Halloween Bowling Party
Our Annual Imagination Ink Studio & Study Halloween Bowling Party was held on Saturday October 31st afternoon. Usually a well attended event, this year was no exception with every kids class represented at the party.
毎年恒例の、ハロウィン ボーリング パーティーを今年も開催いたしました。
年に一日、大人も子供も、なにかになりきって（コスチュームを着て）、外を歩いても、冷たい視線を感じない日ですっ！
楽しいですね、なりきるのって！ ちなみに、私はドクターでした。ERに登場しそうなくらい、結構しっくりきてました（自称）。後ろ姿は、「作業員」ともいわれましたが・・・(笑)
子供のころに、こういうイベントを体験したかったなぁって思います。
All the children came in costume, some of their siblings, and parents too! Recently Halloween has been gaining popularity in Japan with many parties being held by schools, restaurants, and other businesses.
Bowling is a lot of fun under normal circumstances, but throw on a costume and its double the fun! Following the games we gathered in a meeting room for pizza and soft drinks. Then, the children from each class prepared something special for their parents demonstrating their English abilities. We had book readings, songs, speeches, and even a dance.
ボーリングで汗を流し、ピザで腹ごしらえをしたら、次は発表会です。
クラスごとに、歌を歌ったり、本を朗読したり、みんな上手にでしました。
Finally, what would Halloween be without the chance to trick or treat? We had a few parents take places throughout the bowling alley and let the children experience trick or treating, some for the very first time. It was such a pleasure to see their happy faces. Even when we said goodbye at the end, the kids were all so happy to have had such a great time. We are all looking forward to next year!
And on a final note... a special "thank you" to Mr. Halloween himself, Maykon, our Fukuroi city elementary school ALT who went to classes all week in various costumes. Maykon would have been at the bowling party also, but had a family event to attend. We'll see him next year, meanwhile here he is in full glory...
こちらは、袋井市でALTをしているMaykon先生のハロウィンコスチュームです。
か な り、 凝ってます。本格的です。
一見、子供たちには怖すぎるかな？とも思いますが、さすがMaykon。彼の明るくて親しみやすい性格で、子供たちにも楽しんでもらえたようです。
Like stealing candy from a baby Einstein
Do you own any Baby Einstein DVDs? You know those "educational" videos with cute puppets and classical music. Turns out they are not so educational after all...
The great Baby Einstein scam that saw millions of households world wide (including yours truly) buy the videos for their kids has been exposed as, well, just that...a scam (of sorts).
The New York Times reported October 23rd that Disney company is now offering refunds due to the false claims that the videos are educational and beneficial for early childhood development. In fact numerous studies show that watching television is potential harmful for young viewers (under 2 years old), and the American Association of Pediatrics recommends ZERO TV time for tots under 2 years old.
Unfortunately, the offer is only good in the U.S. and until March 2010.
The great Baby Einstein scam that saw millions of households world wide (including yours truly) buy the videos for their kids has been exposed as, well, just that...a scam (of sorts).
The New York Times reported October 23rd that Disney company is now offering refunds due to the false claims that the videos are educational and beneficial for early childhood development. In fact numerous studies show that watching television is potential harmful for young viewers (under 2 years old), and the American Association of Pediatrics recommends ZERO TV time for tots under 2 years old.
Unfortunately, the offer is only good in the U.S. and until March 2010.
ETJ-Expo Nagoya presentation
Last weekend at the Chubu area ETJ Expo I had a standing-room only crowd for my presentation "Why do my classes su*k?" It seems either a lot of teachers out there are having problems in the classroom, or the title of the presentation was a grabber, or both.
The presentation was an exploration of interpersonal and intercultural factors that often are either overlooked by teachers, thought to be "unimportant", or teachers are just unaware of. We discussed perceptions of success/failure, expectations, motivation, relationships, learning styles, communication styles, Japanese cultural traits, and "presence". From the feedback it seems most attendees left with something to think about.
