Blended provision for our students - announcement

With the re-closure of schools in Nagano prefecture, and the increasing nervousness of some of our students and parents (as well as us!) we have decided to do two things as of Monday, April 13th:

1. Continue to teach small classes in the school with even more enhanced care over disinfecting surfaces, sanitising visitors'/teachers'/students' hands on entry/departure etc, and making sure students are seated as far apart as we can manage without being 'weird'! We are avoiding activities which require students to share things, and encouraging YLs to wear masks (prevent fingers going in places more than bugs!). We are obviously asking anyone who has a temperature or who is feeling unwell to avoid coming to the school.
2. Offer students who are concerned about using public transport, or who not keen to be here in a group, the opportunity to join their class in real time via Zoom. We are all new at this, but we can all try and learn something new together :) We will also record the lessons and share them within our class members on Edmodo (an LMS we have been using for years but has hitherto been very under exploited). We will continue to do this for as long as needs be.

We will be making an effort to also share with students and parents more than ever, additional resources/ideas/apps/activities withing Edmodo. Any one can join that 'class ' but you do need to join. It's free :)  Join here >> https://edmo.do/j/fgcrjx

Matsumoto Castle - not recent!

As ever we will do our best to keep you up to date - check your Edmodo class regularly please?

We will continue to share via our Facebook page - click here

Of course we will also be answering the phone! 0263-34-4481 & talk to Rinka, Emi, Yukari, Yuka or Eri.

We can also look after students who want to 'observe' a lesson (but don't want to physically come!), or even students not in our neighbourhood. Tell us which level/age, and we'll put you with a suitable group as a guest.

We are looking forward to making sure our students can continue to get the best English language education we can provide...just going to have to do it a bit differently for a while. Don't panic!

Jim

Passing Cambridge P.E.T. Our success story with JP004

My students in a Business English class were finally persuaded to prove to themselves how good their skills have become. They were obviously delighted to be presented with their certificates, and more than happy to share the secrets of their success.

I suggested they brainstorm ideas & map out a general plan on the board, and the video is the outcome. I think they're making superb progress, and passing P.E.T. (Cambridge Preliminary) a very solid milestone for them to chalk up.

Looking forward to them updating their profiles on LinkedIn! Comments very welcome - and why not subscribe to Luna's YouTube channel?

Self-portraits & self-awareness

As I was trying to explain the personalities in our classes last week, I realised we don't have much to go on in the school! We do a lot of stuff with the children but don't display enough of the their work in the classrooms.

I saw a blog post by a new twitterer & frog collector I like called Juan Alberto Lopez Uribe @jaluribe
on this topic recently, and it made me decide we need to do a bit better this year. I strongly recommend following Juan on twitter, and giving his blog a good read.

So today in classes we made a nice poster of ourselves, and the things we like - favourite animals, food, our height etc. I am also going to print a small picture of each of the kids so we can compare our artwork! I think this is a very nice way to get back into the English mood without being too much of a shock to the system :) It will be cool to compare self-impressions too, as students get older! I was glad we did not get any stylised pictures - often very 'manga' images become prevailant in Japanese kids' drawings.

I have recently started using Class Dojo on my phone to try & keep track of students at the kindy I go to, but the problem I have with the app is that I cannot add personalised icons or avatars for each child. As there are about 200 there, I can never remember more than a few names (but I do recognise all faces!) I would like to exploit this app more, as there are cool parental functions as well...for now we stick with Edmodo (which I wish parents would engage with more!)

Grumble over - come & see our new wall art!

Sharing classroom work: In-hand tech solutions

Image via CrunchBase

As soon as I can figure out QR codes, I will be doing more with photobabbles to give our parents a bigger clue about what we get up to in class. I have a one-on-one class with a very able young lad once a week and we can tend to munch through material (too) quickly. He is my (willing)  guinea pig at the moment, as we try to do the same stuff differently (ever the language teacher's millstone?).

Some of our efforts have ended up in spectacular giggles as things didn't work out; often we both learn more (he that I'm a bit of a pillock, me that I'm more of a pillock than I thought possible...)



I deliberately chopped off the vocabulary items from the top of the text book page (and covered the target structure once we'd had a go with it "How do you/they go to school/work?" / "How does he/she got to school/work?") but used the original picture as it was too small on my phone (craving an iPad!). I want to be able to share our students' great work with parents (I think very few read this blog, tragically, nor access the stuff we share in Edmodo) at an interface they can cope with (around the stove downstairs while they wait & gossip, phones in hand. Hence, the QR codes, which will take them to the recording. Update once I get that sorted out.

