The Secret Garden - Mary writes to Jane

Dear Jane,

Your letter brought back memories of a time in my childhood which changed my life. When I arrived at Misselthwaite Mannor from India, I was so rude and spoilt girl. At first, I didn’t listen to the housemaid, Matha, but then I began to like her because of her friendly attitude.

One day, I heard from Martha about the secret garden which locked up ten years ago after Mrs. Craven died. When I was watching the robin in the garden and found the door under the leaves when the wind blew the ivy on the wall.

One night I heard the crying noise. I followed the noise and met with Colin. After I came to Misselthwaite Mannor, I could have my garden and also have some friends who are Dickon and Colin. Not only Matha’s friendly attitude changed me, but also these friends made me strong through the gardening physically and mentally.

 Mary

Rob Roy

A fan mail to Diana.

 (Ask her a few questions as well as telling her why you admire her.)

Dear Diana,

I’m your big fan. I love you because you are a good horse rider. I love to see horse running on a green field. I’ve never seen you are riding on a horse, but I can imagine you manage your horse like you dance and run a big beautiful field in Scotland.

If possible, could you tell me the name of your lovely horse? It must be a good looking horse. There is another reason why I’m your fan. I think you are mentally strong woman.

You believed and supported your father. You are proud of him that he did what he believed. Your family’s situation became difficult because of him, but you didn’t blame on him. Were you afraid while you had kept the secret of your father? I wish I could be a listener of your lonely heart. Please do not think you are alone. Things will be better.

I always pray for you that your situation will be better.

Sincerely,

Yumi

What's St. Patrick's Day?

Every March 17 is a death anniversary of St. Patrick (original name: Maewyn) who spread Christianity in Ireland and now many countries celebrate that date to take credit for his activity.

When he was sixteen years old, he was abducted as a slave and during he was slave in Ireland, he strongly believed Christianity and thought his task was to spread Christianity to people.

People usually celebrate this date with green items and shamrock because Ireland where St. Patrick spread Christianity, is sometimes called “The Emerald Isle” because a lot of the country is a beautiful green, like the color of emeralds and St. Patrick used a shamrock like clover to explain the Christian message of Trinity (Tri+Unity) simply and shamrock becomes a symbol of Christianity.

Also, people usually drink Guinness, which was originally made in Ireland.

You can see the Chicago River colored in green in Chicago and the tower lighted up in green in New Zealand. Also, you can see many big parades in the U.K, the U.S., Canada, Australia etc where many immigrants from Ireland live.

After the Aliens - yoga

After reading: Alien Alert in Seattle

My hobby is doing Yoga.

It is the most interesting hobbies for me to doing Yoga in my life now. I have started Yoga since 2013. I had wanted to try doing Yoga for long time but I didn’t start as there was no attracted place. Several years later, I found the place to do Yoga. It was really excited to do Yoga and I was fascinated.

In addition, it is interesting not only poses but also Yoga’s history. I studied a history and think human would like to emancipate in any age. Yoga teach me a lot of things. Through Yoga, I learn it is important to live a moment. Especially, it is good when I’m very busy!! Now, my daughter causes my stress sometimes, so I try to doing Yoga as much as possible.

Recently, I would like to add a trampoline my hobby but I don’t do it. I want to bounce!

Crime Scene Investigation

CSI: Miami is an American police drama television series.

It was performed on September 23, 2002 for the first time. Starring David Caruso as Lieutenant Horatio Caine, Emily Procter as Detective Calleigh Duquesne, and Kim Delaney as Lieutenant Megan Donner. The series is the first spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

 Miami is the famous resort place in USA, beautiful beach, white sand and people enjoy the vacation. The tricky and gory crimes are hided in these luxury resort. The team of Miami is the group of expert for investigation with scientific method. They can identify the finger print of criminals by using UV light, and find out who he/she is with the special data base. They are not only stay at the science lab but also going out in order to arrest the criminal with their guns.

Horatio Caine who is the leader of this group is very smart and having a keen sense. He can find out a lot of things with a few clues at the scene. The team member respect him and co-working very well. His team looks perfect but sometimes shows humane side.

 If you are looking for any police drama, you should watch CSI: Miami!

Yuto explains an ancient Viking boardgame

Check out How to Play Hnefatafl by Jim George on Snapguide.

I held the camera! Yuto's homework last week was to read a good chunk of his reader about Vikings, use the vocabulary to figure out a puzzle which then explained how to play this traditional Scandinavian board game. Please watch him explain the steps in the game - I think you'll agree he did his homework really well!

We were both surprised that when we Googled this, a gazillion sites popped up...but then again, we shouldn't have been. It's an unusual game in that the two sides are unequal at the start, and obviously very strategic. I'm retiring as a champion (yes, beating a ten-year old lad does it for the 'competitive Dad' in me!), but I am sure Yuto will be playing all his friends now with his homemade board (also part of this homework) which was a lot cheaper than the boards we saw advertised at $29.50

Follow Yuto's excellent directions, and try the game for yourself? And please share your feedback his homework?

(You can make your own Snapguides by the way, online or with the app. Clearly very easy, if I can make it during class!) 

