Postcard from Cote d'Azur, Nice - France

Hello!

I am in Nice.

I have eaten delicioussea food in Nice and Monaco. Monaco was different place to what I thought. It looks like underground, another world.

From Atsuko

In Memoriam

I was devastated to hear that my very close friend, and champion of Luna, Rob Habbick had passed away on September 30th. For now, I am too sad and upset to put into words my feelings about his passing. My family, and our extended Luna family, owe Rob an awful lot for his moral and material support (where do you think all the new books come from?!).

Our thoughts, condolences & love to his family, who we know since they were much shorter but now taller than me... we feel your loss and will continue to do so for a very long time to come.

We love you, Rob.

Condolences

We at Luna send our condolences to the family across the road from our school, whose son passed away recently. R.I.P.

Eating and drinking in Japan: PET writing practice (a report)

RESTAURANTS:
There are a lot of sushi restaurants in Japan, and they sell delicious raw fishes on top of some rice. You can also find noodle restaurants, in many towns.They sell many kinds of noodles like, ramen noodles.We eat them with a special soop.

FAST FOOD:
Most towns have lots of hamburger shops, which are cheap and fast.There are many kinds of drinks in there
so, lots of people go there in hot days.

CAFES:
 These usually sell hot and cold drinks, of course, but not alcohol.They also sell sandwiches, cakes, cookies,
and salads.Usually there's a smoking area so, it's good for non-smokers. 

BARS:

Drinks! (Photo credit: Martin Cathrae)

There are many kinds of alcoholic drinks in Japanese bars, but not only alcoholic drinks. There are non-alcoholic cocktails as well. Children can't go into them.

SUPERMARKETS:
If you want to buy food or drinks, you can do it here. However, if you want to buy something soon, you can
go to a convenience store. There are lots of convenience stores in Japan. They sell a lot of kinds of of things like pens and lights as well as food.

Yuya.  

Lifestyles - results from a Google Form survey via Facebook

This graph shows people got bitten by animals and insects. Mosquitoes have bitten everyone. Ants and dogs have bitten 4 people. Nobody has been bitten by a lion.

This graph shows the different blood groups people have. 25% of people didn't know their  blood group.  Most people have  A blood group. There were no AB blood group.

These graphs show that most people haven't had a bad  illness, a serious accident, donated blood, or received blood from a donor

This graph shows how many people have been to a different continents. Everyone has been to Europe. Most people have  been to North America and Asia. Nobody has been to Antarctica.

This graph shows how many hours of sleep people get at night. Everybody gets more than 6 hours. One person gets 9 hours. The average was 7.4 hours.

This graph shows how many vegetables people eat every day.

The average was 3, but one person had 7, one person had zero

 What do the results mean?

The average number of vegetables is 6, the recommended is 4. I eat 8, I'm very healthy. The average amount of sleep is 7 hours/night, the recommended is 6 hours/night, but I sleep 8. Blood group A is most common in Asia. We don't know where the answerers from, but maybe Asia, like me? Maybe I'm unlucky , because I had pneumonia, but only one person also had a bad illness . I also had a serious accident , when I was little I banged my head in the car, because I was playing in the car without my seat belt. Like most people , I haven't donated or received blood. I've been bitten by the same thing as most people have. Most people have been to 3 continents . I don't know how old the answerers are , but I've been to 3, and I'm only 13.  

Thank you to the people who answered my questionnaire.

Ha-chan's dream bedroom: KET writing practice

My dream bedroom is big, beautiful and square. Near the wall there is a rectangle soft pink bed made of sponge. There is a long desk and a comfortable chair next to the window. There is a big white leather sofa in front of a big new TV. There is a modern computer on the desk, next to an Italian coffee machine. There are cute little lamps in the corners of the room. There are a lot of Sota Fukushi posters on the wall. There are beautiful pink curtains and a floor made of wood, with under-floor heating.

