Teaching Each Other

Is teaching each other effective? There a lot of variables to consider when asking this question, but my opinion boils down to a no. First, there definitely wasn't a good amount of time to come up with a coherent lesson plan and translation questions. You also have to consider that not all of us are going to school to be teachers of something. Being a Computer Information Systems major, I'm not heavily inclined to educate others. Seeing as I have not taken any teaching classes, I also don't know effective methods of teaching and the best I can do is try to copy the teacher. My problem is that I know the information, but don't know how to convey it. With teaching others, one also has to remember that when it comes to language we don't know the intricacies of it. With regards to my question about using ～はずです to state an opinion, the book doesn't necessarily point to the fact that the way I was talking was incorrect. Only a native speaker or someone fluent in Japanese would really know that, so it's good that 友紀先生 was there to interact.

I probably come off as ultra critical of the exercise, but that's only because of my past experiences. It can work in some situations, I've just never seen it happen.

How could it have been done better? Well, personally, I would have liked to have more time in order to create a lesson plan and a sheet of translations or something for the class to work on. There's also the fact that when a student takes the reins, the other class members don't really listen or pay attention. I try to stop myself from doing that, but that just seems to be the case based on this experience and past ones. I'd suggest implementing a way of making the class pay attention, but I don't really know how that would work. So, time to create a lesson plan and a quiet class that is in absorb mode during the teaching part. That's what I would have liked to see.

私は悪い先生だと思います。日本語を教えるのが下手ですから。でも、簡単な分布を教えてよかったです。教えるのが嫌いですから、文法を教えないはずです。