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November 10, 2008
The past few weeks have been incredibly busy between preparing for Halloween, making presentations for WE CAN! and going to JALT, Jr.
Pumpkin Carving
I was very lucky to receive a large pumpkin from my friend before Halloween. I offered to pay her for the pumpkin, but she said not to worry because she got it for free. She was in Gifu prefecture at a farmer's market when she saw a bunch of pumpkins. She became very excited and told the farmer she wanted to buy one. The farmer asked, "Why would you want these? You can't eat them." She persisted and the farmer ended up giving her three of them for free because he refused to sell her something she couldn't eat. Lucky us!
We carved the pumpkin in front of the school after Friday night's classes in preparation for the Halloween party that Sunday. The Friday students stayed to help and other students, who lived close to BIG BOW, came to join the fun. When I cut open the top of the pumpkin, the students were amazed because the inside was very different from the Japanese "kabocha" pumpkins they see in the supermarket. We had a great time scraping the "pumpkin goop" out of the inside of the pumpkin. (Well, to be honest, I scraped and they merely stuck their hands in the "goop" and squealed, "Eeeeew. Gross!") It reminded me once again that children learn best by experiencing things, touching and smelling, rather than by just reading about them in a book. Some of the children took pumpkin seeds home, in the hopes of growing their own pumpkins. I wish them the best of luck!
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Osaka WE CAN! launch party, Chubu ETJ EXPO and JALT, Jr.
On 10/25, Saturday, I went to Osaka for the second WE CAN! launch party. I love presenting there because an Osaka audience is always so full of energy! The next day I had to make a similar presentation at the Chubu ETJ EXPO in Nagoya. I was very honored to have Richard Graham (of Genki English) in the audience. I really wanted to stay for the rest of EXPO, but I had to run out the door to get ready for the BIG BOW Halloween party that afternoon. Needless to say, I was pretty tired by the end of the day.
From October 31 to November 3, I went to the National JALT conference in Tokyo. This year, I made two presentations. The first was with Yoko Matsuka, about the goal-driven curriculum in WE CAN! Matsuka-sensei has spent years advising elementary schools. As a result, she has seen many wonderful and horrible examples of team teaching. For this presentation, we decided that we would present two lessons: in the first lesson, she would be the insecure Japanese teacher who feels the need to translate everything and I would be an experienced English teacher and in the second lesson, I would be an inexperienced teacher who uses difficult English in class and won't co-operate with the experienced Japanese teacher. Later, we asked the audience about the positive and negative things we did during each "lesson". It was really interesting to hear what the teachers had to say and I hope they can take what they learned back to their own classrooms.
My other presentation was about classroom management. As I have taught for 16 years and have hired many teachers in the past, I certainly had lots to say about this subject!
I also attended many presentations. This year, many of them were about what is going to happen when English becomes a compulsory subject for 5th and 6th grade elementary students in 2011. Apparently, the subject will not be graded, they will use a book called "Eigo Note" and phonics and reading will not be taught. I am quite disappointed to hear about what has been decided. The curriculum does not take into account the developmental stage 5th and 6th graders are in and I can't shake the feeling that the true goal of this program is not to upset the junior high school English teachers.
October 16, 2008
Since last November, I have been hard at work,
writing the Teacher's Guides for a new children's
EFL series called WE CAN!, written by Yoko Matsuka and Glenn McDougall
and published by McGraw Hill. It has been a lot of work, but a great experience.
Since the beginning of this project, I have been thinking a lot about my
experiences as a new teacher, the questions asked by teachers who have worked
for me in the past and things teachers have told me about their classroom
challenges after my teacher training sessions. When I started writing these
Teacher's Guides, I was determined to make it as teacher friendly as I could and
flexible enough that teachers with big or small classes would find it
useful.
I've written five so far (two more to go), but hadn't seen the final product until the Tokyo Launch party on Sunday. It was such a thrill to finally hold Teacher's Guide 1 in my hand! Wow!
The launch party was fantastic! We had a great audience of about 150 people at the head office at the Yomiuri Shinbun. Yoko Matsuka had everyone on their feet acting out adjectives, comparatives and superlatives - everyone was laughing and running in place to act out fast, faster and FASTEST! I pretended my audience was a very large class and showed how activities could be done efficiently to make the best use of class time.
