Our third and latest website.
Our .Mac webpage on an early iPhone in an AU shop. 2008
It has taken about three weeks to move content from our old site to a new one hosted by Squarespace. There is much more scope for playing with design features here, and I’m particularly happy that new visitors are no longer greeted with a warning that the old URL was insecure. It didn’t exactly instill confidence.
I made our first website when I signed up for a .Mac account in 2008. We were then hosted, gratis for about ten years by breezi.com (thank you!)
I hope to be here at Squarespace for the long run.
The Breezi site. 2012-2022
Zoom classes go live.
(This was published on our old site in May 2020.)
We first contacted students using Zoom on April 12th. The family lives in a town north of Mito. Our connection goes back at least fifteen years so they were an obvious choice to recruit in testing online possibilities.
It was a brief, fun, messy meeting as we got used to not talking over each other and allowing for slight delays in the audio. We laughed at the virtual backgrounds you can use to mask your actual surroundings (and the way it can chop part of your head off as you move!) Zoom lets you appear to hover over a foggy Golden Gate Bridge, stand in waves lapping a tropical island beach or report from the International Space Station high above cities twinkling in the inky black of a night time Earth. Later, I selected photos of the insides of our classrooms for backdrops more conducive to the idea of study.
My wife managed all the heavy lifting and diplomacy of contacting students to broach the idea of resuming classes which had been disrupted since early March, this time with online meetings. A few clearly said they would wait for normal classes to restart. Others were keen but didn’t have WiFi at home. Many wanted to give it a go.
We now had to gather teaching materials from the classroom and work out which techniques and activities could be replicated online. All our classes use textbooks. We spend a lot of time with the children teaching them to read and write using Phonics. It provides a way to understand the relationship between letters on a page, the sounds they make and how these change with different combinations of letters. We play with these patterns in games and gradually get the students reading, the idea being that reading encourages independence.
Since most of our groups have one or two students unable or unwilling to join online classes we’re treating this as a chance to review older material. My set up has changed as I learn what is practical to present. I initiate meetings from the iMac and use my iPhone held in a clamped mini tripod as a camera. You can just see it to my right with a white cable coming out. This camera allows me to direct students to specific parts of the text book, present flashcards (the green clock face) and play board games. I roll the dice, move team markers and everyone can follow the progress after answering questions they ask each other.
I recommend hosting a class from a computer since Zoom allows you to share material much more easily than if you start from a tablet or smartphone. Audio, photos and pages opened in a web browser are all to hand. In addition, I use an iPad (purple case next to the keyboard), connected by cable and shared from the iMac as a virtual whiteboard. We play Pictionary, Alien game (Hangman) and various number games. I can also highlight grammar points or offer spelling hints. Zoom has its own white board but apps on the iPad offer more variety. As students familiarised themselves with their screens I encouraged them to draw too. Some students even bought pens you can use on screens to avoid the initial awkwardness of writing with fingers.
One alternative to Pictionary on the iPad is https://skribbl.io I've yet to test it with groups but interestingly it allows you to create private groups and use selected vocabulary lists. classroomscreen.com has some powerful features related to group management.
After a dreadful day of disruption when WiFi connections dropped two three times in each class and we were forced to restart meetings, we ordered a more robust and powerful WiFi router. I’m going to connect it directly to the iMac with an Ethernet cable and let its WiFi serve other devices in the house. That should protect the stability of our online classes which in these uncertain times are the priority.
There’s excellent advice about setting up wifi networks in this short ebook.www.takecontrolbooks.com/wi-fi/
Sakasagawa park.
(This was published on our old site in February 2020.)
If it isn't raining hard I try to take a walk after breakfast. Leaving the house around 7AM I trace the backstreets alongside elementary school students making their way to classes. Little knots of friends chatting animatedly, bursts of speed as pairs race each other briefly, sleepy stragglers. -It's an entertaining mix which I leave behind as I cross the main road and slip into the park. Noting evidence of how the seasons change lends a satisfying rythmn to my daily exercise. I usually listen to podcasts as a I go but keep an eye out for anything of photographic interest. Trees, flowers, birds and insects are ready subjects with variety lent by changes in the weather.
