I have friends who have written books like this.

Best book review ever

Here is my mandatory end of year report. I tried not to write it at all, but I got re-asked this morning.

*******************

Based on my two years experience teaching here, there are a number of
suggestions I have for the improvement of English education and team
teaching. Unfortunately, many of these suggestions are constrained by
the dependence of the Japanese education system on poorly designed,
poorly thought out and poorly implemented testing. English in this
country is taught and evaluated with the same basic techniques as math
or science. Countless studies throughout the world have shown that
this is a poor method at best, and may actively hinder learning in
languages and critical thinking.

I also realize that no one really cares about my recommendations, and
that this letter is largely perfunctory because "everyone" knows that
year end reports should be written. If Japan was interested in
improving English education, then they would have started taking the
advice of ALTs and JTEs decades ago. Truthfully, I resent having to
write this at all, and think it is a waste of time for me and for the
few people out there who may actually read what I have to say.
That being said, hope springs eternal, and I do have some suggestions.

The first and most important is the removal of the separation between
speaking and grammar. English is not a dead language like Latin.
Nowhere else in the world is language taught with this kind of
segregation, and Japan lags almost last in the first world in English
comprehension. These two facts are not isolated. The lack of English
comprehension does not reflect on either the students or the teachers,
but rather on the system in which education is performed.
Memorization is not an effective way to teach a language. Stop
teaching English as a series of "sound bites" or phrases that need to
be memorized with little or no understanding of how they are used
contextually. Despite the similar use of the word "on", the following
phrases should not be taught together:
On Time
On Board
On The Table
I have personally seen this kind of grouping for memorization, and it
is pointless and frustrating for students.
Second, the text books for English are the worst texts I have ever
seen in my life as a teacher and a student of language. Instead of
starting simply and building in complexity, they merely give new
examples of word usage for memorization. I have seen almost no
complexity difference between the 1st year Junior High School book and
the 3rd year Senior High School text.

Third, English classes should be taught in English. I can't believe
how obvious this one is, and yet 99% of all English grammar classes
are taught almost exclusively in Japanese. If teachers aren't
comfortable teaching in English, they should be replaced by either
native speakers, or JTEs with a higher level of ability.

Fourthly, creative use of English should be stressed. Students should
be required at minimum to write as much as possible in English, and
speaking drills should not be memorized, but rather interactive.

In regards to my school in particular, there are a number of
suggestions that I feel would improve English learning. The first is
that ALTs at my school are incredibly under-used. I, and my
predecessor before me, taught less than 6 hours a week. My strongest
recommendation is that each class be cut in half, to double the number
of classes taught by the ALT and to improve one on one interaction by
shrinking the class size. It is impossible to teach spoken English
effectively in a class of 40 or more students.

In terms of the tests, exams should be graded on a positive scale
instead of a negative one. In other words, a student should start
with 0 points and gain points rather than starting at full points and
losing points for trivial grammar or spelling mistakes. The current
system encourages mediocrity, as students who play it safe and write
the minimum are much more likely to get high marks.

Finally, if the school were truly serious about teaching English, the
ALT would be used for 2nd and 3rd year students in addition to
freshman. It is incredibly sad that the average high school student
is best at English their first day at school, and that their ability
to speak and listen decreases throughout their three years in high
school.

Those are my suggestions for improvement. To tell you the truth, I
wish you would stop asking ALTs to write these sorts of reports,
because they just bring home to us how under-valued and basically
useless we really are. I have never in my life before felt more
helpless to enact change or to effectively do my job, which is
teaching incredibly intelligent and motivated students how to speak
and understand English. Clearly, the Japanese government does not
really want it's citizens to speak English, as they fear any change
that might reduce the country's "Japanese-ness".

Another one I'm quite happy with...maybe I'm actually making progress? *grin*

It's Stump

Recommend looking at it full size.

Night City

Rules: Post 3 things you've done that you believe nobody else on your F-list has done. Indulge in remorse if someone calls you out on a listed item.

1: Talked to Roger Zelazny in an elevator in Greenville South Carolina. He called the facehugger model my friend Scott was wearing "One hell of a monkey on your back." Roger died soon after.

2: Been to a Magic: The Gathering Grand Prix in Kita Kyushu, Japan. Hung out with professional magic players for a weekend. (hey, I'm a nerd, deal)

3: Had photos I've taken printed in a professional body building magazine.

Quite pleased with how this one turned out.

Time: approx. 90 mins

Yosemite

Just a quick sketch, haven't really felt the creature urge to paint for a while, but today I wanted to do something, so I re-created a photo I found on google images. (This means I didn't paint over the photo, I just used it as a reference)

Yorkshire Moor

Here are the picts from the 2nd day of our Culture Festival.

Bunkasai, 08/06/22

Here are some pictures from the first day of Nobetaka's Bunkasai (Culture Festival) '08:

Bunkasai '08 Day #1

Strange Bedfellows Unite to Fight FISA Deal

Ron Paul supporters, the ACLU and liberal blogs are uniting
Contact: Liz Rose (202) 675-2312 media@dcaclu.org
For Immediate Release: June 18, 2008



Washington, DC — A sham spying deal could be rammed through both the Senate and House this week. It's moving that fast. If we don't stop this, telecom companies that broke the law by supplying mountains of personal information to the government without a warrant will be let off the hook.