However, the focus of both of our presentations was on goals. This course has over 300 of them and these easy-to-achieve goals will really help your students (and their tuition paying parents!) feel like they are making progress in their English studies. As I wrote in my March 26, 2008 blog entry, "Eigo de Asobou" (Let's play around and have fun in English.) was a nice idea, but many people have now realized the limitations of such an approach. As one of my friends said to me after a teacher training seminar, "I've now realized that my students are having a lot of fun, but we are not really going anywhere."
I'll be making more presentations on the benefits of goals in class at the Osaka launch party, the JALT national convention and the Chubu and Kansai ETJ EXPOs. See my teacher training schedule for details.
September 27, 2008
While I was surfing for ideas for a lesson for my returnee class about gravity, I came across an old "School House Rock" video called, "I'm a Victim of Gravity." This was perfect to use in my lesson because it very simply illustrated the concept of universal gravity and introduced the ideas of Isaac Newton and Galileo. (I'll forgive the fact it incorrectly showed Galileo dropping things off the Tower of Pisa and Newton getting hit on the head with an apple.) I could even print out the lyrics to the song!
"School House Rock" is very nostalgic for me. Back
before Cartoon Network, cartoons were pretty much
only shown on Saturday mornings in America, in-between commercials for
nutritiously suspect breakfast cereals with incorrectly spelled names (i.e. Trix).
In the early 1970's David McCall hit on the idea of producing short 3 minute
cartoons on subjects such as math, science, English grammar, history and social
studies and asking the breakfast cereal companies to sponsor them. "School House
Rock" was an instant hit and continued until 2001.
These short cartoons were so popular that if you go up to any American in their 30s or 40s and say, "Conjunction Junction", they will immediately reply, "What's your function?" Every American from my generation knows by heart the tricky process of how a bill becomes a law in America because of the "I'm just a bill. . .sittin' here on Capitol Hill," cartoon.
July 30, 2008
I hope everyone is coping well with the summer heat! If you are not on vacation and still teaching, one way to make summer more enjoyable (other than drinking Matcha Frappaccinos from Starbucks) is to teach lessons with a summer theme. In the recently published issue of Pearson's E-Kids Link, I gave detailed instructions (including free downloadable worksheets) on two cross-curricular lessons with a summer theme. One is about ice and things that melt and the other is about what plants need to grow. These are actual lessons I use at BIG BOW English Lab. So click here and try your best to enjoy the summer with your students!
July 25, 2008
Every year, I take the BIG BOW students to see an art exhibition at a local museum. (Most people believe that children cannot enjoy art, but I believe that is only because many adults do their best to teach art in the most boring way possible!) Last year we went to see Salvador Dali and this year was Claude Monet. I always visit the museum ahead of time and create a "scavenger hunt" type worksheet so the children can enjoy the paintings in a way that makes sense to them.
I thought it might be difficult to get the students excited about a painter as mild-mannered as Monet, but they really seemed to enjoy it. The especially liked comparing the paintings where he painted the same things at different times of the day or year, such as haystacks or poplar trees.
The next week we enjoyed making our own Impressionist paintings on postcards! We discussed what kinds of things Monet usually painted (trees, flowers, bridges, etc.) and then the students dipped their fingers in watercolor paints and dabbed the paint on their picture. It only took about 15 - 20 minutes to do and I was really impressed by their creativity! Then, we put the paintings together at the front of the school and had our own BIG BOW Impressionist Exhibition.
July 11, 2008
What a very busy and amazing spring I've had!
Science Lessons in Kanazawa
I went to Mari Nakamura's school, English Square, during Golden Week again this year to teach a science lesson. This year the theme was about the human body. We had a wonderful time doing science experiments about our sense of smell and hearing and how an eardrum works. However, the most popular activity was making an optical illusion. The children were so amazed at how easy it is to fool the eye!
My Tohoku Adventure. . .
