Goodbye UVic, Hello jet lag

We woke up early i ... No sorry, we didn't sleep at all Friday night.  My roommates and I stayed up all night to get ready for the big trip, enjoy our last night together, and perhaps have a better circadian rhythm by the time we got home.  We packed, talked, drank, ate snacks, and cleaned up the cluster house.

At 6:00 am we were getting on the shuttle bus to the airport.  Roger and Daisuke had come to collect keys and left over food items, and also wish us goodbye.  We were all nervous because our bags were a lot heavier than when we arrived.  Gatty and I had bought a luggage scale at Wal*mart on Wednesday, and we we all took turns weighing our suitcases.  We were all close to the limit and couldn't be at ease until we completed check-in. Just a little while later we were all relieved and waiting to board.

We were leaving as a much closer group than one we had arrived as.  Over three weeks we had gotten to know each other pretty well and formed a community.  Teachers, grad students, and undergrads were all supportive and respective of each other.  I'm not sure if we were just lucky, but we worked quite well together and it was a little sad to see that come to an end.  I hope we can all stay connected as we return to work and studying.

We all slept a lot on the way back, and despite the scheduled 6 hour layover in Vancouver, all flights went without a hitch.  20-something hours later and we're home!

We received so many left overs from the HATO group, we had to use them all!

shuttle bus

The last day of lesson August 23rd

We had a good time from Maj-Britt and Marilyn on Friday.  Maj-Britt taught us how to do outside activity and Marilyn gave us good opportunity of looking back on our life of Victoria through "Way of Council" activity.

After that, we spent the time each other. Some of them went to the downtown for getting the souvenior to friends, and others tried to pack their huge luggage as soon as possible. In my case, I went to the downtown and walked around there to memorise the beautiful scene and take pictures a lot. 

In the evening, women's group went to the downtown for having a good dinner, on the other hand, men's group had a fabulous dinner in our great cluster house. Our wonderful chefs, Nao, Gatty and Mishka made a specific last dinner. It tasted so yummy!!

Thank you so much.

Class and Farewell dinner.

Hello. This is Yuriko Uemura.
Today was a special day to everyone.

In the morning we had Maj-Britt Class and Marlyin's class.
In Maj-Britt class, we discussed group projects. We talked about advantages and also, disadvantages.
And we shared some experiences. I thought we can do some Group project in Japan and it will be good for students.

In Marilyn's class, We did microteaching. And we had a wonderful guest from university.

Mari's microteaching.
Her class was about reading. We read sentences about India and we made a poster. We can use alphabet as a title but we should try to make a graph and pictures to explain information about India.

Marina's micoroteaching.
Her target was 'must'. We did a King game. Also, she had a sentence in case student didn't have ideas.

Kaori's microteaching. She brought some example of brochure and she asked about country that you want to go. She showed a model. She wants to go Australia to see kangaroo. After that We searched where we want to go in brochure.

It was good to know other people's idea.
It is difficult to think  elicit, Personalize & Localize, Model, Visual Auditory Kinesthetic, Concept check, all of things but it is good to try.

Anyway, we did it.

In the afternoon, we had  Farewelldinner at tower Harbour Towers. (hotel in downtown.)
Time goes fly. I cannot believe we almost finished a program. Though, we have one more day and distance education. My English is so poor, but I was so motivated by everyone.
The view from balcony was so great. And we had a wonderful dinner with teachers.
We looked back on a whole of program and said thank you to all. Teacher gave us certifications.
I'm happy.

The First Day of Our Micro-Teaching

Hello. This is Marina.

Maj-Britt told us an interesting activity "Parlour Games". The teacher gives students some cards. Each card has the rule of the game. At first, One of the members in each group read an instruction written on the sheet, and then after they understand the rule, they will begin the game. The teacher will see whether the students can undertand the rules or not.

"Parlour Games"

In Marilyn's class, we did microteaching. Today's presenters were Atsuko, Nao, Yuriko, Tomomi, Gatty, Yukari, Mary and Tomo. They all did their lessons very well! In addition, we discussed their works together.   

Tomomi's presentation



Nao's Presentation

Yuriko's Presentation

Atsuko's Presentation

Today's afternoon lesson was about song. Mr. Culham is a good instrutor! He is really good at attracting students. We did some excersises with songs and sang many songs. That was really exciting. We learned that songs can be good activities for learners and some musical instruments will be used as good items in teaching, especially, pronunciation, intonation and so on.

