There are teachers, and there are Teachers. I respect anyone who steps into a classroom, but I adore educators for whom teaching is as much a vocation as a job. Why? Because when Teachers go on vacation, they look at ways to exploit their adventures for students. Whether collecting foreign magazines for language class, or foreign [...]
Posts under ‘Reflection’
Refreshing and Recharging
It has been a busy, exciting year. Karen Frazier, Ritsuko Nakata, Carolyn Graham and I finished the 4th edition of Let’s Go. I did workshops on the 5 largest islands in the Japanese archipelago (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa, in case you’re curious), in Korea, and online. Chuck Sandy, Kate Cory-Wright and I co-wrote [...]
Because teachers matter
Soon after I moved back to Japan, I had coffee with Kazu Nakamura, the new (at that time) president of Oxford University Press Japan. During our conversation, Kazu outlined his goals in regards to OUP’s educational mission. Part of the conversation, paraphrased in my memory, went like this: Kazu: I want us to provide teacher [...]
The Blasted Oak (by Torn Halves)
This is the story of a sensitive soul who decided to teach English as a foreign language. Like other such souls she was acutely aware that the world is not as it ought to be. While at university she had seen fellow students flocking to the careers fair and queuing up to become employees of [...]
Are we going too global? (by Yitzha Sarwono)
Some people fear that in the race to make Indonesian students more global, they may be losing the sense of what it means to be part of the Indonesian nation. August 17th is Independence Day in Indonesia. Just like other countries, on this day we celebrate the history of how Indonesia became a nation. When [...]
Iro Iro
Iro iro is Japanese for “this and that.” I love the sound of the word, and it sounds better than publishing a post called “miscellaneous stuff” So, here’s my iro iro: 20 years of learning and playing with Let’s Go
Aftershocks 5
It’s Children’s Day in Japan, a holiday for rejoicing in children’s unique personalities and celebrating their happiness. It seemed appropriate to use this post to showcase some of the ways that children around the world have worked with their teachers to respond to the earthquake and tsunami in this country.
Aftershocks 4
View Tohoku Earthquake Map in a larger map
Aftershocks 3
Teachable Moments I had a wonderful moment in class this week. I printed out the comments on the We love Japan message board and took them to one of my adult classes. I thought they would provide some lovely, simple reading material on a topic that my students are very familiar with—the earthquake and tsunami. [...]
Aftershocks 2
This has been a very social disaster. I first heard about the quake on Twitter, and when friends started checking in, they did so on Facebook. Even when the phones and electricity stopped working, social networks carried on, largely because they could be accessed via mobile phones. It’s where people shared their stories–staying overnight with [...]
