Thing 24 Online Gaming

I am teaching Japanese old and new games in my Japanese 2C class. I am teaching traditional Japanese games such as Otedama, Ayatori, Kendama, and Darumasan ga koronda.
Students are going to talk about Japanese video games and other games. One thing I have discovered when I was doing the assignment for this class was Japanese goo site.
This site has Japanese dictionaries, news, music and games. Some of the games are free and can be viewed at school. So we did "Puchin game" today. My score was "17" and the students' highest score was "90". There is no comparison, and students are much better than me. It is fun to play if you have nothing to do, I have to admit. There are some educational games that students can learn some Japanese, too.

http://game.goo.ne.jp/

ようこさんへ

イーメールありがとうございます。はい、とうほうしんきは、韓国のグループだと知っていますが、生徒がこのグループをとても好きで、日本語を使っているかぎり、それでも良いという事にしました。この学校の日本語のクラスの生徒皆、日本のjポップが、大好きなんです。

Blog of the week

I feel very tired because of many things are happening around me. But I should not forget" bogging". It became so important to have this computer. This computer is my best friend now. I don't think I can live without this computer. This is my lifesaver. This is my dictionary, my lesson plan, my how to book and the entertainment. I have just finished the week of J-pop. (Japanese pop music) Students did presentation on J-pop music using this computer and the projector. It was GREAT. Do you know anything about the music band called "TOHOSHINKI"（They are Korean but they sing in Japanese)? I learned so much about Japanese pop music from my students, such as” News"," Mika Nakashima" "Nobody knows" and other music. A lot of students want to learn Japanese because they like this pop culture. (Some of them will even tell you the differences between American pop music and the Japanese pop music.) Not only the students, I enjoy learning about Japanese popular music. And being able to watch these singers sing in Japanese and dance help us learn more about Japan. In the beginning of the year, I decided to learn more about technology and I did it. Students are also using more technology in the class.

Thing 22. Ebooks and NetLibrary

How to Use NetLibrary E-Books.
http://www.oclc.org/netlibrary/demo/
I have decided to go to the library to learn how to use NetLibrary. It seems to be very simple to use. I watched this demo video .
You can go to www.mplib.org and go to Netlibrary. Now I should try this. 1. You have to log in.( You type your name and Your library card number.) 2 You go to the main page. 3. Select the E book you want to read. I selected "African-American Art" and looked at the book and read some of the pages. It is pretty simple. Someday, all the students will use ebooks as their textbooks and they do not carry the heavy textbooks. This was my first try to use E-books and I have to learn more.

Thing 11. All about Google

We learned about google "Documents" today. It was quite interesting. I decided to go to "Google" and checked other Google features. I liked the "google map". I typed my address and I checked the map and saw the picture of our street. Then you can go up and down the street and see all the houses around. It is just like I am driving the street. Only when the streets are outlined by blue, street views are available. Then you can drag the street view to look around. I checked our old house in San Francisco. It did not have the street picture so I could not see the house that clearly but it was fun.

Thing 36. Social Networking

Here are the things I found out from my daughter about facebook and myspace. She tells me that facebook makes it really easy for her to keep in touch with her friends outside of the state and outside of the country. She can talk to her friends from when we lived in San Francisco, talk to her friends from Edina, and even talk to her friends who do not live in the United States. On her facebook she also has applications such as games where she can compete with her friends. She showed me that one of the applications, dogbook, made it able for our dog Lily to have a mini-facebook where she can have normal facebook friends and dogbook friends.(dogbook friends????) She also has photos of our dog in her albums so that our other daughters(who are in California) can see Lily. (See above picture) She also showed me that there are two ways of talking with friends one on one. There is a public way where you write on their wall and there is the private way where you send them a message. She tells me that on myspace it is harder to find the people you are looking for and that the layout is very different. She tells me that myspace is more like a blog because you choose the color of your font, your background, and the type of font or background you have. She tells me that you can also join different networks. She belongs to her schools network and when she decides which college she is going to she will then join that network as well. My daughter's name is Natalie and she is very resorceful about this topic. And she loves her facebook.

Thing 23. Technorati, Tagging, and Del.icio.us

I went to Delicious site and learned about "Social Network". I can share bookmarks with other people. I should be able to post entries to my blog too. I need to learn more about that. Then I went to "google.com "Documents". I watched You tube video about the google document and I tried to create some document. It makes sense to have "one document" which multiple people can view and edit. I thought when we have Japan Bowl, we (the Japanese teachers) can make Japan Bowl questions using google document. I felt that I have so much more to learn.

Thing 18.One Student Thing

My third year students know so much about Japanese music and Japanese bands. One of the students said, " I read Panic Channel’s blog everyday". So I asked how she does that. She taught me this.”Yaplog.jp” Try going to "yaplog.jp. You can find free blog site with a lot of cute pictures. And, Yes, you have to be able to read Japanese.
I am going to check it out. Some of the Japanese musicians are writing blogs and my students are reading them and learning Japanese. It is amazing that students can learn so much from Internet. Yes, and the students reading these Japanese blogs are very smart students.

