Hanami

Last weekend, I went to see the beautiful sakura flowers.
It was a perfect day: It was warm and the sun was shining. There were a lot of people outside. My daughters really enjoyed walking by the river and then playing in the park at Hakusan. They also had the chance to pet a few dogs on the way.

I think that Hanami is a great tradition in Japan and it represents the start of the new season very well. There are also some cherry trees in bloom in Canada at this time of year but I think people don't enjoy it enough there. I like to see all the people enjoying spring by having lunch under the trees here in Japan.

This week's English tip:
- Don't be afraid of making mistakes!
The important thing is to be able to communicate. Even if you make mistakes, as long as the other person can understand you, you are successful.

Welcome to the 2013 TT Classes!

Hello everyone!!!

It's the start of a new school year and I'm very excited to meet all the new students!

During the year, I will use this blog to share some stories about my life in Japan and about Canada.
I will also include an "English tip" every week.
I plan on writing a new post every Thursday so please come back every week!

Don't hesitate to leave a comment or a question below the posts :)

See you in class!

 - JD


P.S. You don't have to read the older posts. They are pretty long and were not written for students. But you can take a look if you are curious  ;)

Skype`s education network

Skype just released a new tool for teachers. I think it`s definitely worth a try...

Many teachers are already using Skype to reach students who are at a different location or to offer a special experience to their class (for example; by collaborating with other classes abroad or by having guest speakers that can`t travel to the school).
What Skype now offers are not new functionalities or a new communication interface but rather a network. Many groups and companies have tried more or less successfuly to build this kind of network before. Can you name them? ... so that`s the problem; not that many teachers know about them and, therefore, do not reach the collaborative potential that the Internet offers.

Because Skype is already known by virtually everyone and many teachers are already using it, I think it will be successful in connecting an unprecedented amount of educators and ressources.
I believe it came out of beta earlier this week and there are already almost 6000 teachers that registered so far. I`m sure that this number will keep going up quickly.

I have only spent a few minutes browsing the network but I see tremendous potential in the tool. You can search for collaborators by region or country, by field of interests (language, science, culture...), by student`s age, by projects...
That`s the real power of this tool; you can find what you are looking for quickly and you are not limited  to only a couple of options.

Of course, the best way to know what it`s all about is to try it for yourself. I think you might find incredible ideas and very motivating projects on that network.

http://education.skype.com/

If you want to find me there, I`m "JD".

Using Information Technology (IT)

Last weekend, I had the privilege of attending a workshop at 国際大学(kokusai daigaku or IUJ ; International University of Japan). In the morning, we had a presentation about a project that had for objective to make a bridge between the (somewhat distant) English I class and the OC I (oral communication) class. In the afternoon, the title of the presentation was “IT for English teaching and learning: in and out of the classroom”.

Being a big fan of IT, this presentation got me thinking about many things; some of which I’d like to discuss here today.

Lately, I’ve been trying to find ways to motivate the students to learn more English and to change their perception of English. Apparently, Japan is one of the Asian countries where English test scores are the lowest: 

"...In comparison, other Asian countries belonged to bottom groups ― China came in 99th place with 76 points; Taiwan at 106th with 73; North Korea, 111th with 72; and Japan, 136th with 66. " (source: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/10/117_42399.html)

While I don’t believe that standardized tests are the best mirror of reality, it’s hard to deny that the general level of English in Japanese schools (and anywhere in Japan for that matter) is fairly low. There are probably many reasons for this: Some of them might have to do with the fairly homogenous Japanese society and the fact that most English classes are taught in a way that prepares the students for a specific test rather than real life usage… but I’m really just speculating here. The problems are probably far more complex and subtle than I can perceive and since I’m probably more an “education technician” than an education theorist, I’m still trying to find solutions to these problems even if I don’t fully understand them (which is probably not the best way to go about it).

I think one of the best approach to learning a language efficiently is to immerse ourselves in it daily; make it part of our real life.This might be difficult to do for the Japanese students because of the previously mentioned homogeneity surrounding them. Although many signs and publicities use English in their slogans and such, it’s often limited and sometimes poor English. So how can they immerse themselves?

Well, with IT of course!