As promised, here are some of the reference authors and titles requested by audience members:
- Yoshikawa, Muneo Jay. (1980). The "Double-swing" Model of Eastern-Western Intercultural Communication.
- Schaetti, Barbara, Ramsey, Sheila, and Watanabe, Gordon. (2008). Making a World of Difference: Personal Leadership.
- Freeman, Jonathan, Rule, Nicholas, & Ambady, Nalini. (2009). The Cultural Neuroscience of Person Perception.
- Masuda T. & Nisbett, R.E. (2006). Attending Holistically Versus Analytically: Comparing the Context of Sensitivity of Japanese and Americans.
- Kolb, D. A. (1984) Experiential Learning.
For those of you in the Tokyo area, you can attend the workshop at the Association of Canadian Teachers (ACTJ) mini-conference at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, Tuesday November 3rd.
The presentation was an exploration of interpersonal and intercultural factors that often are either overlooked by teachers, thought to be "unimportant", or teachers are just unaware of. We discussed perceptions of success/failure, expectations, motivation, relationships, learning styles, communication styles, Japanese cultural traits, and "presence". From the feedback it seems most attendees left with something to think about.
As promised, here are some of the reference authors and titles requested by audience members:
- Yoshikawa, Muneo Jay. (1980). The "Double-swing" Model of Eastern-Western Intercultural Communication.
- Schaetti, Barbara, Ramsey, Sheila, and Watanabe, Gordon. (2008). Making a World of Difference: Personal Leadership.
- Freeman, Jonathan, Rule, Nicholas, & Ambady, Nalini. (2009). The Cultural Neuroscience of Person Perception.
- Masuda T. & Nisbett, R.E. (2006). Attending Holistically Versus Analytically: Comparing the Context of Sensitivity of Japanese and Americans.
- Kolb, D. A. (1984) Experiential Learning.
For those of you in the Tokyo area, you can attend the workshop at the Association of Canadian Teachers (ACTJ) mini-conference at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, Tuesday November 3rd.
ビーチ クリーン
毎月、第1日曜日にビーチクリーンという活動が行われています。
場所はですねぇ、なんということろかはわからないんですが、天竜川近くの遠州浜です。
私たちも、今月初めて参加してきました。
10月4日の朝、快晴。
一面に広がる砂浜。青い空。青い海。
キモチーーーーと叫びたくなるくらいです。
が足元をみると・・・・
ありますねぇ、ゴミが。
ペットボトル、吸殻、使用済み花火など、ポイっと捨てられたもの。
車の座席、電化製品など、計画的に捨てられたもの。
えっ、これまだ使えるじゃん！というような、そこに放置されなけえば、「ゴミ」ではないもの。
はるかかなたから流れ、たどり着いたような、発泡スチロールもいっぱい。
漁の時に、間違って船から落ちたのか、いらないから意図的に落としたのか・・・。
かなりの量でした。
約2時間ほど、30人ぐらいで拾ったゴミはこちら。
毎月、やっていてもこんなにも。
ビーチだけではなく、道に、山に・・・
一人ひとりが気をつけないといけないですね。
次回のビーチクリーンは、11月1日(日) 10:00から
場所は、サンゲンヤだそうです。漢字がわからなくてスミマセン。
天竜川よりの遠州浜です。
またこの日の朝、同じ場所で、8:00ー10:00ヨガもあるみたいです。
いいなぁ、行ってみたいです。
けど、そんなに早く起きる自信がな・・・・い・・・気がします・・・・。
場所はですねぇ、なんということろかはわからないんですが、天竜川近くの遠州浜です。
私たちも、今月初めて参加してきました。
10月4日の朝、快晴。
一面に広がる砂浜。青い空。青い海。
キモチーーーーと叫びたくなるくらいです。
が足元をみると・・・・
ありますねぇ、ゴミが。
ペットボトル、吸殻、使用済み花火など、ポイっと捨てられたもの。
車の座席、電化製品など、計画的に捨てられたもの。
えっ、これまだ使えるじゃん！というような、そこに放置されなけえば、「ゴミ」ではないもの。
はるかかなたから流れ、たどり着いたような、発泡スチロールもいっぱい。
漁の時に、間違って船から落ちたのか、いらないから意図的に落としたのか・・・。
かなりの量でした。
約2時間ほど、30人ぐらいで拾ったゴミはこちら。
毎月、やっていてもこんなにも。
ビーチだけではなく、道に、山に・・・
一人ひとりが気をつけないといけないですね。
次回のビーチクリーンは、11月1日(日) 10:00から
場所は、サンゲンヤだそうです。漢字がわからなくてスミマセン。
天竜川よりの遠州浜です。
またこの日の朝、同じ場所で、8:00ー10:00ヨガもあるみたいです。
いいなぁ、行ってみたいです。
けど、そんなに早く起きる自信がな・・・・い・・・気がします・・・・。
Should we talk to our kids about discrimination?
