Blog of the week

I like using my computer now and spend a lot of time in front of this. I have used my I tunes and I put my Japanese CD music in here so that I can use J pop music for my slide show. I organized my Japanese pictures in this I photo album. My daughter said that I am addicted to the computer. Yet, I still don't know so many things and if one little thing goes wrong, I don't know how to fix it.　　　I should also add that some students presented the Japanese research project by PowerPoint presentation. This is the research project that we( Marcia and I)worked together. That was a nice surprise for me since I did not give students much time for this project.

Thing 3 and Thing 9

Kyoto Heianjingu

I have added the feed to my blog. Thank you Marcia. Marcia helped me to do both thing 3 and thing 9. Now I have a feed to my blog and I can show the streeming video to my class. I could not have done this without Marcia. I am still not swimming by myself. I need the floating device to survive in the computer world.

Thing 4 Get to Know Your Public Library

(Himeji Castle)
YES, I did visit Minneapolis Public Library and spent more than 1 hour there. I wanted to know more about the databases that my students can use for my Japanese classes. I found out that you need to have the library card to use their databases and of course you need to have St Paul Public Library card to use their databases. I don't have the St Paul Library card so I have to get one (or I have to go there). I heard (from the Reference person at the desk) that if you have the St Paul Library card, you could still use Minneapolis Public Library's databases after you type in your St Paul Public Library's card number on line.
Another thing I found out is that MPLS Library has the Manga Club, called "Tomodachi", which meet like 5 times and talk about your favorite manga and Japanese culture and enjoy Anime movies. (I will give this information to my students.) I did not find much about the reliable databases for students studying Japanese. I need to inquire about this in different places, I guess.

Database Exploration(blog)

We evaluated the database today. We checked, ABC CLIO, Grolier Online, Sirs Research, Gale, Ethnic Newswatch and some other ones. If I were a science or history teacher I would definitely use these databases but I noticed that there are not enough information on Japanese subjects. If the research topic is something worldly famous you can find information on that easily, but if you are looking for something very Japanese and not that well known, it is very difficult to collect data by using only the database listed on that page. Am I missing something?

My level three students and Power Point presentation

My level three students are wonderful. I gave them an assignment, which involves planning a trip to Japan. Some groups did a skit, some made regular presentation and others chose a PowerPoint presentation. Four groups did PowerPoint presentations, which were all excellent. Thanks to the new equipments I got, whole class enjoyed the show. Students are so creative and they can come up with such fresh new ideas. They are the best friends with the Japanese famous singing group, they are riding on top of the “Shinkansen”(bullet train), and they are soaking in “Onsen (hot spring) in their “PowerPoint world”. I can only say good things about this class. Getting this computer and the projector may be the best thing happened to me this year. And of course, I have the best students.

Thing 5 Create and Maintain a Teacher Web Page

(Harajyuku, I am with COSUPURE girls.)

With a lot of help from Leslie, Rachel and Jason, I set up my Web Page. I could not have done it without help. I am still thinking what I should put in my page. I did "Contact" " My schedule" and "Assignments" I would like to put more things like resources that students can use.

Thing 21 You Tube and More

I hate to admit this but I did not know about You Tube till my student told me about this. One day my student said to me,
"Have you watched "Hana yori dango"? I had no idea what she was talking about. "Hana yori dango" is a Japanese TV drama; the story came from "manga". And that student showed me how I can watch this Japanese drama on You Tube. Now I am hooked on You Tube. You can watch various Japanese TV show on You Tube. Believe or not, students are learning a lot of Japanese by sitting in front of computer. My IB student talked about famous dog called "cyuuken Hachikou" in her IB test. She also learned about this by watching You Tube. Her Japanese was very good. It is amazing how young kids learn things these days. Especially when you are learning foreign language, You Tube (or other similar things) helps. I will explore other video services later on.

Thing 15 Collaboration

I brought my students to the library last Monday. Marcia planned a very nice activity for the students. Students chose Japanese city and looked for the information such as population, weather, main industry, history, and famous places. They also have to write the source and citation. This time, students seem to be more comfortable to use database and look for the information. One funny answer I saw was the answer for the question." How will I travel there from St.Paul, MN? One group wrote: airplane - source( common sense). I started laughing.
Marcia did such a nice job teaching students how to find the right information. We are planning another lesson next week and the collaboration is working. Thank you Marcia.

日本 アイヌ村北海道 Ainu Hokkaido

Thing 10 Copyright/Plagiarism

Most of my students know the meaning of the word "plagiarism." According to the survey we took, 24 students out of 30 students knew the meaning of plagiarism. That is pretty high percentage of students, knowing the correct answer. All of my students (except 2 students) are ELL. So they know that they cannot copy some one else's writing, and pretending that is your own writing. But when I see some of their research papers, it is evident that they copied something without citing the sauce. I don't usually assign a research paper in English, so "plagiarism" is not a big problem in Japanese class, yet we have to teach students how to do it right. According to the same survey, 20 students out of 30 know the meaning of the word, copyright, (the legal right to reproduce, publish, or sell the contents and form of a literary, musical, or artistic work.) Again we have to teach students to cite the sauces. Especially, you forget to cite the sauces for pictures and photos. We have to put empashis on teaching responsible use of information.

Exchanging ideas

We had a departmental meeting last week. I showed my power point presentation at the meeing, although my slides are vary basic ones, I felt pretty good about being able to do so. The topic was how to introduce new words. It was interesting to find out other teachers are also using power point presentation to teach languages. Jason(our Spanish teacher) is using the computer every day. We( me and Jill) mentioned about this class and what we are doing in the class. A lot of people showed the interest. Jill also talked about her Spanish class learning about how to do the research. We are always too busy to share the ideas so I really enjoyed this meeting.