A broad alliance of strange bedfellows is now forming to support a campaign to fight the gutting of FISA (The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) with the intent to work together on all civil liberties, constitutional rights and rule of law issues.

The ACLU is joining with activists from the Ron Paul campaign, represented by Break the Matrix, Rick Williams and Trevor Lyman, and civil liberties writer Glenn Greenwald of Salon, and leading liberal bloggers including, Jane Hamsher of firedoglake, Matt Stoller of Open Left, John Amato of Crooks and Liars, Howie Klein of Down with Tyranny, Digby, Josh Nelson of The Seminal and activist Josh Koster to tell Congress that we will not let them ignore the Constitution or give immunity to telecoms which deliberately broke our laws for years.

This group of Strange Bedfellows is mobilizing a broad-based left-right coalition of office holders and candidates, public interest groups and individuals who are devoted to preserving basic constitutional liberties to join in the fight. The goal is to work together to impede the corrupt FISA/telecom amnesty deal.

Glenn Greenwald said, "The Beltway establishment has made clear that they support the Bush administration's assault on our basic constitutional protections and the rule of law. Constitutional rights and the rule of law are not liberal or conservative principles. They're American principles, and this broad-based alliance is devoted to defending them from the bipartisan political class that wants to trample upon them."

Lust for freedom can lead to some pretty strange bedfellows

For more information:

thestrangebedfellows.com
http://www.breakthematrix.com/node/10780
http://fearistyranny.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/breaking-the-matrix/
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/17/hoyer/index.html
http://www.theseminal.com/2008/06/18/say-no-to-fisa-compromises/
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2008/06/jaccuse-steny-hoyer-has-betrayer.html
https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=975&page=UserAction
www.aclu.org/fisa

Robert Aspirin and Erick Wujcik in the same month. Sad times.

True geek points to those who know who Mr. Wujcik is btw.

Three nights ago as I was going to sleep, I had this
incredibly strong thought, right before I fell asleep. I
realized how many different ways there are to look at things. We see
someone who jumps off a cliff/building and dies, and we think, "Oh,
it's sad that he killed himself."

My thought was, "If I were to do something like that, it would be to fly. Who is it that
has the right to tell me that four seconds of flight isn't worth
dying for?" (Don't worry, I'm not in a hurry to jump off a mountain!)

We say people jumped to kill themselves, but that's the height of
arrogance. All we can really say is that they jumped, they flew, and
they died. We're all going to die anyway, wouldn't you like to fly
first?

*shrug* Not even sure where I'm going with this, but it's trying to
make something of itself, and I thought writing it down might help ;)

[EDIT] Maybe it's not even the flying that's important...maybe it's the decision that you can fly, and are willing to pay the cost of that. If everything is composed of three parts:

a) The Decision to Do Something
b) The Act of Doing Something
c) The Consequences of Doing Something

Which is the most important part? Does the reason for Doing Something fit into this as well?

We call it suicide when someone jumps off a building, but we regard "Give me liberty or give me death!" as noble.

Same student who wrote about the Dark truth of studying:

This week, his topic was "I disagree with the idea that Japanese High School should return to a six day school week."

******

If happen this, the students won't know pleasure, because they will be busying studying and they won't play. I think that studying very very very hard is bad for the students.

If happen this, the students will surely become evil human.

I make an assertion that Japanese High School should not return to a six day school week.

Studying is good!? That's a complete fiction!

********

Fuckin' A. This may not seem great to you, but compared to the other essays in his class, it's *amazing* Not only is he using complex English forms, but he wrote a closing sentence! He had a rational argument that he defended...I love this kid.

Most of the essays were, "This should not happen because I like free time." - That's the level of difference we're talking about.

Ending tree week with an Asian pine tree. Makes me feel like I'm back in China...

Asian Pine

Ganked from josakura

They said it couldn't be done, but I got 60/60 :)

Link: The General Geek Knowledge Test written by mister_ibis on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test View My Profile(mister_ibis)

Technically it's 12:05am now, so I can post day #5 :)

This one's a little different, after some advice, I decided to try just a tree, without background, to work on lighting and rendering. I'm quite happy with the results :)

Just a Willow Tree

Here's the fourth entry in "Tree Week".

Sunset Tree

Well, lovely_fatima stole my idea (ok, she had it at the same time)...I totally had an image of me and the Backstreet Boys doing "Backstreet's Back" with the zombies in the mall....but on a more serious tone:


Zombies attack you in the Mall. Choose:

[01] one weapon.
[02] one song blasting on the speakers.
[03] one famous person to fight alongside you.

01: Katana. Zombies can survive blunt force, fire, yada yada yada...but you cut off their legs, they ain't gonna getcha.

02: Hmm...ironic or hardcore? I think "March of the Sugar Plum Fairies"

03: Jet Li. He's nobody's bitch.

Here's a dramatic departure in style for me. I sketched out a tree, and then scanned it and basically just colored it in (and added a background).

Cartoon Tree