Gakkou Koukai: Visiting my son's primary school and English Activities

Last Saturday was a Open House (gakkou koukai) for Michael's primary school, a public school in Mitaka. He's in the 2nd grade this year and loves his school life very much.

Open House is a day where the kids have school all day on a Saturday, and the parents and other guests can roam the halls and visit classes freely.

I wanted to see my son's classes, of course, but also wanted to peek in on some English Activities (eigo katsudo) classes which were being held in classrooms of 4th graders and 6th graders.

For my son, I had a chance to see him doing a language arts class and a crafts class. In the language arts class, which was supposed to be a PE class outside but changed suddenly to language arts due to the rain, the teacher read a story to the second graders in a whispered voice (she had a cold in her throat that day), with the 30 or so second graders crowded toward the teacher's chair to listen carefully. After the story, they got some comprehension and discussion questions on cards that they discussed with their neighbors. Then students took turns reading the questions and the students who knew the answer raised their hands. Interestingly, the teacher only asked the students to raise their hands, and did not actually call on anybody to answer. Perhaps she was keeping things safe to avoid loss of face by students with so many parents watching to see what the kids would say? A very low key lesson, but very impressive to see that the kids' ability to focus was high and they stayed quiet and controlled for 45 minutes sitting on the floor in front of the teacher. Was the good behavior because of the parents visiting? Or does the teacher have good control of the class from day to day? I'm curious to ask, but I would guess that my son's teacher has done a good job with the crew over the past year and a half, inspite of being fresh out of her college and certification program and getting a cohort of wild untrained first graders last year. I remember that in last year's classes in Open House, around this time 12 months ago, a few members of the class couldn't keep still and had to pull stunts to draw attention to themselves every few minutes. Those guys were well under control.

Craft class was also very nice. I didn't stay for the whole time, but the lesson had a nice flow of one group of students teaching another group of students how to make a moving toy. Good practice of communication skills and collaboration. My son taught one of his classmates how to make a dancing cup out of a paper cup, rubber band, sheet of paper and tape. Very patient and friendly teaching!

In addition to my son's 2nd grade, I visited one 4th grade class and 6th grade class to see their English Activities, and stayed about half an hour in each one.

Both were doing Halloween theme activities.

My notes/observations

• The teachers were Japanese home room teachers only. No ALTs. I'm not sure why this happened because using ALTs more is an explicit goal of Mitaka education for English in primary school. Anyway, what impressed me was that both of the Japanese home room teachers who taught the lessons were VERY GOOD English speakers. Very capable with basic communication and classroom management English. Pretty good pronunciation, too. At least one had obviously studied abroad for a while.
• The flow of the lesson seemed to be 1) picture flash cards for Halloween vocabulary, combined with a short explanation of the meaning of Halloween in Japan, at least for the sixth graders. The flash card sequence seemed routine. First, after choral repetition, the teacher prompted the students for the Japanese equivalent expression to confirm understanding. The prompting was done in English "What's xx in Japanese? Do you know?" and volunteers answered in Japanese, all correctly. Then students repeated and were quizzed on them a little. 2) Games: For the 4th graders, Janken (Paper Scissors Rock 123...) + "Do you have witch?" for the 4th graders + winner gets one of the other person's picture cards. For the 6th graders, vocabulary bingo. In both games, the usage of spoken English by the students was very low. Most group work or free work included a lot of Japanese interaction. Some use of the English vocabulary may have been included, but I couldn't hear it. So...through the lesson, the students only seem to have heard and repeated 6~9 Halloween words such as bat, witch, Jack-o-Lantern (a mouthful), vampire, mummy, ghost. Input also included classroom English from the teachers, who seemed to speak only English...which is quite commendable for a non-English teaching specialist.
• There was no review of basics, and there seemed to be very little accumulation of functional language that the students could use except for "What's this?", which the students only used when required. No spontaneous use was seen. 
• Since Mitaka started English activities in September 2007, the six graders have so far had a total accumulated school English Activities hours of...let's see...in 3rd grade 25 hours, 4th grade 25 hours, 5th grade 35 hours, and now in October of 6th grade, about 17 hours. Almost 100 periods of 45 minutes. That's the equivalent of about a bit less than a year of junior high? 
• I think a specialist with a continuous, accumulating curriculum could have built a foundation of English by 100 hours, but this is very difficult in Mitaka schools because 1) English activities are NOT for English. They are for, as the national curriculum stipulates, experiencing the fun and curiosity of learning about foreign cultures and languages. However, that balance is very hard to strike. You either do cultural experiences with many languages and cultures with a little English thrown in, or you do English mainly with a little intercultural experience thrown in to show the context of why they are learning English and where English comes from. 
• It would be very interesting to interview the teachers to see what their thoughts are about the current use of time in the English Activities hours. My feeling was that the teachers were not really sure which way the class should go, and as a result, the time ends up being spent with fun and games to ensure, at the very least, that no child will end up disliking English before going to junior high...
• ...But I think it is difficult for kids to like English, especially in the higher primary grades, when they are only liking the games and the lack of pressure. 
• My stance on English in Japanese public primary schools continues to be: If you are going to do it, do it WElL. Do it systematically and with dedication of trained teachers. Communicate with the junior high school and agree on what foundation the children will be given in elementary school. Including basic phonics for pronunciation practice and sound-letter association should be completely within a reasonable reach with 100 hours even if the pace is 45 minutes per week. Give the children a sense of accomplishment--build in a lot of repetition of basics (numbers, alphabet, greetings, exchanges, reactions, chunks of phrases) that are repeated in every class.
• Or...if not done with organization and dedication, perhaps it is better to not do it and to leave it alone until junior high school??
• I'm curious what other primary schools in Mitaka are doing, and how the education committee is coordinating the efforts between them. My experience with the education committee shows that they may not have any personal qualifications or experience with language teaching, and their efforts to coordinate language teaching probably need help. 
• I'm willing to help if they are willing to listen...