May 24 I went to Akita to present at the JALT Akita Chapter Meeting about using my Pie Chart method to plan lessons. It was my first time to Tohoku and the thing I noticed most when I got off the airplane was how fresh and clean the air was! Very different from the city air I'm used to. My image of Tohoku is probably very influenced by the famous first line of the novel, Snow Country, but everything was very lush and green. I had a very nice and enthusiastic audience at Akita International University and it was great meeting everyone and hearing about their teaching situations. One teacher (long time resident of Japan, originally from North America) told me, "I like living out here, but most days, if I want to see another foreign face, I have to look in the mirror!" As we were leaving the university, we were so lucky to see the university students practicing for Akita's festival by balancing tall lanterns on their hips or shoulders. Yikes!
That evening I took the shinkansen across the country to Morioka. I was greeted by Mary Burkitt, who is very active in the TG SIG and with Iwate JALT. I was very happy to hear that one of Morioka's specialties was Korean BBQ! Mary also graciously took me on a wonderful drive the next morning before the JALT meeting through the Iwate countryside near Koiwai Farm. I had always seen Koiwai cheese and butter for sale in the nicer supermarkets, but never realized it came from Iwate. Too bad it was too cloudy to see Mt. Iwate.
After my presentation, I took the shinkansen ALL the way home to Nagoya. I was very surprised to read Thomas Dillion's disparaging view of the shinkansen in his Japan Times column "When East Marries West". I'm more like the friend sitting next to him saying, "Is this the way to go, or what!?" I love travelling on the shinkansen. It is so much easier than traveling by airplane in Japan. Since domestic flight times are so short, by the time you fasten your seat belt, go through take off and wait for beverage service, you might have a ten minute window to sprint to the restroom before the pilot announces to get back in your seat and prepare for landing. I prefer the shinkansen because I can arrive at the platform a mere five minutes before the train leaves, jump on the train and then wander around as I please.
. . .followed by my Hokkaido Adventure!
June 22 I went to Hokkaido to make a keynote speech on cross-curricular English lessons for children at the JALT Hokkaido SIG Special. Sapporo is a wonderful city to visit in June - it isn't humid, the seafood is delicious and the city is so easy to get around in. It is especially fun when you have great friends like Mary Virgil Uchida or Kate Sato to show you around! The only problem was that the sun rises at 3:30 in the morning in June. My hotel was in Susukino, so by the time the lights went out in Susukino, it was time for the sun to rise!
The other keynote speaker at the SIG Special was Mark Shrosbree, a university professor at the Tokai University Foreign Language Center. It was really interesting because while his teaching situation was completely different than mine (he teaches about global issues to university students) our teaching styles are very similar because we both teach "content based lessons" - we teach about other subjects in English to EFL students.
Special presentation at Nanzan University
July 4th I made a special presentation in front of 350 students, a few friends and a bunch of BIG BOW parents at Nanzan University about the benefits of BIG BOW's Double Ring Lesson and how I have been pleasantly surprised at how much more progress I have been able to make in my English classes by using a 90 minute lesson with a cross-curricular focus. Everyone seemed to enjoy participating in the cross-curricular lessons, especially the coffee filter science experiment to teach colors. The professor who organized my presentation said that many students wanted to know where they could buy the internal organ apron I used for my "Making a Mummy" lesson. I spent a long time searching the web and finally found it here! Thanks to John Ahern who took pictures at the presentation.
March 26, 2008
At the beginning of the month, we had our first seminar for parents about English education. I was so pleased so many parents attended! It was encouraging to see that they were so interested in learning more about educating their children. My friend Kate Sato, who owns Kitopia in Sapporo and was a panel member on the International Pre-school Panel Discussion at the National JALT conference in 2007, said the success of your school's program lies in how much you involve the parents. I truly believe she is right!
One of the things I talked about at the seminar was the failure of the "Eigo de Asobou" (Let's play in English) movement. I understand why this movement came about - despite the desire to learn English, many adults were turned off by the way it was taught to them in junior high and high school. Twenty years ago, people thought that if children had fun in English, they would have a good attitude toward language learning. However, many people have become disillusioned about English education for children in general as a result of "Eigo de Asobou", simply because of the lack of results. The teacher and children become demoralized when they don't feel like they are making progress after a few years and the parents begin to wonder what they had to show for all of the money spent on lessons.
Mina Monta is always talking about some magic food on his TV show. We all know there is no magic food (remember the natto diet last year?) and that the best thing to do is to eat a balanced diet. English education is the same way - there is no "magic method". However, if you are in a balanced program, a program where children learn all four skills, (speaking, reading, writing and listening) are very motivated (the cross-curricular lessons at BIG BOW really keep the students motivated to learn!) and have some homework every week, becoming proficient in English can be a very achievable goal.