Yuta's dream bedroom; KET writing practice

Yomiuri Giants (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My dream bedroom is big & clean. Next to the window is a big round bed made of wood. There are posters of my favourite baseball team on the wall, and there is a very loud amp next to the bed, and there are two speakers on the wall. There is a modern guitar next to the bed.

Mizuki's dream bedroom; KET writing practice

Murray in the bedroom window on the cover of Dream Evil (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My dream bedroom is big and square. In the middle of the room there is a big square bed made of wood. There is a very large TV screen on one wall,, and there's a big window on another wall. There is a big sofa next to the bed, and there is a big cat doll on the sofa. There are lamps in the ceiling.

Mizuki's monster sandwich

Strawberry (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You need:

• 2 slices of bread
• a banana
• strawberries
• butter
• chocolate spread

Recipe:

First, take the skin off the banana & cut it into slices. Next, cut the strawberries into slices. Third, put some butter on the bread & make a sandwich with the banana slices, chocolate spread, and strawberry slices.
Finally, cut it in half & eat it!

Yuta's monster sandwich

Tomato slices (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You need:

• 4 slices of bread
• tomato
• cheese
• rice
• soy sauce

Recipe:
First, cut the tomato into slices. Then mix the rice with cheese & soy sauce. Next, put it on the bread. Next, make a sandwich with the tomato. Finally, cut it in half & eat it!

Mummy appreciation week ~ open week!

Love our open week, but I am always disappointed when mums/dads can't find the time to come along to class. Did you know, you are welcome to come & observe anytime you like? We do have an open door policy (we just need a phone call so we know who to expect & can find a chair for you).

My philosophy for the school is that we do not spend weeks prepping false impressions. When I worked at Shindai Fuzoku (for 5 years) the teachers there "practiced" the same lesson two or three times through with the students, identifying exactly who would do what & be asked which questions (and how). The entire demo lesson would be fine tuned to the second, with the teacher sleeping in the teacher's room for a week stressed to breaking point & beyond. (Meanwhile none of their other classes got any consideration/planning...)

Students practiced standing up, standing behind chair, pushing it in & standing up straight, saying "Excuse me, I'm not sure, but... (all in Japanese) & then mutter their scripted & well-rehearsed utterance (usually a 'translation' of a 'key' word...) Utter farce. That the observers were all in battle-dress black suits, toted cameras/videos & clipboards each, observed very invasively (in the 'special class observation room') and outnumbered the students (yeah, more than 30) "unobtrusively" taking a peek at " cutting edge" EFL practice ... Total bollocks.

Business as usual with us, our intent that parents (or grandparents) can see work in progress. Yes, of course we want to showcase key achievements but we do this every week; we are always trying new stuff and & have our learned striving.

If our YLEs are operating beyond their parents' comfort zone, so much the better! With my Friday class we've been working together for 'a while'...all new stuff with mums watching today blitzing time telling, every day activities, numbers 0 ~ 60, and murdering "long /a/" spellings for dessert...I know they can do this & the 'hallelujah' moment when "stuff goes in" (technical term!)  is blissful...and you can't fake it :)

Thanks mums for coming & watching; hope you like what we are doing week in, week out...I love their hard work!

And you can come watch any other class at Luna anytime you like; an older group to see the line of travel? A younger one for little brother or sister? No sweat!

Strange story lines #2: Takuro's shake

Can you follow Takuro's path through the team-created story generator? Do you like the ending? Add your own favourite ending as a comment!

My favourite TV programme...Keiko's little TV confession!

SMAP interview (Photo credit: alexxis)

My favourite TV programme is SMAP x SMAP. 

It's on TV on Mondays at 10 o'clock in the evening. It's very exciting because they sing their best hits. It is also very funny because they wear strange costumes.We can always see famous people on the programme. We never see animals on the show but there's a food "cook off". I watch it every week because I am a very big SMAP fan. I hope the show goes on forever!