Especially, with the Internet and it’s millions of online tools and resources. During the workshop at IUJ, professor Anthony Crooks exposed us to an amazing quantity of these (often free) little miracles of technology. They were organized in categories such as; course site tools, blogs, chatware, guest maps, mindmaps, podcasting, quiz makers, survey sites, voice boards, etc. Many of the suggested services I had not heard of before. So all of this is very exciting. It opens the door to tons of interesting, interactive, fun, in and out of the class activities.

Judging by the JTEs that I’ve worked with, I believe that most of them are very committed to the success of their students and are open to try new avenues to reach that goal.

I think that a high school English teacher who is interested in trying new things and wants to know what he/she should do is probably asking him/herself many questions, such as: What are the tools and where do I find them? What kind of activity should we do? What are these tools capable of? Will the students be interested/motivated? Are there any security risks? What will the students really learn? …

And these are very important questions. To answer the first one, I can thank professor Crooks for the extensive list (if anyone is interested in this list (and the great document that comes with it) contact me and maybe I can ask him if I can share it). After finding the tools and getting an overview of them, I think it’s important to experiment with them and see first hand what they can do. You want to have a good understanding of the technology so you can help students if they happen to have some difficulties using the tools.

The most important question though, is probably the last one: What will the students really learn?

Using a very fun and attractive web site or program is a waste of time if it’s not attached to a real learning objective (or competency development). I probably fell into this trap a few times… Something was really cool and I figured it could be use in my classroom, so I basically gave a tech show… It was not engaging and, beside a few more “geeky” students, most students grew immune to the wow factor of the gadgets very quickly. Today’s teenagers were born with computers in their hands, it is very difficult to impress them with technology and they take it for granted. Using technology itself is not a reward for the students. The projects need to have strong pedagogical foundations and IT, of course, is a tool and not a goal.

I think it’s also important to remember that if we ask our students to go online at home to work on class project, there is about a million more “entertaining” things for them to do on the Internet. Distractions abound. It might sometimes be difficult to get a very committed participation from them, especially if it’s “extra” work.

In January, I started to write a blog for my students (jdinkj.blogspot.com) and posted one short article every Friday with a little English tip. My goal was to give the students an opportunity to read something simple which was not a textbook. I think it is a good idea, but I barely get any readers. Maybe it’s too difficult for most of the students to read 2 paragraphs only in English with no Japanese support and they won’t go through the trouble. Maybe they just have “better” things to do. Maybe they forgot about it. Maybe what I write about is really not interesting to them… The bottom line is that it’s difficult to get the students motivated intrinsically to do “extra” work and improve their English. They need to see a bigger purpose and become willing to put all that extra effort. Our main goal is to light a fire within the students and to give them the tools to keep it alive.

Using IT opens up communication with the rest of the world. It allows the students to be in a completely English (virtual) environment. There are many real life applications of the language that can be shown to the students and they can have an impact in the real world outside of the classroom while using English. This represents a lot of possibilities. It becomes the teachers responsibility to hand pick the best ones and package them in motivating and involving projects for the students. IT is not a magic solution, but it’s a whole world of educative opportunities that should not go to waste.

lang-8

Hi everyone!

Today will be a pretty short post about what I think is an amazing resource for anyone learning a language (Japanese students learning English, Quebec students learning English, Canadian students learning Spanish, us learning Japanese... you get the picture).
On my blog for students, I also introduced that website today (if you want to see the post you can get it here : jdinkj.blogspot.com )

Maybe some of you may already use this site. If you do, let me know how you like it for learning specific languages.

The site is lang-8.com

How it works:
basically, you post texts in the language you are learning. So you need to know enough already to be able to write a few sentences. Then, native speakers of that language will review your text, correct it, give explanations and make suggestions. In return, you are encouraged to go read other people`s texts in your native language and help them.
So it`s really a community of people helping each other learn their language. The concept is great and I think it works pretty well.

I haven`t used it much yet because I don`t feel like I can write enough Japanese to produce anything worthwhile... but in reality I`m probably just making excuses, I should use it more and I`m sure I would improve quickly.

At the same time, it can be a great way to get in touch with people at places that you plan to visit...

If you want to find me on lang-8, I`m jdduq!

/post

Recording listening tests

 

Most of ALTs are asked to record listening tests for their schools. In my case, I did 3 since September. You may wonder why they ask me to do it, considering my “French-Canadian” English… well, I’m pretty much the only option they have and my accent is really not that bad when I’m careful (…I think).