March 5, 2008
Recently, I have been watching CNN every morning to find out the latest news on the presidential primary. This is the first truly exciting presidential race in memory. Today is really quite exciting to see who is winning the Ohio and Texas primaries. I just checked CNN a few minutes ago and it looks like Hillary Clinton will win Ohio and Barack Obama will win Texas.
It is also interesting to see how Japanese are also closely following the race. My student came back from a business trip to America and brought me an "I (heart) Obama" T-shirt. Actually, I will be passing through the city of Obama in Fukui prefecture soon. (According to the New York Times, the city of Obama sells manju with Barack Obama's face on them. Who would buy a souvenir like that?!?!?) My son will be visiting his grandparents in Florida during Spring vacation, so my husband and I are going to take a road trip to the Japanese seaside. I have always wanted to see the Tottori Sand Dunes and visit Matsue. I've lived in Japan for over 15 years and have seen so much of this country, but there is always something new and exciting to see!
February 6, 2008
Thanks to everyone who attended my presentation on Sunday for the PKLT on teaching pre-school children. I have learned so many things from my pre-school students over the years and I always enjoy sharing what I've learned.
One of the most important things I have learned is to let myself be a child again and not worry about how I look when I teach this type of class. I think I proved myself on this point when I confidently hopped around like a kangaroo in front of 140 teachers at my presentation!
Another thing I have learned is that it is a lot more effective to get a three-year-old to do what you want if they decide to participate on their own. In this classroom, this means instead of demanding that they play a game or participate in an activity, you should enthusiastically start the game or activity and make them think, "Oh, wow! I want to do that!"
January 22, 2008
It seems every year some comedian's catch phrase sweeps Japan. However, this year had to be the worst! I became so weary of students saying Ikko's "Dondakee!" and Yoshio Kojima's "Sonnano Kankenee!" before, after and (occasionally) during class. Usually, the catch phrase fever dies out after New Year's, but that doesn't seem to be the case this year. So, my son came to the rescue and made me two signs I hung in my classroom the next week (see picture at right). This solved the problem immediately and now I'm enjoying the (relative) peace and quiet.
January 10, 2008
Happy New Year, everyone! This was the first time in three years I spent New Year's in Japan. I really enjoy the traditions of Japanese New Year from going to the very crowded grocery store to buy osechi ryori (New Year's food) on December 31 (Of course I don't make it from scratch!) to eating ozoni the first few mornings of the New Year. I just love the lacquer box I put my osechi ryori in. However, after eating this kind of food for a few days, I start craving pizza! I guess it is just like Americans with their leftover Christmas turkey. Everyone starts calling Pizza Hut after a few days of turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, turkey casserole, turkey pasta, etc.
An important part of preparing for the Japanese New Year is O-soji, or cleaning your house and an important part of New Year's in America is making New Year Resolutions. This year, both of these traditions suddenly converged. I tackled the out-of-control stash of plastic bags from the supermarket under my kitchen sink. After I pulled all of them out of the cabinet onto my kitchen floor and stood knee deep in plastic, I made my New Year's Resolution that I am going to buy an "Eco-bag" and not let any more plastic bags into my house! These days it is so much easier to remember to use your own bags since most of the supermarkets have incentives, such as stamp cards. However, I can remember the puzzled looks from store clerks when I first came to Japan fifteen years ago and politely refused bags. That was back when everyone double bagged everything! I once remember buying two take out coffees from McDonald's - the clerk wrapped each in a paper bag and then put both into another plastic bag! It is interesting how things can change.
I had a very busy November with teacher training. First, I went to the Kansai ETJ EXPO on November 11th. Wow - what a fabulous EXPO! Such great local speakers and a wonderful atmosphere. Soon after, it was time for the JALT National Convention in Tokyo. This was the fifth time I attended the national convention, but this time was different because I put together the JALT, Jr. schedule. It was really interesting to be "behind the scenes" and see how everything comes together. I was also in charge of Swap Meet, a time where teachers of children quickly share a classroom tested activity. It was really great to get together and share ideas and even better to get to talk to teachers around Japan face to face instead conversing by email as usual.
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