みなさんこんにちは。

夏を感じますね。日に日に暑くなってきています。最近は暑さのせいか食生活が乱れがちです。

無性に何か食べたくなるときってありますよね。久しぶりにハンバーガー食べたくなったのでマクドナルドへ行きました。テキサスバーガーなるものがあったので買ってみました。テキサス出身のサム先生は「ハッ」と鼻で笑っていました。日本人が海外の寿司を見たときの反応なのでしょうか。

味は秘密にします。ぜひ食べてみてください。トルティーヤチップスがなんと中に入っていますよ！

As you all have probably figured out by now, I really enjoy baking. If it uses flour and butter, I probably like it. Sometimes, baking can be a real pain: it can take a long time, use a lot of ingredients, use expensive ingredients, be finicky, etc. And sometimes, it can be super quick and easy.

Scones are one such quick and easy recipe! Well, this particular scone recipe, anyways. There are certainly more laborious recipes out there.

My family has a long history of absolutely loving the scones you can buy once a year at the Puyallup Fair (now known as the Washington State Fair). They’re so good. They’re warm, and soft, with a crisp outer shell – and when you pair them with a berry jam, you’ve achieved perfection! They sell an instant mix at Costco you can use to replicate them super easily. It’s, like, five minutes of assembly and ten minutes of cooking, and you’ve got a bunch of delicious scones to enjoy.

I haven’t yet been to Japanese Costco, so I’m not sure if they sell that wonderful instant mix here. But I had a hankering for some fair scones, so I made do.

You can make them from scratch, of course, and they hardly take any extra time at all. So, that’s what I did! And boy, did they pay off.

I might’ve kneaded them a couple times too many, because the texture isn’t an exact match, but the flavor and everything else was perfect and delicious. My tiny microwave oven can only make a handful of scones at a time, so they have to be baked in two batches. But the whole bake still only took about an hour and resulted in a container of sweet, delicious scones that pair perfectly with cherry jam. What a happy day!

Don’t be afraid to start baking, guys. Not everything is as fussy as macarons. You can always start with something easy yet wonderful like scones. Just be sure to share!

We are in a new school year. We have new students, and they know very little English. They
will be sitting in our rooms every week to give them more exposure to our language. How can we be
good teachesr to students who barely understands us? How can we promote English to help them
not only in English class, but other classes as well? I think some of these techniques can help both
students and English teachers.

1. MAKE IT VISUAL
Students have a harder time processing spoken language. So instructions – even basic directions
should be written on the board whenever possible. Harder concepts should be diagrammed or
supported with pictures. And showing the steps of a process or showing students what a finished
product should look like can go a long way toward helping students understand. Sometimes showing
our students what to do is all they need in order to do it.

2. BUILD IN MORE GROUP WORK.
If we really want the kids to learn, they’ve got to be engaged.” That means less teacher-led, whole-
class instruction, and more small groups, where students can practice language with their peers in a
more personal setting.

3. HONOR THE “SILENT PERIOD.”
Many students go through a silent period, during which they will speak very little, if at all. I don’t
force them to talk if they don’t want to. A lot of students want to be perfect when they speak, so
they will not share until they feel they are at a point where they’re perfect. Some of the students will
try to speak in “broken English” to engage with the English teacher. Just knowing that this is a
normal stage in teaching English and should help relieve any pressure you feel to move them toward
talking too quickly.

Thank you for reading my blog. Until next time!!!!

もうすぐ七夕ですね。

英語では七夕のことをEvening of the seventh という意味でthe Star Festivalと

言うようです。

織姫（Vega) 彦星（Altair）が一年に一回で会う日として知られていますね。

今年は、ハローズの大垣の校舎でも短冊に願い事を書いてもらいました。

その中には、みんなのために

コロナが終わるように願ったものもありました。

どうかみんなの願いが叶いますように。

This past weekend it was supposed to rain, but Saturday ended up being a nice, sunny day.  So we decided to grab some meat and veggies from the store and set up the kids’ pool on our balcony and we had a family barbecue party!  It was pretty hot, so the pool was really nice.  We had a lot of fun, though.  I work late during the week, so I don’t get many opportunities to eat with the rest of my family.  I really enjoy weekends for that reason.  

It was also the day before the 4th of July, when a lot of people in the US go outside and barbecue, so it felt a little bit like home.  I’d love to do it again next weekend, but it’s supposed to be raining.  We’ll see if the forecast is accurate!