Edmodo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So, how: Use the online portal to open up Fotobabble & set up an account (free). Open up the fotobabble app on your iOS & take a picture (or import a picture if you are prepared - you can crop/edit in advance then too). Hit the record button when you are ready to go, and get cracking as you have only 30 seconds or so on the freebee. As I have said about other free apps, I actually like the time stress as it hurries everyone up/necessitates re-recordings (students demand to have another go, not forced to be teacher!). Fiddle with the settings to share or hide to your own desire. You will find your fotobabbles created on your iOS on the fotobabble site, which you can then share again as much as you like - Facebook, twitter etc or embed as I have done with this one.

Image via CrunchBase

An 'extra' save I intend to do from now on with students' solo work is to add items to individual folders within Evernote. I saw a blog posting about doing this yesterday & it makes absolute sense. Down the line I will not remember who did what, when & where; will want to be able to share/give to them. Think we might do this prior to open week - certainly as a leaving present. ePortfolios is a significant part of how I see teachers empowering students (they can take their classroom & work with them) - after all, I am laying the foundations for their journey of lifelong learning.

Final thought - students always need to be able to ask questions, don't they? Here is the tables-turned recording :)  http://www.fotobabble.com/m/bjUvS3g2VWl1RGc9

iOS in the classroom - exploiting Quizlet & text books

 With 'good' learners who take things in quickly and get bored easily when you (teacher) want to slow things down & make sure stuff has 'gone in properly' rather than in one ear & out the other, it is difficult to find ways to make the slowing down part interesting & engaging.

Hello iOS devices in the classroom. I am saving up for an iPad, as I am convinced these are a very cool & adaptable tool for learners. Am also convinced kids do not need convincing (or even teaching how to use them - I saw a report recently that kids in Ethipia were given a load of iPads but not given any instruction...they were using something like 144 apps within a week!). Three years ago I wanted to ask our parents to provide each child with an iPod Touch. I was right - we should have done (we didn't; I was argued out of it because of gamification, cost, what if not 100% adoption etc)

Anyway, now my lovely iPhone 5 arrived, can use my old 3GS at the same time in class with the wifi. Previously-created flashcard set cued up through dedicated Quizlet app and tapped where I wanted the boys to start working ("learn" function). Books open at first - new vocab after all - and left them to it. Predictably competitive, they demanded another go when done. A pained look on my face & a reluctant "OK" :) They think they are running the show!

The app corrects errors after the user has tapped 'go' - and then clears the screen for the user to input the correct answer (so pay attention - it shows you where you messed up).

The app pulls you through seven  items at a time & gives you a breakdown of how you are learning - which ones you need to recycle (which it does subliminally = no teacher-heavy involovement).

Below is the set of items we were working on, from the Quizlet site. I love Quizlet for many reasons - parents love the fact we can embed into Edmodo and that they can practice at home too - the audio means they are not compromised if unable to speak English well enough themselves.

(By the way, we only 'did' one page in an hour long class with only 8 vocab items on it...)

Open week at Luna

Classroom questionnaire - involve mums!

 I love Open Week!

This is the chance we get to show mums and dads how well our students are doing, and how they are doing it. In the last year we have made big efforts to share our work with Edmodo, but there's nothing like an actual peek around the classroom door. (Of course, parents are welcome to come and see what's going on anytime...we wish even more parents could come, because there's so much cool stuff we want to show them!)

On Tuesday afternoon, nearly all the mums came to see Jim's busy class, which uses the Primary Colours coursebook. As we had a decent roomful, it was a great opportunity to move around more than usual and get unexpected answers. It also meant mums were as engaged in the activity as their children were, and got a feel for the language/interaction instead of merely looking over shoulders. Frees the teacher up nicely too, to soft pedal any classroom management issues.

Mums on the spot

This class has covered topics like numbers, colours, and school bag/household items lately, and can handle questions from the teacher if they are in context. I wanted to put them in charge of the questions today, and deal with answers they had not heard before. eg Japanese children (maybe all?) want to tell you every single colour that might be on their t-shirt/pencil case/socks...funnily, today mums did the same. Thank you. There was only one 'space' for the answer to go in, so they had to rationalise the answer! (And everyone realised a simple answer works best).

