Smith’s Curriculum Evolution

Hi, it’s Derek from Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi. In the blog post “Why I Love Owning Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi“, I mentioned several reasons why I loved owning my own Smith’s English school franchise in Tsukaguchi, Amagasaki, Japan. One of them was having the freedom to teach whatever I want and how I want in my English lessons. In this blog post, I will talk about Smith’s curriculum and share a new lesson style that I started this year in Tsukaguchi. Let’s get started!

Smith’s Curriculum

The first Smith’s curriculum was created by Smith’s teachers way back in 1996 when Smith’s began. Later, a Smith’s school owner/teacher created more curriculum for us which we called “the expanded curriculum”. Next, all of the curriculum, which had been analogue up to that time, was made digital so that we could use it on computer screens in our classrooms. While Smith’s Head Office has always allowed Smith’s school owners to teach whatever they wanted to their students, in the past it encouraged using the standard Smith’s curriculum to create commonality between the schools. However nowadays, it leaves it completely up to us to decide what to teach in our English schools. I love that!

Why Smith’s Teachers Deciding Lesson Material Is Best

We Smith’s teachers know our own students better than anybody else. We know their strong points and the things they need work on. Also, we know what their goals are. It only makes sense that we decide what they should be taught and how they should be taught. That is why I really appreciate being able to decide the curriculum at Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi.

Creating New Curriculum for My Students Is Fun!

Recently I am enjoying creating new lesson material for my Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi students using Keynote on my computer. My lessons consist of questions on topics that I choose. In the questions, I introduce new English related to the topics. I also teach or review things by including questions using them. I use a 40-inch TV display screen connected to a Mac Mini to show the questions to the students. Some students mentioned enjoying this new way of teaching which made me happy!

Mixing Analogue and Digital Lessons in Class

While using a computer and TV display works well in some lessons, in some other lessons I still use a whiteboard. I prefer using a whiteboard to teach some lessons like the Smith’s curriculum’s “Morning Routine” or “Introductions”.

Sharing New Curriculum with Other Smith’s Teachers

I plan to eventually share the Keynote lessons that I am creating in Tsukaguchi with the Smith’s franchise system so that other Smith’s teachers can use them if they want to. They can become Smith’s curriculum that any Smith’s school can use. (^.^)

Thank you for reading!

Derek

Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi

https://smithweb.co.jp/tsukaguchi