SWANS

ABOUT SWANS

Let me tell you about swans. Swans are big white birds, which are the heaviest among
flying birds. They have a long neck, a yellow beak and black feet. These elegant birds
live in rivers and ponds, but only when it is cold, so they migrate when summer comes.
They are usually in pairs but fly as a flock when migrating.

IMG_1320c (Photo credit: Den Flater)

HOW TO OBSERVE SWANS  

It seems that swans are hard to observe, but actually it’s quite easy. If you want to see one in Matsumoto, 

go to Matsumoto Castle in winter. Walk around the castle and you will see some beautiful swans. Swans look calm, but you shouldn’t go too close to one because they can be very aggressive, especially swans which are raising a child. If you be careful about this, you will be able to have a fantastic time watching this fascinating animal.      

Posted by Toshiya 

CAE Result Writing practice

Strange storylines #1: Kanro's roll of the dice

Check out Kanro's end-product from the team story building class last week. Like?
We really enjoy using Fotobabble for these 'hurry up & tell your story' jobs!

Storyline - The Brazilian Job

Moka Kubota tries to heist with a safe cracker from a bank in the Amazon forest. He put a large amount of gunpowder in some teddy bears and places them around the bank and if he fails he is going to blow up the bank. Keisuke Honda tries to solve this problem and kicks one of the teddy bears, but it blows up and the bank is destroyed, and the rain forest catches on fire as well.

Cast:
   Keisuke Honda = Tomoro
      Safe Cracker = Hagrid
         Narrator = Ampanman

Written & Directed by Kanro, with input from Alex, Takuro & Tomoro.

Pronunciation race: using Fotobabble to speed things up!

My savvy YLs know that if the recording app is on, they don't have much time to do whatever it is they're going to do next! How's that for a motivational tool?

We'd already had a go at this in another format, but I was not so happy with the way they were 'stretching' sounds out (that internal 'kana metronome' I think kids pick up in Japan...and one that is reinforced in schools with rote repititions & class chants.) 



Alright, so the pronunciation might have suffered a bit, but they got all the words out quickly, in the right order, and got their answers in as well! (And, by the way, solved a problem one learner was having in adding an "a" before the colour word).

Like it? I really recommend giving #Fotobabble a go!
Check out our gallery at http://www.fotobabble.com/l/LunaJim

Story Generator: Takuro's Pants - The Musical

There was one superhero. He's called "Happy Hikoro". Everyone thought that Happy Hikoro is the best superhero, but there were villains called "SKE 48".

SKE 48 eats too much junk food, everyday like hamburgers, crisps, coca cola. Happy Hikoro is a superman doctor. He can do surgical operations. one day, all of the members of SKE 48 (48 people!) got a very bad illness. Happy Hikoro had to do the operations in White City.

underpants (Photo credit: lucy and her dent)

The operation started. Happy Hikoro had to do 48 people, but he couldn't, so he put his hand into his pocket & took out Takuro's pants. Happy Hikoro put on Takuro's pants & he became a super muscle-man. he took the knife & started the operation again. Two minutes later he finished the operation - Takuro's pants can make him powerful.

The operation finished very nicely. Happy Hikoro was thinking "Let's drink beer", so he went to the underground to get on the Tube, but one member of the public fell onto the track. Happy Hikoro wanted to help, so he got onto the track, put on takuro's pants again and punched the tube train to stop it.

Happy Hikoro went to the pub & drank a lot of beer, and he lived happily ever after.

Cast:

Written & Directed by Tomoro, with creative contributions from Tak, Kan & Alex.

The Black Cat song - emergency teacher's prop

Late last week one of my energetic little nippers managed to sneak a 'king-hit' into my groin...in 25 years or so of teaching children this has not actually been attempted very often, and until last week, my reflexes/peripheral vision have saved me. Not last Thursday. It was a sickening feeling, as any bloke will know; trying to keep my lunch down while managing not to faint/swear and keep a bouncy six-some going no mean feat. Thank heavens I had this CD handy, some blank paper & crayons. You never know when "just in case" = lifesaver!