Each child had a slightly different questionnaire to complete, asking everyone else "What colour is your...toothbrush/bike/bag etc?". They then wrote the name of the respondent (all up on the board to copy) in the right row/column (itself something this class needed to be taught to do, which astonished me at the time). Once finished (only just in time) we coloured our charts as a nice bar graph. Mums got a first hand experience of their children speaking English in action (not the odd word or out of context) and were able to assess for themselves pronunciation, memory, letter formation, interaction and behaviour.

We are looking forward to seeing more parents through the week, and are really keen to give face to face updates on progress, problems and praise. Come on and see what's going on!

Using Voicethread with graded readers

It is possible, if you work frantically, to have a full scale Voicethread production of a graded reader, such as OUP's Story Tree orange level one seen here, up and published in an hour.

We did not get into this 'cold'. Students have been asked to listen to the CD and to read along at home. This is not homework as such, but our efforts at an extensive reading programme. A book a month is a very gentle commitment I think!

We have also 'milked' this source heavily - it is full of verbs in the past tense - regular and irregular - which we have worked on previously eg using a word cloud to retell the story as best we could & to find the verbs in their past form > write the present tense form. We have also identified how to pronounce the three different /ed/ endings (from the CD).

I gave my boys the camera and asked them to find some of the main 'ingredients' in our story. Those things we couldn't photograph we drew quick pictures eg museum & shop. The students were assigned characters to speak for (reading ahead skills) and then Jim's quick keyboard skills were needed to find the right images/press record etc. We were against time pressure so we did not go back and edit - so what you hear is very much what we did. Pauses are there when someone wandered off thinking they'd finished!

Image via CrunchBaseI hope you'll take a few minutes to follow the link over to Voicethread and leave a comment yourself for us (or leave us a note here). Personally, I think this is a lovely (free) tool that teachers should be able to exploit easily for this kind of personalisation. Involves everyone in a production that would otherwise stay 'hidden' in the book. Performing brings out the characters and imagination, and a lasting finished product is something they can share & go back to with pride. All our classes work is linked for parents to discover on Edmodo too, which if you have not thought about using for classes yet, I'd take a look. We love it!

Facebook in the classroom

ZZZzzzz

I whinged a while back about the situation I found myself in which resulted in the dismal classroom experience which the image (left) illustrates...not much happening. Nothing to see here. Move along. Bell will ring in 45 minutes. Avoid getting noticed or saying anything. Just scribble in the spaces, it won't get checked or corrected - or even read. This is the before picture.

It was explained to me that the students here were 'all failures', so don't expect much. For a moment that shocked me, but then I remembered my context. There are other schools around with bigger reputations, and there is a definite pecking order in this country. This is reinforced by the ridiculous nature of the entrance exams system, and the 'educational' infrastructure of jukus etc that hover around the honey pot. What an awful realisation to be presented with before you even start HS that your prospects are in tatters. Not very hard to understand the "Why bother?" mood in the room then.

Breaking the ice

I went to a really crap school in Worksop (Nottinghamshire) in terms of academic results - mostly as a result I'd say of the socio-economic background of the catchment area. The two other schools which shared our playing fields were worse. I had good teachers who gave a rat's arse though, who had not given up on us. They certainly didn't fob us off with the helper (there wasn't one). The PE teacher helped me overcome the bullying and gave me opportunities I'd never had before.

So, I don't think schools are crap here...I just think they are stuck in the slow lane, hazard lights on with a flat tyre and a dodgy radiator. Is this going to change anytime soon? Well, it hasn't done so yet in the 20+ years I've been here, so why be optimistic? The system does not motivate teachers, after all. To continue the banger analogy, keep to the kerb, don't do anything sudden and you'll get there in the end.

Now we're talking

Unfortunately, teachers have never been given any specialised pre-service (or in service) training to teach English professionally/competently. Plenty is available, I hasten to add, through workshops constantly put on by publishers, ETJ & JALT etc, but this is not formal and given short shrift. It is also too late. Modern EFL instruction should be dealt with in colleges & universities by default, and preferably with a work experience in industry or even better, overseas. And while you are at it, promote a formal qualification to prove competence in core skills. And why not boost those English language skills too? Win win? Re-boot the AET/JET program to be a formal job exchange for novice foreign language teachers with study time & performance improvement expected. Come back culturally aware, linguistically competent and professionally fit for purpose.