Nevertheless, recording a good listening test is not that easy. You need a good script that is at least a bit entertaining to avoid sleeping students. It also needs to be at the right level of difficulty and mostly use vocabulary covered in class. From my experience, however easy you think your test is, you need to make it a bit easier… it often turns out that the student’s results are much lower than I expected. The questions also need to be somewhat diversified in their format (questions from a dialogue, description of images or situations, filling missing words in a spoken text or a song…). Since I usually end up having to mark about 300 tests (and I’m not exaggerating), most of my questions are “multiple choice” ones. I know it might not be the best pedagogical way of testing the students, but it’s pretty much my only way to meet the marking deadline (I’m usually given a day do to it at work) and to keep my sanity.

I find that writing two documents is truly essential. One will be the text that actually needs to be recorded (including all the details like saying the question numbers, introducing and concluding the test, etc.) and the other one is the answer sheet for the students. I think making a good detailed script is the most important part. Later on, the recording process is much smoother.

The first time I was asked to record a listening test, I was brought in the “broadcasting room”. It mostly consists of a main control board, whichis programmed to ring all the bells during the day (so, no touchy), a table and a bunch of tape decks… It might be surprising, but I think many Canadian high schools are better equipped than the Japanese high schools for audio-visuals. To say the least, I knew quickly that my laptop would get the gig. Since it’s pretty straightforward, I record the tests in Garage Band, which gives me more than enough tools to record a couple of vocal tracks and, sometimes, a music/sound effects track. I even skip the microphone and use the laptop’s built-in mic most of the times (it’s actually surprising how well it captures the human voice). Of course, I would never do that if I was recording a singer, but for constant-low-dynamic spoken words it does the job. It should be noted that these built-in mics are pretty much “ambient” mics, so they will also capture all the little noises in the room. If you can find a really quiet place to record, it should be fine, but if it’s a bit noisy, a proxy mic will work much better. I won’t get into the details of sound engineering, but for this kind of work, I find that simpler is usually better.

Afterward, it’s important to “do” the test to make sure that everything makes sense and that there is enough time between questions so the students can write down their answers.

Before this year, I never had the opportunity to record listening tests since it doesn’t seem really appropriate for a chemistry test. Maybe there could be a way to have a science listening test, but I have yet to find pedagogical value in it. Let me know if you think of anything. Surprising the students and finding new approaches to teaching and evaluating the concepts is always good to freshen the classroom dynamics and to keep the students motivated.

I am also still trying to find the right way to introduce voice recording in the classroom. I’m sure there could be tremendous value in recording the students and have them listen back to their performance. Maybe some kind of radio-play or something could be fun… I can see it work well in some schools and not so well in others. I think a lot of students might not have to confidence to have their voices recorded while speaking English. Hum… lot’s to figure out.

Back To It

It`s crazy how a short winter holiday can mess up a routine. Take this blog for example; I barely wrote anything for it since mid December. But still, I have been pretty busy: many family related stuff during the break, new projects with my schools... I even started to develop a little business idea. I don`t know if it will become a reality but I won`t know until I try.

xkcd.com

It`s something that also affect the students in Canada. Usually, they don`t really have any school work to do during the holidays (2 weeks for Christmas, one or two weeks for spring break, two months for summer!). The students are often not even rested after these holidays since they usually party and stay up late when they don`t have school to attend the next day. When they are back in class, it usually takes at least a week to get things started again and have the students work like they did before the break. After the summer break though, you can expect almost a month for the students to get going and be adapted to their new classes.

In Japan, I feel like it`s quite different. I know they have work to do pretty much all the time and some of them even show up at school during holidays. Since I don`t teach the same students daily, I can`t really tell how long it takes for them to be back to their routines after coming back from a holiday but I would be ready to put money on the fact that it doesn`t take very long. At least, that it takes them less time than  the Canadian students.

There could be another debate about the Japanese students being overworked or not, but from my experience, I think it really depends on what school they are attending and their level of commitment.

That`s it for now. I`m just getting back to it slowly ;) . Hopefully, I`ll manage to come up with interesting stuff before next month. Until then, you can watch a video of my daughter playing guitar :p .