Inside Job (2010) A "must see" documentary

I'm not an expert on financial regulation, but I felt "Inside Job" was a very skillfully produced documentary on an immensely important issue. I had some general knowledge about the Subprime Loan crisis and how it happened, but this documentary seems to explain the weaknesses in our current regulatory system more clearly than anything I have seen so far.

The issue here is how financial greed (and, I would argue, a disregard of their responsibility toward society) among a wealthy elite is allowed to be protected by a web of arrangements between financial institutions, the government that is supposed to regulate them, and academic institutions that are supposed to analyze and point out the dangers for society.

The documentary implicates the investment bankers such as Goldman Sachs, the government regulators such as the Federal Reserve's Greenspan/Bernanke, and academics such as the economics professors at Harvard and Columbia who advise the government. It seems clear that those involved knew what was happening, and did not take steps to stop the greedy risk taking which the documentary calls the Heist, an inside bank robbery job.

After watching this, you just wonder, how could a group of immensely wealthy people (owning millions of dollars in assets) who knew that these careless risks could end up affecting the lives of millions of people who will have trouble eating, living, and getting basic medical care and education from day to day, just gamble with the high risks, lose billions of dollars of people's money, crash their companies and cause economic difficulties around the world, and yet get billions of dollars of taxes (from us) to save their money, and walk away still being millionaires.

The documentary producer Charles Ferguson in his interview at the end of the film states that he believes many of these con men running a gigantic legal Ponzi scheme should spend several decades in prison. Maybe so.

I would say that they should at least have to start over from zero. They should forfeit their personal assets to pay back their debts, become one of the jobless persons (like the millions they affected), and be banned from ever having a job in financial services again.

Of course, there is a very small chance of that type of regulation or penalization ever happening because the government bodies that are supposed to create such penalties are run by advisers and academics who they used to work with (or who they will hire and work with in the future). In principle, I am sure that Obama is for punishing the greedy industry more, but he has been unable to pass legislation with teeth. Obviously, it is very difficult to penalize rich powerful cliques of people. They protect each other. Money talks in democratic politics. People will shut their mouths of if given a bonus of a million dollars to keep working in the greedy system.

So, what can break the system and cycle? Politicians who are not afraid to oppose money, academics who are not afraid to criticize the system even if their universities (like Harvard, for example) are run by people who created and maintain the system, and do I dare dream...members of the financial industry who believe that they should only earn a honest wage for their work, and see a million dollars as money that is completely unnecessary to have a personal income...I mean how much do you really need?

I hope the education that I provide to my students helps them realize the social responsibility that talented, privileged people like them have toward creating a fair, caring world where members of powerful institutions avoid pursuing wealth beyond need.

Finished a very sweaty, dangerous Turtle Half Marathon

Yesterday I successfully finished a half marathon in unbearably high October heat and humidity.

Marathons are not made to be run when the sun is burning at 30 degree centigrade.

