking in with students through conversation (verbal or in the meeting
chat) and having conversations to support growth of understanding.

Some students benefit from being able to re-watch step-by-step examples as they develop confidence with
new ideas.

Some students entered this topic with a clear understanding of some aspects of measurement, and I was
unable to scaffold entry points as I would face-to-face. So, this structure encouraged students to self-
assess their confidence and move ahead when ready. Through setting checkpoints, I was able to ensure
that all students were making some progress.

During teaching online (and then with the transition to both online and face-to-face teaching at the same
time), I didn’t anticipate how difficult it would be to support students to remain on task for the lesson.
Even with regular breaks and a variety of activities, I felt like I was unable to read how confident students
were feeling with ideas, and where I would likely intervene in a normal situation, I couldn’t recognize
struggle as easily.

While the teaching material had the potential – and some students spoke of the benefit they gained from
them – I understand that most of the learning during this time related to the use of technology and
confidence in becoming a more self-directed learner.

Classroom Management Observation:

From this observation, I reflected on one area that I wanted to work to improve more actively. While there
were multiple aspects that I wanted to address (including how I provide feedback), I decided to look at
my voice and volume as one area that would perhaps have the greatest influence over my classroom
management.

I aimed to reduce the volume of my voice and play with tone, pace and pitch and then reflect on how this
impacted my class. My verbal communication will likely have an impact on the responses I receive and
by decreasing my pace in particular, I might help reduce some of the anxiety that students were presenting
in my classroom.

Through this exploration, I began to notice how my tone and volume was impacting the learning of my
students. I felt that when I actively slowed my speech down, students left explicit instruction feeling more
confident. I also began to feel more confident, as by slowing the pace, I was able to make more
observations of student body language in relation to key ideas and comprehension and respond to
misinterpretations more productively and in a timelier manner.

During the observation, I felt more confident with how I was communicating with students, and I started
to feel like it was becoming more of a habit to actively monitor my volume and the pace of my speech.
This was an aspect that was very well acknowledged.

In terms of continuing to grow as a teacher, I found these observations invaluable as they provided a new
insight into my classroom and how I am supporting student learning. The feedback provided has helped
shaped my strategies and sticks in the back of my mind when I am working with students and explicitly
teaching new material.

English Classrooms:

A-1-Level Class room

B-1- Level Class room

B-2-Level Class room-

CEFR Speaking Test:

Student’s Public Speaking Compitition :

TOEIC Test Recording Sessions:

Daily Morning Activity:

Student Success story- (Training English Vocab.)

Christmas Day Event-Mini English Camp:

We conducted Christmas day Mini English Event Camp.Students were
divided in to 6 Game & activity stations to enjoy Games & different Activities
winning Prizes. I was in charge of Station No.5





Thank you and have a Good Day