Singing :)

  

Lovely Gatty ♪

 Using many kind of musical instrument

I played this one!

Thank you for teaching. See you tomorrow!

Learning Sign Language

Hello,

This is Naoaki Nishimura.

TEFL Program in Canada is almost done. We try not to regret as much as possible in every day.

As usual in Maj-Britt’s class, we discussed the textbook for teaching language continuing from yesterday. There are many activities and practices that are considered including four competences (Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Listening) only in one page in the textbook. However, sometimes, the aims of them are obscure. We need to consider which practice is better for students or not. Also, she taught us teaching reading. As one of impressive things in the reading session, the method “Jigsaw Reading” was very useful and interesting. By giving different passages to each group, they can share their ideas with each other and help themselves to build up the comprehension.

In Marilyn’s class, she talked about “Universal Design for Learning.” In this activity, there are four stages: think, share, negotiate, and show. First, we have to read a passage. After that, we share the main points of the passage with each group and negotiate with your group about which one is main points. Then, we show each main point to other groups. Actually, she demonstrated this activity in the class. Also, we learned and played “Puzzle game.”

In afternoon workshop, we learnt ESL sign language from Prof. Jeff. Even if we don’t know much about sign language, he taught us the sign language from alphabet. After that, we tried to express a sentence used in usual conversation while using and applying the sign language. I learned Japanese sign language a little bit when I had practicum for a school for deaf students, but ESL sign language is easier to grasp the meaning and motion for me because the symbol of alphabet and the motion which word implies are embodied in the sign language.

Some of the fellows have microteaching in Marilyn’s class tomorrow. It includes me, but I’ll try to make full use of what I learned here!!

Universal Design for Learning

Our group's ideas

Puzzle Game

We made it!

ESL Sign Language Learning

Practicing!!

Experiencing a drama at SMUS

Hello,

This is Satoshi Yamagata.

Those who did not go to Vancouver took a walk around the UVic yesterday for over an hour and half, my muscles are sore.  

However, for a time to change, it was worth spending our rest of the day yesterday.

Many things that are unable to see in JPN made us fun and want to stay here longer if it's possible.

By the way, the new week was kicked off as usual.

At first period, we discussed how can we apply the textbook to language teaching.

When I think back to my practicum, I learnt and found that the textbook itself is well organized, so the one of the most important thing is to understand the content and meaning of each activity in the book so that we help learners to acquire the target effectively.

Though I strongly believe that still, the peers around me and well experienced teachers also gave me the various kinds of ideas that I have never been able to come up with again.

This point must be the most advantageous point in this program.  Through this program,I found that I often cannot help being reflective by myself.

Moreover, fortunately at second period, the theme today was giving feedback to students.

This was also my one of interests.  Needless to say, also in this class, I gained a lot of insightful opinions form the others.

Next, in the afternoon, we visited to the private school named St. Michaels University School to see their drama course.

According to them, through this summer course, those who take this will be able to earn credits that are available for their own high school.

Though they are very busy to prepare for a coming musical, we were welcomed as their guests, and learnt how to express something creatively.

If someone will be in Victoria in the end of the AUG, I of course recommend that you go to their theatre.

I wrote too much...

I hope you enjoy your own rest of the summer.

bye-bye

Saint Michael's University School

Zip-lining!

 

It was Saturday and most people went to Vancouver.  We three (Nao, Gatty, and myself) being short on money, decided to try something a little less expensive and a little more adventurous.  We woke up late (typical routine for the weekend) and called up Adrena-line hoping to get a reservation the day of.  I guess we were lucky because we got a reservation, but it was for 2pm, and we had less than two hours to get there.  Adrena-line is not located in Victoria, but in a small town called Sooke about an hour and a half away by bus.

Well, we missed our reservation and there was a weird 24hr cancellation policy, so there was no way we were getting our money back.  Thankfully they allowed us to be on stand-by until another group cancelled, or a walk-in arrived.  We got there at 2:40 and were zipping by 3:30.

Zip-lining was a blast!  Seeing nature from the trees was a unique and exciting experience that I definitely recommend!  For a taste of what it's like, check out the videos below.

The trip came to $84 and lasted 2 hours. 

As for Sunday, we mostly just worked on our lesson plans for micro-teaching.  Micro-teachings are only 10 minutes, so we want to make the best lesson we can with that time! 

Nao on the trainer line.

Gatty on the trainer line.