As the news article below reports, 23 runners were hospitalized due to heat stroke, some in critical condition. I saw a few of these guys convulsing in the heat on the side of the road. Scary. Fortunately, the race was well-staffed with doctors and emergency personnel.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20111016/t10013298241000.html

Somehow I finished. My time was about 2 hours 6 minutes on my watch. The official time will come in the mail in a few weeks.

If it weren't for the heat, I was hoping to run around 1hr 55 min, but I slowed down a lot to take extra water and to get under showers volunteers were giving with chilled water.

Finally, I want to thank my friends Toshi and Kazumi for inviting me after the run to his house nearby by for a badly needed shower and cold beer and good food. It was nice seeing their daughters Haruka and Honoko there and meeting friend Mr. Shimakura.

Why Boys Need Parents - LOL!

This came around from, of all people, my own dear father. Yes, I did a few of these things when I was a kid.

http://izismile.com/2009/04/07/why_boys_need_parents_39_pics.html

One Girl's Courage - Another powerful report from Kristof of NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/opinion/one-girls-courage.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

 

I think it is very valuable that reports like this come out in the New York Times. I've been impressed by the current series that Kristof has been doing researching how NGOs and NPOs have been working in Africa. A lot of powerful stories are coming out of this and showing us that we have a lot to learn about our world and how we can make a difference in it.

For one, these reports give us in the US and other countries (like Japan where I live) some perspective on how fortunate most of us are to be able to live in peace with our families and pursue our studies and dreams.

Another value is that we see how outside assistance can be helpful for bringing change to areas where violence against women or other weaker groups is structurally embedded. NPOs that work with issues like that clearly have a role to play in the lives of girls like Fulamatu, who otherwise would be a victim of a system that allows male rapists to walk free while she, as the victim, is shamed and exiled to the countryside away from her school and family.

Hopefully she will be allowed to go to a boarding school. The Internet hopefully will be a medium that allows us in developed economies to see opportunities to help assistance organizations in developing countries and help make a difference more directly.

I won the lottery! + Marathon plans

I just got the following email:
-------------------------------------------

Dear Mark CHRISTIANSON
[ID-No: 12913 ]

Congratulations!  You have been selected in the lottery to run the 2012 Tokyo Marathon.
-------------------------------------------

I guess foreigners get to run every year. This will be my 5th year in a row.

I have to apologize to the 270,000 Japanese runners who failed in the lottery again this year. Only 30,000 can run, and the odds are 10:1 for getting in if you are a Japanese citizen.

Why not just let all 300,000 people run? I guess the streets of Tokyo may not be able to handle a mob of that size.

In any case, I feel very fortunate that I can run in this fun race again!

Please leave ideas for costumes as a comment below  : - )

Last year, my time was about 4 hours 53 minutes, and that was one of my slowest times ever. This year, I still want to try to beat 4 hours...if my knees don't hurt too much and if I can lose some weight...

This weekend I have a half-marathon in Arakawa and we will see how I feel running 21km at this point.

Also, for the full Tokyo marathon in March, I wonder if I can do a fundraiser. Anyone want to sponsor me with a donation to Red Cross or some other charity?

Todai 30th in University Rankings...CalTech No.1...but No.1 in what?

What makes a good university?

This article in the Japan Times today shows that the rankings by a British magazine called Times Higher Education.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20111007a8.html

Todai is 30th. CalTech is No.1. Harvard and Stanford are No.2.

So...what does that mean?

Apparently the ranking is based on "their teaching and research capacities. The institutions were also judged on their international mix of staff and students, ability to transfer research into commercial gains, and research influence based on the number of citations."

I dug deeper, going to the Times Higher Education website, where they explain the weightings of the 5 areas of criteria:

• Teaching — the learning environment (worth 30 per cent of the overall ranking score)
• Research — volume, income and reputation (worth 30 per cent)
• Citations — research influence (worth 30 per cent)
• Industry income — innovation (worth 2.5 per cent)
• International outlook — staff, students and research (worth 7.5 per cent).

I'm curious about how they assess Teaching / the Learning Environment, but information on that is hard to find.

From an "undergraduate education" point of view, I'm concerned about their weight on Research/Citations/Industry Income, which adds up to 62.5% of the weight. Certainly it is important for students to be taught by professors who are active in their field and able to publish articles that get cited and get grants, but is it more important than the teaching side? For graduate students who are at a university to become researchers themselves, I can understand the importance. However, for undergrads who are not necessarily going to become academic researchers, and most of whom are going to go into professions that need a generally high level of intellectual and personal development such as the ability to understand, think, and communicate on issues...the learning environment is much more important.