Some of you may be thinking we have “baby fever” by all the recent blog posts on infants. Well seems since the birth of our second child 詩絵夏 (Jenna) we do!
Now I am combining our recent interest in infants with the topic of racial discrimination for this latest entry...
Whether we like to acknowledge it or not, racial discrimination exists in every society, and many parents are reluctant to discuss the topic with their children, especially young children. Growing opinion among researchers suggests this may be a mistake.
Surprisingly, there is evidence that children are prone to in-group favoritism from a very young age, and that this favoritism, if left unchecked, can develop into racial discrimination later on in life.
Furthermore, babies as young as 6 months were shown to pick up on racial differences. Dr. Phyllis Katz of the university of Colorado conducted an experiment in which 200 black and white babies were show photos of faces. In most cases, babies stared longer at photos that were a different race then there own.
For more see the Newsweek article from September 14th “See Baby Discriminate” . A very interesting article.
Even more troubling is results of a remade experiment known as the "doll test" in this documentary video made by high school student Kiri Davis...
“A Girl Like Me” created a stir across the U.S. when it was posted on You Tube over three years ago. Based on experiments by Dr. Kenneth Clark, white and black dolls were given to children and asked a series of questions including “which doll is nice?” and “Which doll is bad?” More often than not, the answers disturbingly showed how children think about race.
Should we bring this up this subject with our own children? When is an appropriate time? Some in Japan argue that it is pointless because “there is no racism in Japan”. I for one intend to speak to our kids about the subject of race so that it may become true one day.
Now I am combining our recent interest in infants with the topic of racial discrimination for this latest entry...
Whether we like to acknowledge it or not, racial discrimination exists in every society, and many parents are reluctant to discuss the topic with their children, especially young children. Growing opinion among researchers suggests this may be a mistake.
Surprisingly, there is evidence that children are prone to in-group favoritism from a very young age, and that this favoritism, if left unchecked, can develop into racial discrimination later on in life.
Furthermore, babies as young as 6 months were shown to pick up on racial differences. Dr. Phyllis Katz of the university of Colorado conducted an experiment in which 200 black and white babies were show photos of faces. In most cases, babies stared longer at photos that were a different race then there own.
For more see the Newsweek article from September 14th “See Baby Discriminate” . A very interesting article.
Even more troubling is results of a remade experiment known as the "doll test" in this documentary video made by high school student Kiri Davis...
“A Girl Like Me” created a stir across the U.S. when it was posted on You Tube over three years ago. Based on experiments by Dr. Kenneth Clark, white and black dolls were given to children and asked a series of questions including “which doll is nice?” and “Which doll is bad?” More often than not, the answers disturbingly showed how children think about race.
Should we bring this up this subject with our own children? When is an appropriate time? Some in Japan argue that it is pointless because “there is no racism in Japan”. I for one intend to speak to our kids about the subject of race so that it may become true one day.