Next week: cod-piece  Thanks Eric for the suggestion!

Postacard from...Warsaw, Poland.

Hellow from Poland!

I arrived in Warsaw on 24th Aug and, next day, we did a small excursion.

That was Sunday, so there wsa a piano concert near a bronze statue of Chopin Frederic in the park. That was lovely!

I also say Hello to Marie Curie & Copernicus Nicolaus.

Atsuko

Give a kid a device! Discovering colours in class.

 How can you make 'learning' colours a bit more fun? One set of words kids do not have a problem with, really, except maybe "false-friends" in some languages maybe...

Really wanted my charges to actually read the words from their class book (see the word, go back a page to the visual clue if necessary) and demonstrate they could worj their way through a list, in the correct order.

In pairs, swapping jobs as photographer & model, they were given iPhone/iPod . Camera app open, go find items of each colour in the classroom. Independence Day! Off they galloped!

Word of caution - these devices are expensive, so make sure you are doing this with a 'sensible' group. Suggest turning on 'airplane' mode so no in-app purchases get clicked, or your twitter feed/phone goes off! Maybe help with reducing camera shake?!

In pairs, swapping jobs as photographer & model, they were given iPhone/iPod . Camera app open, go find items of each colour in the classroom. Independence Day! Off they galloped!

Word of caution - these devices are expensive, so make sure you are doing this with a 'sensible' group. Suggest turning on 'airplane' mode so no in-app purchases get clicked, or your twitter feed/phone goes off! Maybe help with reducing camera shake?!

I wanted the children to then do the above post production, but they were not familiar enough with the iOS as well as the keyboard layout  AND the upper/lower case shift. It also took time - so this would work with mixed ages classes OR hooking one device up to a projector & doing it as a group.

The app I used = WordFoto, the link is here, which is really quick/slick & intuitive (for teachers anyway!). I only wanted one colour word per pic, but you can do this with a theme & add up to nine. You can change the hue/size & fonts to some extent. I think the end product of 10 minutes running around & 10 mins after class (me) = stunning & very personalised set of flashcards. We will print these & display around the room!

Have you used WordFoto?

Story Generator: Amazon Heist

Plot summary:

A daring eating contest set in the mysterious Sakae village, features a heated battle between sworn enemies - GoGo Gorilla & the infamous Bosozoku Baka. The winner goes home with pride in their heart & a belly full of food. The loser, a whole education in the hands of a girl's school.

Cast:
  The Hero: GoGo Gorilla = Keisuke Honda
    The Villain: Bosuzoku Boys = Nicholas Cage
      Supporting: random people at eating contest
        Narrator: Morgan Freeman

Reviews:
"Barrow has eliquate (sic) use of the English language to portray a story of love, loss & eating." Daily Mail - 5 stars

"A spectacular story full to the brim with tension." 
Phillip Pullman - 5 stars

Written & directed by Alex, with creative contributions from Matsumoto's Lost Boys!

Story Generator - Popeye with no spinach but an app

Popeye was selling iPhones in Zambia. Mitochondria, who has an enormous mouth, came to buy the iPhone. The iPhone that she bought was broken & had funny Zambian faces on it. She got angry and bit Popeye's hand. Popeye searched for spinach to fight Mitochondria, but he failed to find them. All he had was an iPhone with a useless spinach app, and a funny picture of local Zambians.

Popeye ran as fast as he could, all the way up Zambia's highest gloomy mountain, the Zonbian volcano. Popeye was so happy to run away from Mitochondria. While he was enjoying his victory, Zonbian volcano erupted. As a result, he died painfully with his burned iPhone.

Mitochondria was safe because her body was too small to be hit by the volcano things.

Cast:
  Popeye = Tomoro
    Mitochondria = Mum
      Narrator = oyajim
        other characters - Umpalumpa

Written & directed by: Takoro, with creative contributions from Tom, Kan & Alex!