In the last few weeks I have been 'left to myself' in my particular classrooms. This actually means my oppo has relinquished all responsibility, but that is a separate (and serious) issue. From a practical point of view, I am unencumbered and the students likewise freer to express themselves a bit.

This is the 'after' photo

• We have managed to (mostly) escape from from 'eraser hell'
• standing up does not induce vertigo-like chair clutching
• boys actually talk to girls, and vice versa
• sleeping is no longer 'a hobby'
• Japanese is not L1 teacher talk

Our last classes together this term (I am not invited to the school festival, school trip, etc) was a rewarding break through kind of a day. The maths teacher was still in his chair in the teachers' room five minutes after his class should have started with 'my' lot...I'd already said 'Cheerio' and formally left the room (no team bow, at last), but I wandered back in because they were still on task, working hard and having a giggle.

The idea came from a couple of sources, including the frustration that we are not allowed to use mobile devices...for example, I am thinking that a 140 character limitation is an excellent 'ceiling' for shy/unconfident learners. Previous classes had revealed that some 'surfed the internet' as a hobby (besides generic 'sleeping', for crying out loud!). One student nearly fell over when I said I did know what 'twitter' was. The actual plan comes from Cambridge University Press, the excellent multi-level photocopiable resource "Teen World" - 2.1 'Teenspace'. Not very achievable in 45 minutes but worth a dab. As I said, we ran over (mostly because getting started with hangman took forever). By the end, the students were very keen to see what their friends had produced as an analog 'Facebook' page, and were jostling to get their comments scribbled and glued up on each others' 'message boards' (they had 8 slips to get rid of, signed, one per page). They were tasked to react to something different, so first come first served. eg "I live in Hata too", "I hate AKB48 and shopping too", "I'm also hungry".

On task, motivated and achievable

Useful teacher tip regarding the 'friends' section - suggest banning names of people in same class or even school - makes it less cliquey/room to upset those less popular.

Given the chance, I would like to continue this exchange on a 'safe' SM site such as Edmodo...

Passive teacher, active learners

These lads have convinced themselves that playing a game on my computer is far more useful than using the book. Suits me - after we have used the book...they do so much more than they'd be prepared to if I was in front of them (rather than being the 'enabler' behind them).

Of course, well-planned teacher knows what they are going to do! Rather than just play a game, on Quizlet this week I added the challenge that they actually make the flashcards as well. I pre-uploaded the images I wanted, and had them type in the text (important to be tough on quality control ie spelling here!)

Job done, we published the set and then tried the various drills/mini-tests/games. Yesterday, two of my students did really well and blasted up to level 7 and nearly identical scores. Yuta gave up with cramp, after he notched 38,000 at level 12! His mates were very impressed, but had helped him with prompts (they felt less able to find the keys quickly enough on the keyboard, but could remember how to spell the words (short /u/ sounds).

Quizlet is great, and we can share it in Edmodo with each of our classes. Two of the best tools available for YLE classes/language schools.

Online sharing with Edmodo - and in chalk

 Our school is now making full use of the Edmodo website to share our class info with students, and particularly parents, confidentially. We realise most will struggle with more than basic info in English, but that is all we really need them to access. For example, what new vocabulary or language targets students have encountered, what pages are set for homework, which reading book we are on etc. Teachers will also leave comments eg who won a particular game, who did especially well in an activity, if someone was late or absent.

The site also allows us to add value to classes by posting files to particular online classrooms - which only students & their teacher can access. It is a safe, closed, online room. So teacher can share just about anything - writing templates, copies of extra resources used in class, recordings of students doing activities, songs we have used, photos & screen shots...you name it! We can also share links to useful/interesting websites. This is particularly useful with kids` classes as we can direct  parents to flashcards on Quizlet very easily. We can also embed RSS feeds eg from our own blog, or from items pertinent to particular classes. A football mad teen? When Saturday Comes magazine or The Football Ramble podcast. How cool is that?

For all the fancy online stuff though - which I am convinced has an important place in our school's positioning in the EFL market - there is no replacing my super huge 1G blackboard! When I taught at uni, I hated using the things - precisely because I had to use them, and I would go home looking like I had a terminal dandruff condition. Besides that, my handwriting was slow and scratchy. Time is suggesting my younger learners actually find it a reassuring leveller, as everyone's writing looks a bit tatty. Message to self: if handwriting is important on a board, rule on permanent lines to manage letter sizes (Japanese scripts do not vary in height/pitch) & prevent 'rollercoaster/drunk spider' scripts.

