Lunch

hey all,

I just finished Visible Learning for Teachers a few days ago, and I've gone back to reading Making Thinking Visible and Teach Like a Champion. I actually got reminded by one of the techniques in Champion that I'm being negative when I remind my students of how to behave during lunch ("Don't do that" "Knock it off") instead of telling them what to do ("We're eating lunch" "It's lunch time" "Time to eat")

Cheers,

And...We're Back

hey all,

I'm still kicking around here in Japan. Yes,I know it is now July, and no I didn't really do anything special for the 4th.

Michi and I are planning a hiking trip to one of Japan's 100 Famous Mountains. Length-wise, and fitness-wise, it does not seem too bad, but we are going shopping for crampons since they are recommended for this mountain. Oh, and Michi still hasn't gotten her foot x-rayed or spoken to a doctor to see if this is a good idea. It seems like her ankle is doing OK recently, but still. She didn't wear the brace as long as she was supposed to, and she had a resurgence of the pain after our last hiking trip to Aomori, which was somewhat lengthy but only involved walking along a river trail with no serious ups or downs...and for this climb we will need to be walking on snow/ice and using crampons. Sounds like it will do therapeutic wonders for her ankle, doesn't it?

At work, we're still training one of the teachers, and we've started having another one come in to see how he does.

I finished Infinite Jest the other day. I'm a lot less satisfied with the ending this time around, and I find myself wondering about the meaning of the eponymous film in the book and the meaning of the main character's loss of communicative ability. I'm back to reading my teaching books sporadically.

Cheers,

Short Fuse

hey all,

Last week was E3. We got some interesting games coming out this year, but nothing that really grabbed me like last year.

I barely got any sleep at all last week, but that is my fault. I started a new series called The Kingkiller Chronicles, and the first two books were really good. So good, in fact, that I didn't get to bed until 1AM or 2AM most nights. Not sure when the third book is coming out, but I'm looking forward to it.

I'm still plugging away at the teaching books, though my pace is slow. One of my coworkers complained about books all having the same plot, etc, and I recommended she read Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest. I actually started Infinite Jest for my second read through this weekend, as well.

Friday was a brutish day. We had a potential new teacher come in and teach a bit, but he had zero experience and would need a lot of training. My class had to finish early so I could head over to the immigration bureau and pick up my new visa. I applied for the three year visa, and I actually got it, so that was nice. But then both of my afternoon classes severely disappointed me. The younger kids never look up any words, and I yelled at them for not making enough efforts at home (such as looking up words they didn't know). Then my high school class. It starts at 6:10PM, and despite telling them to review the vocabulary because there would be a quiz, they hadn't. The class only meets once a week, and is only 50 minutes long, but it is nothing but a waste of time. The students don't study, they don't seem to retain what is taught, etc. I told them to come back next week with a goal for us to reach. Hopefully, if they can come up with a reason to study, it will go much smoother.

Probably because of the stress and lack of sleep, I've come down with a headcold. One of those, "why did my ancestors need to have evolved sinuses?" headcolds that through off your balance, your hearing, and give you a killer headache. I slept through most of Saturday, and I'll be going to bed early tonight as well.

I have got in a few more hours in Kingdoms of Amalur, too. The combat really makes the game.

Next week we have more potential teachers coming in. We'll see if they work out.

Cheers,

1-1

hey all,

So I wasn't detained or put into handcuffs at the immigration bureau. I did have to wait 3 hours, but that is just a bit longer than average. I got the application in, and I was only missing one form, which nobody at the school, nor even Michi had heard of or seen before.

School is going OK, but as I mentioned, one of the unstable students has returned so the AM class can be a little touch and go.

Thankfully, I only had my group PM class after that, so I got a new packet printed out, plus I made a new vocab quiz, flashcards, and made two videos for my AM class.

Afterwards, I got to put in a few more hours in Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning. Still fun.

For anyone keeping track, now that I have finished reading Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos for the second time, I am making some progress on those education books, like Teach Like a Champion, Making Thinking Visible, and  Visible Learning for Teachers.

I wanted to mention that Michi and I watched this really old Japanese flick (it feels like 1970's but was made in 1987) last weekend called Watashi-o ski-ni tsurettete, which is something like Please Take me Skiing. It is like your classic skiiing movie from the 1980's, but you can tell it is Japanese because the protagonists have a really tough ski course that they need to complete in order to save their company's butt. There is a romantic interest between the main character and an office lady that also happens to work at his company (of course). Pretty funny, worth seeing once, but Michi is obsessed with it now.

Cheers,

More on Teaching Like a Champion

hey all,

I'm still focusing on Strong Voice, Positive Framing, and Do It Again. I've also started to add in more At Bats and Take a Stand. These are where you keep track of how many tries a student gets in class. If you ask a question, or pose a problem, how many times does a student get to try to answer it?; the second one is where you refuse to be the initial judge of a student's answer (you get the other students to judge it). These are primarily aimed at getting/forcing the students to take an active part in class. They discourage passivity and also (for Take a Stand) promote listening to other students carefully and with respect as an everyday practice.

Cheers,

Hot Stuff

hey all,

So last week I was laid up by some food poisoning or something else that gave me a 4 day stomach ache, tons of gas, diarrhea, and a slight fever. And now I'm going through something like my fourth or fifth cold of the season. As part of my concerted campaign to get rid of it, I eating hot oatmeal for breakfast, a hot lunch, a hot dinner of soup with hot tea, taking hot showers followed by hot baths, and sleeping with thermal pajamas under a fleece top and bottom. Oh, and I'm taking some cold medicine. My usual stuff this time, not that powdery rancid cinnamon crap that didn't help at all for my last cold.

I finished Neal Stephenson's Reamde and I've just started Brandon Sanderson's The Final Empire, the first book of his Mistborn Trillogy. Reamde was quite good, two major action sequences, plus the usual Stephensonion rants and random interesting stories and ideas thrown into an eclectic mix. The Final Empire is pretty good so far, but I'm not sure I like the way his characters talk or interact with each other sometimes. I mean, it is a high fantasy series in the spirit of JRR Tolkein, Tad Williams, Robert Jordon, or GRR Martin, but he has a bunch of thieves sitting around planning a mission by brainstorming problems and possible solutions on a chalkboard, like something out of Ocean's Eleven. Or there are parts where they're talking military strategy, but in his fantasy setting, the world has been ruled under one empire for over 1000 years, and most people should even be familiar with military thinking, let alone the kind of thinking that his characters espouse.

I also had to go into the city office and take care of some health insurance stuff, both personally and so I could turn in a few forms for work.

AM classes got all switched around last week, but I think the students and the teachers, including myself, have mostly adjusted.

That's all for now.

Cheers,