Warming up with jumbled question and answer cards.
(This was published on our old site in April 2017.)
Here are some cards which children use to make basic questions. They can sort the order to form the question and can show another student the single card which prompts an answer. Students often confuse how to start their answers and so these prompt cards help with that.
There are thirteen sets of questions.
Keeping a group engaged.
(This was published on our old site in March 2017.)
Placing a large cloth under the playing area enables a board or card game to be moved towards the next team in turn. It worked well with a kindergaten group in this setting.
Where are you going?
(This was published on our old site in March 2015.)
My sister-in-law emailed today. She teaches Art to 12-18 year olds in Singapore. She said she'd been to a talk by a professor from Exeter University in the UK. He was talking about joint honors degrees, but what was interesting was that he said 63 percent of UK employers are not interested in what you have studied, more your class of degree and your ability to work in this way. 77 percent of graduates go on to work in areas unrelated to their degrees.
So his advice was to 'study what makes you smile', which seemed she said, rather lovely advice.
Agreed.
Spring is upon us.
(This was published on our old site in March 2015.)
At the entrance of our classroom in Kasahara is a plum tree. Our landlady skillfully prunes it every year.
Undaunted, lithe new branches have reappeared soon to be dusted by a delicate pink, cream and mustard blossom.
Many students admire and comment on the tree’s beauty.
Welcome back.
Dice race game.
(This was published on our old site in January 2013.)
Well, quick to set up, and if the students need a rapid review of varied Q&A patterns, an effective activity. All you need is a target page of pictures, a dice, a clear file, one color marker pen per team and an eraser.
Users of the New Finding Out series will recognise the Home book in the photo. For those who don't know it is used for written practice, and each unit generally finishes with three groups of 6-8 pictures. Sets of pictures practice a particular Q&A pattern. In the photo these are:
What does (s/he) do?
What is it?
What can (s/he/it) do?
Before the game starts I cover the page with a clear file so that teams can write numbers 1~6 with a marker pen over the top of selected pictures. I sometimes do this stage myself to save time. Or you can use colored, numbered chips as in the photo.
The first player rolls the dice and answers a question, (for that color-number-picture) which is posed by the next player on the other team. Having answered, the first player erases that number and play passes to the student who just asked a question. If a student throws a number which has already been erased they get one more throw of the dice. If they still fail to throw one of their team's remaining numbers play passes to the other team. As the numbers are erased this second-chance rule becomes more and more likely and the excitement of the players increases with it.
The game finishes when one team has erased all their numbers.
‘Cool biz’ for teachers.
(This post was published on our old site in July 2012.)
'Cool biz' (business) has been a recurring theme over the last few summers in Japan. As daily temperatures regularly hit the high 30's and there seemed to be little respite even after the sun went down, people tried to think of ways to avoid heat exhaustion.
At home, nets supporting creeping plants were suspended outside windows to deflect the fierce glare of the sun. The nets are known as 'green curtains'. Morning Glory is a popular choice of plant, as is goya, which is a staple part of the diet in Okinawa.
At work, office staff were encouraged to wear loose cotton clothes. Ties could be left in the closet. Open necked shirts and short sleeves, and in some cases even shorts are acceptable attire.
Promoting 'Cool biz' took on a renewed significance after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. With nuclear power stations shut down there was a pressing need for everyone to save energy by reducing the use of air conditioning.
Recently, the topic of appropriate dress codes for teachers was raised on one of the email discussion groups I belong to. One teacher wanted to know if others considered shorts to be acceptable in the classroom. Having sweated my way through more than twenty Japanese summers and never taught a class in shorts, I was prepared to chip in on the side favouring a more formal approach.
Odd then that just before I found time to type a reply, I had a kindergarten class where we were all sitting on the carpet around a low table. Even though the windows were wide open there was little breeze and the room was getting stuffy. As I shifted position a 10cm horizontal rip appeared in my trousers just above the left knee. I almost had an instant pair of shorts, if a little lopsided.
Luckily, the children were cool about it.