Check out Yuto's awesome 'after reading' Glog

I was scratching my head a bit about how to make Captain Cook's discovery of Australia come to life
for young Yuto. I mean, getting your head around a three-year sailing voyage from 250-odd years ago when you are only 9 is a biggy! We really enjoyed reading about Captain Cook's three Pacific Voyages, and finding places on Google Earth that he had been to along the way.

We talked about what Cook knew before he bumped into Australia...and what we know now. Then we made a hit list of things we'd like to know, about modern Australia. Yuto came back to next class with several sheets of A4 with notes about the weather, sports, famous people and just how many kangaroos!

Please follow the link to experience all of his research presented as a multimedia tour-de-force, as a Glog. This did take us a couple of lessons to cobble together - but we learned a lot in the process, valuable tricks & skills that sadly Japanese kids rarely get shown in schools. Yuto made all the editing decisions, produced all the content and chose the video! Think you'll agree it's an outstanding bit of work - we'd love to hear your comments!

http://lunajim.edu.glogster.com/yutos-voyage-of-discovery-australia/

And please come back, as we have a plan for the Third Pacific Voyage in the New Year!

Bus man's holiday

I have tried to make it to the annual Tokyo bookfair (TEL) as regularly as possible for the last sixteen years or so. I was struck this year by the very low number of participants, and the absence of several publishers. This event used to be unmissable; I worry it may no longer be so. There are a number of other healthy mini- conferences eg Niigata, Nakasendo, Pan-SIG (in Matsumoto, May 2011) that might supplant this calendar staple.

I was unimpressed with the first presentation I went to about "Expansive Reading": I can read, so having someone read their own (dull) PowerPoint made me reconsider the wisdom of waking so early to catch the first Azusa to Shinjuku. Reading is a favourite topic of mine and something I wish our own students did more of...the Black Cat Readers look attractive but promoted like this I doubt they'll find much room on our shelves. Useful teacher resources at www.blackcat-cideb.com

Nothing to see here - Lexxica for Kids

I was equally annoyed that the next presentation I went to see was mis-titled "introducing the Kids Word Engine!" because Guy Cihi patently did not. It has not been made, nor was there anything even beta to see previewed. Clearly very keen on himself and his financial success, I was cross that this chap had no grasp of delivering phonics. Go have a look at some great iPhone apps? Basing his next money-maker on Smart Phonics is flawed as the book is unsound; the book while introducing good sensible phonics practice uses the same font 'a' as here for instructions to learners...who don't recognize it. Also, 'practice' will involve learners having to translate (& therefor be able to read) hiragana. That, for me, is not language acquisition. Now, if you were using images...I saw Charles Browne present at the first ECAP conference in Tokyo and know Lexxica is a very good product for certain aspects of targeted learning, especially exam preparation (but not for my beloved ESOL ones!). Last comment I have is that this kind of technology has to migrate to smart phones pdq.

Two Oberlin University teachers held a very good workshop on podcasting in the classroom. Sensible, practical & jargon-free demonstration of how easily this can be done. I am not a computer techie or anorak myself, but have managed to produce our own school podcast (on Podbead & found on iTunes). Reassuringly, David Brewster & Hans von Dietze had to cope with unfamiliar equipment! After explaining the how (I want to check out "audacity" for editing, especially if it comes with jingles etc) the audience was challenged to record group answers to a simple question - the content (you have students brainstorm & plan before this stage of course). Within 20 mins this was done, edited on the hoof, uploaded & published. Think you'll find it as 'teachers' at www.podspress.com A very worthwhile 45 minutes, inspiring me to make our students do more of this (exploit our graded readers more, I think).

Rob Waring is the man-mountain of Extensive Reading. I have heard him make sense many times before and am always impressed with his calm authority of his mantra - and totally agree that learners have to read to make progress (but they have to want to. Teacher can't read the books for you!) New titles in "Foundations", "Pageturners" & "Footprint" series - I love these non-fiction titles Cengage have come out with National Geographical. These are standalone + CD or backed up with related DVD material. Best of all, these titles are all supported on ER Moodle. The 4th Extensive Reading Seminar will be in Okayama Feb 13th; Rob Waring will be a featured speaker at Pan-SIG.

@mickstout presents Whodunit

Michael Stout (@mickstout) is the inspiration behind this blog; his presentation at TEL three years ago was a "Eureka" moment for me. I rely on his presentations for new ideas and angles into old media with Web 2.0 approaches. At last somebody showed me the much acclaimed "Whodunit" which is going straight into action with one of my adult classes asap. Will try to incorporate smart.fm & mindmeister as suggested; think there is a role for quizlet perhaps, and certainly Edmodo, timetoast.

ELTNEWS.com ran a very good Charity quiz, Russell Willis in sparkling form keeping team-members onside & audience involved. ¥50,000 went to charity & an iPad prize drew a good crowd.

I was more than happy at stumps; saw some good stuff and caught up with the usual suspects. OUP are peerless, but I want to know more about Colin & the librarians. Likewise, Koichi needs to explain the source of his KitKats. Last time I saw those distributed at TEL (Ikebukuru) an urban myth was born. And no tequila tonight - safely on the train home!