Web. Page

I went to EBSC database and tried to create a "Web Page". I chose the background color and typed some text. I did not have enough time to finish so I went home and tried to continue. But I could not open my page and I could not do anything at home. So, next day at school I tried again and it worked. I was not sure what I was doing but finally I kind understood what that search box is. Most of my Japanese classes, we do not do research. So I chose my 4th year IB class and listed all the students' IB research topics. Their topics are like "onsen"(Japanese hot springs). "Bon odori", "Naruto" and "Namie Amuro". I typed "bon odori in that search box and I found two articles and one book on Bon odori. I read the outline of the article. These articles will not be helpful for the student. I did the similar things for "onsen". I found one article that might help my student. If I were writing a research paper, for the social science class or history class, this web page will be great, I thought. When I was in school, I never had this and I spent many hours looking for books and articles in front of the card catalogue.( Wow I am old.)

Blog

I learned how to adjust the voice and the sound for my i movie today. I feel pretty good about that. I learned from Peggy. Since I don't know much about the computer I always ask questions. I even ask some basic things like how to copy the link. Jamie and Jason helped me for that. I made the power point presentation about the Japanese school and used if for my class. I thought it worked well. Showing the real pictures of Japanese school, uniforms, students, classrooms, lunchtime and some school events really help for students to understand the culture. I have learned the following things after making several power point presentations. 1. The slide show should not be too long (20 pictures maximum). Dark room and long slide show are not good things for the sleepy students. 2. Always give students some worksheets and students have to find the answers from the show. 3. Ask questions, wait and after students answer give them the correct answer. 4.Find the interesting pictures.
5. Give students enough time to take notes during the slide show. I am still learning but I am getting better.

Thing 26. Digital Image Collections

I went to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit on Saturday. There was a long line to buy a ticket and to enter, but I did not mind it so much. I rented the audiovisual help for $6.00. It is always nice to have some audio explanations about the paintings and the artist. Frida Kahlo's life was short but was amazing. I enjoyed going to the Walker Art Center and seeing the Frida Kahlo's paintings. I found the site, which show some of her famous paintings.I also checked the Minneapolis Institute of Arts collections and Metropolitan of arts collections on line. I like going to the museums and seeing arts. It is nice to be able to see some of the arts on line (although you do not get the real excitement of seeing the real thing). Minneapolis Institute of Arts has a teacher's day for the Japanese exhibit on March. Is anyone interested?
(Thank you Jamie.)

http://calendar.walkerart.org/canopy.wac?id=3156

Blog with an animated gif

I just wanted to try this. This is my new pet, " kingyo". I learned this from Marcia. My next project is to edit my students' Fashion Show video using Imovie. I don't know how yet.

（cartoon taken from http:www.artie.com)
http://www.artie.com/

Thing 14 Reliable Online Resources

In November, we evaluated the databases such as ABC CLIO, Grolier Online, Sirs Research, Gale, Ethnic Newswatch and some other ones. These are the reliable online resources. Public Library and ELM have the lists of reliable online resources. Most of the students are not used to use these reliable online resources and they are depending on too much on Googling. I have to know more about Reliable Online Resources in Japanese. This is my next assignment.

Thing 17 One New Thing

I am not sure about this one” new" thing because it may be an "old " thing for other people. I discovered that making an iMovie using the regular photographs is better than making a slide show. First I used the pictures in iPhoto and put all the pictures in the clips (in the iMovie). I arranged the pictures and made fun transitions and created the titles. I chose the music and recorded my own voice. (You can choose a topic and teach a lesson. We cannot find substitute teachers who speak Japanese so this movie thing is great.) Editing takes time but it is fun. Then I exported the project to iDVD. I chose the theme and burned on DVD.

1/9/08 Blog

We talked about wiki (type of website that allows users to add, remove,or otherwise edit and change most content very quickly)and Copyright. Lindsay’s presentation was amazing. I thought I wish I could do that. I am just getting a little better with computer but I have not improved my computer skills that much. Discussion about copyright was interesting.
Especially now, everybody is using Internet and so much information is there. It is hard to know what is "legal" and what is "illegal". The bottom line is." Taking and using someone's property without permission is wrong." We have to teach that to students.

Thing 7 Get to Know the Research Project Calculator

I was reading Marcia's blog that reminded me to write about Thing 7. My first trimester group did some research on Japan and we taught them about the Research Project Calculator. It is a good tool for them to teach organization skill. They are gone now and I am teaching different classes. I have also finished the survey and the papers are sitting on my desk. Although it was just a trimester, I could see students learned more about research and responsible use of information. I should have chosen Japanese Level 3 class, which is a whole year class, but I chose this class, because most of the students are 10th grades.

あけましておめでとうございます。

謹賀新年　平成２０年　ことしもよろしくおねがいします。A Happy New Year!
I am working on my iMovie now. I used the pictures that I took in Japan and created a movie. I have the background music and I even recorded my own voice but one problem is that I don't know how to burn it on DVD. Does anyone know how to do it?

P.S. I think I know how to do that now, you have to go to iDVD and choose a theme and burn on the DVD. My daughter helped me and she said, " It is not that hard." It was hard for me.