Consider this: if you do have a blackboard/whiteboard and you want to give your students ownership of it, put the damn thing on the floor! If it is at a comfortable height for you, you can be sure only your tallest students will be able to use it...

Also, get 'fat' chalk for little hands.

Getting students to operate at the board does quite a lot. For a start, it shifts the focus from the book/table interface and requires a lot more co-operation. I like my children to put new vocab on the board (and dictate spelling to each other) before we go to our picture dictionaries/vocab books and write them down. Simple step here avoids rote copying, makes the job a team effort and encourages peer observation/criticism (not an aim of itself, but makes me less ogre-ish) of writing. Helps me see if anyone is still struggling with ABCs...and keeps stronger students from racing ahead. Child at the board cannot access book (on the table)...kids at the table can't memorise their (next) bit AND help buddy at the board simultaneously. I find my children naturally reading board work out loud as they then try to relocate words to images & order them alphabetically ( a subliminal benefit) back in their books at the table. Reading each others's writing, adding a memory stage, and doing this aloud adds much more chance of cross-pollenation of learning ideas, tips, and short-cuts (OK, L1!)

So what did we do this week so far at the chalkface?

• "Can you...............?" questionnaire
• "Next word" listening challenge from OUP Story Tree (teams)
• "Do you like ..............? questionnaire

CALL - Computer Assisted Language Learning at Luna

Gaining keyboard fluency

Three 'go for it' boys, gagging for a new game...three computers just sitting there waiting for some warmth!

Last week in class we played a simple bingo game with prepositions, some of them new, some already tackled with our classbook. Playing the same game again was quicker as they remembered a bunch more (and knew how to play/to ask if they couldn't remember). I cheated but still lost!

Why is the screen pink?!

Post game deflation. Done that. Old hat. Bored! I asked each boy to find a PC & press 'learn' (already fired up & at the start page). This task on Quizlet required them to type in the word which the picture represented (familiar images...from the game we'd just played). Ah! Can we have the game back? (Say 'please' then!)

The bingo cards did not have all the images, obviously, so there was still some running around/sharing/helping to do, and the clock was ticking (literally) while they did this. Pressure!

I was so delighted with how the took to this task that I just had to show them off to their mums, waiting downstairs. They barely noticed the intrusion and stayed on task! That's one of the great things about our new classrooms - SPACE. I explained to the mums what the boys were learning (besides a dozen words).

Building mouse skills

• keyboard layout
• typing skills
• matching upper/lower case letters
• independent thirst for English

We moved on to a game - 'scatter' - where the challenge was to drag & drop an image to the corresponding word, or vice versa. This was also against the clock, and they would not stop 'play again' as one of them had set a cracking 'record'.

The beauty of Quizlet is that you can find freinds' sets or just go hunt for something. Beauty for us is that we can embed or link any set in Edmodo class reports for learners/parents to follow up on at home. Which will hopefully increase out of class English activity & free me up in the classroom to push the analog boat out a bit further :)

Champion demo job today boys - proud of you. Now go away and learn the words!

Access our resources on and offline

In pre-school we are often using new flashcards, and sometimes mummies don't know what they are! We are going to share our materials through Edmodo this year, with each class having its own 'room'. All our classes will have exclusive access to the materials, songs, pictures, recordings, drawings, board work they have used in their class, every week.

We are making 2011 our year to share more of our materials with our students. One way we do this is through the site called quizlet. Check out the flashcards we used today with our pre-schoolers for the sound /b/ here. Notice you can hear the word if you click on the speaker icon next to the picture.


Try /d/ with this:

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards | Study english flash cards

Try this for the /g/ sound:

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards | Study english flash cards

If you want to see what else you can play with, search for sets made by "lunateacher" or "LunaJim".
If you have a smart phone, you should be able to download them to your device and play with them offline.

My first movie

In my late bid to become a Hollywood Mogul, I have just produced my first film.

It was made in twenty minutes flat and cost me absolutely nothing; the intention was to boil a classroom discourse retelling a story about a neighbourly conflict down to the bare bones, but to include as much target language as possible. This is a resource we will definitely be making a lot more use of in future, as I think our teens will enjoy making toons!

Check out this one for now - hoping my first group of directorial acolytes will share their story precis here too (going to team review in Edmodo first, as a safety net)...holding your breath?!

http://www.dvolver.com/live/movies-392316