So...I would think a separation of "universities for educating" and "research institutes" in the rankings would be beneficial. In Japan, I think a lot of research may be going on at Todai, but is the university really helping students develop intellectually and as a person?? I hope so, but from what I have heard, this may not exactly be the case.

What I really like about what we do here at ICU is that the focus is clearly on the development of our undergraduate students. Faculty do excellent research here, but a lot of effort goes into challenging and supporting each student on an individual basis.

More information is here.

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More PowerPoint presentations from Mark Christianson

This was an experiment I did earlier this year with posting presentation slides online.

The voice recording audio on this slide show is really scratchy, so I need to redo this on a new file with a better microphone.

Also, this is an incomplete presentation still. I have a more complete one that I show students, but I haven't added voice recording to it yet. I plan to do that in the near future.

However, other than that, the voice and animation seem to work quite well.

ARW students, you will be creating something like this using your research essay content!

Upon re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This was one of my favorite novels in my high school English classes, and I decided to read it again a few weeks ago because many of my students had read it for their summer reading.

Atticus Finch, the lawyer who defends a Negro slave wrongly accused of rape, is still one of my greatest heros, and I love these quotes:

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

The whole novel's lesson is about learning to "stand in someone's shoes". In a sense, there is nothing more important than that concept of empathy as we try to live together with others in society.

He also says, in connection with telling his son why a certain crabby old lady was a very brave (she was kicking a morphine habit to die with a clear head):

"Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."

That's a beauty as is the final one about why Atticus stands up to do what is right, rather than what everyone wants:

 "The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

A tragedy of religious intolerance: Agora (2009)...inaccurate in places, but worth watching

Agora is a movie based in 5th century AD Alexandria and the life and death of a female philosopher and mathematician in the city named Hypatia.

Here is a Smithsonian feature of the life of Hypatia and how she was killed by a Christian mob in 415AD.

As a fan of history based movies, I watched this this weekend and felt it was worth watching because it brought up many interesting historical questions about the process of the expansion of the early Christian church--how it interacted with the politics of the Roman Empire, with local pagan beliefs, with Jews in the communities, with female leaders in the those communities, and with scientific pursuits such as the heliocentric theory.

In Agora, the Christians take over Alexandria as their numbers grow among the lower classes and slave. This process includes a number of bouts of religious violence and the gradual increase of political power connected with the Christianization of the Roman Empire. Pagans massacre Christians first, followed by a violent riot led by the Christians that leads to a marginalization of the pagans. Christians harrass Jews, followed by a Jewish attack on a group of Christians, followed by a massacre of Jews and their banishment from the city. Finally, the Christian bishop of Alexandria denounces Hypatia as being a bad influence because she is a woman who speaks her mind and believes in nothing (only philosophy and science) and a group of zealots catch and kill her.

I watched the movie first, and then read the historical accounts available on the Internet. Apparently the movie spins a lot of fictional threads for dramatic effect and there are inaccuracies in terms of how the library of Alexandria of sacked by a Christian mob or how she was killed. In the film, she dies quietly in the arms of a man who used to be her slave (and in love with her) but now is part of a group of violent Christian zealots. He kills her mercifully by choking just before the mob gets to her and the events after that are not shown. It seems that the real way she was killed and paraded through the streets was a lot worse.

Despite the historical inaccuracies and dramatic license taken by the director, the film makes you want to know more about how Christianity grew in influence around the Mediterranean and in Europe in the early centuries of its existence. Hopefully the reality of the expansion was not as brutal and un-Christian as shown in the movie, but at the same time it is probably true that violence accompanied the conversion process when intolerant zealots forgot that they were trying to spread faith in peace, forgiveness, and love, a tragedy that should never occur.

A culture of political apathy among Japanese youth...Japan Times article by Roger Pulvers

I think this would make an interesting issue for an essay for some of our students research.

Pulvers poses the question:

Why are today's young people (in Japan) so deliriously apathetic and passive? And for how long will they remain that way?

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/fl20111002rp.html

Pulvers cites this book by Yoshimoto Takaaki, which I have never read, but may try to get from the library. Looks interesting.


Personally, I have tended to be moderate in politics, and perhaps the "new" way to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the government and start a political movement is to raise voices on Twitter or Facebook. But a spirit of concern and a desire to do something to ensure change is necessary in all ages.