Let the kids play! Quizlet Live "individual" for remote learning

Collaborating competitively!

With half our students of this class Zooming in from home, we tried out Quizlet Live to review vocabulary competitively. This worked out very nicely, in "Individual" mode.

Teacher set up the game from PC on the Quizlet site, then shared the QR code on screen; quick tap & added their names with no explanation needed (think they've been improving digital skills with being at home - isn't that an indictment against schooling in Japan?)...all members of the the game need to be playing synchronously.

Press play & realised the set was far too easy! Our learners quickly demonstrated their grasp of technology as well as the target language.

Only problem with the F2F students = using my devices we could only play as "one" person, so some collaboration required, having disinfected hands & device first (and after).

We are lucky that our students have access to smart devices I know, and that they have good connectivity. Downside is more screen time, but to be honest the variety for book-based classes is more important.

Verdict? Strongly recommend Quizlet Live Individual

Japanese users' guide to Quizlet

生徒様　保護者様

Quizlet の使い方（パソコン・iPad/iPhone・スマホ）

はじめに
[Quizlet] のアプリをダウンロードする

1. 検索画面から「Lunateacher」を検索。
2. 「LunaTeacher先生」を選ぶ。
3. 各クラスで使っているテキストブック毎に Quizlet があるので自分の使っているテキストブックのタイトルを選ぶ。 また「Edmodo」を通じて担当講師から課題（homework）が出ているときは課題をやり提出しましょう（オンラインで）。
4. 是非、音量をオンにして行ってください。正しい発音が聴き取れるようになります。

★ログインしてからやりましょう！！！ 

いろいろ興味あるタイトルをやってみよう！ 

「学習」（learn）

テキストブックを開いてやってもOKです。

間違えると何度もその質問が繰り返されるのでクリアするまで頑張りましょう。→★の数でどれだけできたか確認できます。

「Master」になるまで頑張ろう！ 

「筆記」（write）

キーボードで入力します。または、音声入力を使うと発音の練習になり、自分の発音が合っているか確認できるのでチャレンジしてみよう。“大きな声、英語の発音で”

「１００点」になるまで頑張ろう！ 

「スペル」（spell）

オーディオをONにします。
音声を聞いて単語を入力します。
間違っていると正しいスペルを教えてくれます。

「Progress」が100になるまで頑張ろう！

「テスト」（test）

最後にテストをやってどのくらい出来るかチャレンジしよう。

　　True ○　　False　×

単語と単語の間はスぺースを空けること。　音声入力もできます。

１００％目指して頑張ろう！

「マッチ」（Match）

ゲームです！説明文（絵）がどの単語を表しているか指でタップします。
合っているとカードが消えてなくなります！
パソコンの場合はマウスで左クリックをしながらカードをずらします。
1位になれるよう頑張ろう！

「Gravity」（パソコンでできます。）

ゲームです！設定は All, Easy, Englishでプレイします。
上から絵が落ちてくるので、落ちる前にタイプします。
もし、お子様がキーボードを打つのが難しければ、単語やスペルを言ってもらい大人が単語入力すると、親子で一緒に勉強できます！


　毎日少しずつ、繰り返し行うことで確実に身についていくのでがんばりましょう！！

Day 1 /Flash card + Learn         

Day 2 /Write + Match                

Day 3 / Match + Spell                       

Day 4 / Test + Match                               

Day 5 / Gravity 

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

Out and about in Europe - self-isolating solution!

My young learner student has been reading Heidi - a graded reader version. We've enjoyed the story, and talked about friendship & jealousy, healthy lifestyles and loneliness. We also learned a lot of good new vocabulary - there's a Quizlet set for this particular version of the story (OUP Dominoes series) right here. Tip for teachers or any creative types out there, the Pro version is free for the time-being. Get into it!

One of the projects for after reading, was to read up about the Matterhorn and fill in a table with data about the mountain and its location etc. Good detective work, focusing on detail.

But the funky part was GOING there, having a look around and describing what we could see. How can we do that, with only an hour together in our classroom, not to mention the lack of flights/inability to travel around Europe at the moment...? Hello Google Expeditions! Popped my phone into a cardboard viewer (cheap but does the job!) and "Wow, it's beautiful!" from my quiet little learner. As she swiveled around taking in the 360 view, prompts galore:

• Can you see any people? What are they doing?
• How's the weather? What season is it?
• What's behind you? Can you read the sign, please?
• What's under your feet? Is it easy to walk here? Why/why not?
• What clothes do you need to go for a walk here?
• What would you put in your bag?
• How are you feeling, if you walk up here?
• Who would you like to visit here with? Why?
• Are there places like this where you live? Which is colder?
• What would you do after this walk?

Follow up projects to this could be:

• sending a postcard (real, or imaginary eg from Heidi to friend in Frankfurt) - good opportunity to use a variety of tenses...what you did yesterday, what you are doing now, what your plans are for tomorrow or the weekend.
• Do some research on another mountain, nearer to home (for us, Mount Fuji was the obvious candidate) and make a nice poster, exploiting some key new vocabulary eg summit, ridge, volcano. Get funky with an app to make it a digital one?

We also decided to compare two towns near the Matterhorn, Zermatt in Switzerland and Cervinio in Italy, strolling around in Google Maps, using Street View. We talked about the different kinds of shops and what we could buy, which was safer to walk around (Zermatt has no cars!), if people were dressed the same, where a group of kids might be going etc. And which we would like to visit, when we can travel more freely again (and which looked like the nicest hotel!).

So, gentle reader - send us your (isolated) review of a mountain large in your life, and let us post it here as well?