Analogue Story Generator - a dice & a homestay visitor

This is a fun activity which worked very nicely in class with my returnee brothers and their English homestay guest in a one hour class last week.

I was expecting them to not be in the mood for a regular class, prepping for FCE, and also that our native-speaking guest would probably have a lot of raw language I could use more creatively...

Column 1: Superhero - think of silly name for the six rows, brainstorming eg people we know & admire, sports stars, anything silly...
Column 2: Villain - maybe a baddy we don't like from school or the news...
Column 3: Location - somewhere local, or a place we like or want to visit...
Column 4: An object - a favourite toy or super-power delivering tool...
Column 5: Main event - more dramatic/mundane the better...
Column 6: Ending - obvious? Challenged mine to come up with a sticky end, a twist, comic book, science fiction, sporty & surprising finishes.

Materials = piece of paper with 6 rows x 6 columns, and a dice. Pencils would be handy!

The brain storming actually took quite a while as I needed to filter suggestions a bit so we would end up with an interesting variety of outcomes (and publishable ones!).

Selection phase = students throw the dice in turn to choose a superhero from column one. Repeat for the other 5 columns: each student now has a very eclectic set of characters & bizarre storyline to concoct!

Embellishing = decide on a cast list for the main characters (Mum featured as did the teacher), a narrator, supporting cast, a title.

Homework - write a summary of the plot (rough draft). Aim = second draft with more detail, structure/organisation, Hollywood moment etc!

Immediate feedback = very entertaining interaction & entertaining suggestions - only told them the 'story' aim after we'd brainstormed all the 36 components (otherwise the'd have been filtering their own ideas - as it was they guessed they were going to make a story - but a horizontal one eg all #4s - and had tried to make things 'fit')

This activity would never work with my usual junior high school/high school crowd; it did work splendidly with noisy, energetic, imaginative, competitive teens. One-upmanship added a lot to the storyboard, and I for once was not 'the expert' - all I had to do was pass the dice around...and moderate the input!

Old MacDonald - ever been more fun?

A crowd pleasing app can give a teacher 'thinking time' to get the next activity cued up, or help you manage to stretch out a topic and refresh batteries. We were reviewing animals and there was a request for Old MacDonald (and I love the app developed by LoeschWare)...aim of the game is to choose farm animals and not wild ones - like tigers, sharks & camels, which if chosen are variously dispatched to many giggles.

Bon Bon 2013 slideshow

Another summer, and another Bon Bon Festival! Full photo album here

Our team gets younger every year, and we were missing a few noisy stalwarts this time out...and a bit hard for mums & dads to cut loose with toddlers in tow! We also had a new mototrised division - push chairs & prams at the rear.

As you can see from this slideshow, most people little & large went the distance - til 9pm and our finishing line at the top of Isemachi (as the crow flies we went about 75 metres!) and had loads of fun in the process. Lots of jumping & arm-waving, sometimes in time with the music even :) Everyone seemed to have a turn holding the banner up at the front & leading the sedate charge. Thank you everyone for joining us, and for sharing lots of smiles. Of course, a great evening like tonight needs planning & organising - thank you Yukari for going to the meetings, printing maps & t-shirt logos etc...you were super xxx



Thank you also to old friends & family who stopped us to say hello, especially:

• Nagano Prefectural Children's Hospital
• Sayaka, Mitsuna & Yumeka who danced in our very first Bon Bon
• Ayako & her friends, back from college
• Shibaura (where Jim taught back in 1990!)

We are looking forward to August 4th, 2014 already...

Very large grumble though about the obnoxious Yakuza presence, drunk students shouting obscenities "dancing" around our (and other) children, and a total lack of crowd. Seemed to me there were very few people actually watching this year. Have to blame the organisers for making the rules ever more boring and meaningless eg no hats, costumes, rattles, shakers, our large hands...at least there was provision at last for dumping rubbish.

What did everyone else think about the event?