earthquake

Every few weeks, since the March 11th earthquake, tsunami, and ongoing nuclear crises in Japan, we've been checking in with a few teachers there.

On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers we are joined once again by Kim Cofino who gives us us a general update on her own, her students' and colleagues', and her neighbors' responses to the crises. Kim also describes “quakestories,” a project she started along with Mary Fish, who also joins us from her school in Japan on this episode of TTT.

Another teacher from Japan and self-described “change agent,” Eric Bossieux, joins us once again, and a colleague of Paul Allison’s at East-West School for International Studies, David Bantz brings his perspective as well. David is a Japanese language teacher who had just returned from a trip to Japan a week before this webcast.

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, we talk with a couple of teachers in Japan to get a local perspective on the disaster there. The other guests agreed to come on the show in the hallways of the East-West School of International Studies (East-West) in Flushing, Queens, where Paul Allison teaches English. 

After inviting his principal, the founding principal of East-West, Ben Sherman onto this episode of TTT, Paul asked Ben who he knows in Japan who we could invite into the conversation. Ben immediately thought of Alan Bergman "a guy that I went to grad school with in Tokyo." Alan who teaches at a university in Tokyo, in turn, put us in touch with Eric Bossieux, providing us with this introduction:

Eric is originally from Louisiana. His father was a pilot with Japan Airlines, so Eric went to international high school in Yokohama and to Sophia University in Tokyo. He does consulting and translation work, and he has done translations for TEPCO (the company that runs the reactor in Fukushima) of their operating manuals for hydroelectric and nuclear power plants.

Rounding out this list of guests are two students, seniors from East-West, Martha and Christian.

This is the middle of three webcasts/podcasts that we've done so far with teachers (and we hope others) in Japan since the earthquake and tsunami on March 11. Our first conversation took place the week before: Teachers Teaching Teachers #239 - Bringing the crises in Japan into our classes: Dave Mammen, Kim Cofino, and Scott Lo -03.16.11. Last week, on April 6th, we spoke again with Eric Bossieux and Kim Cofino. Look for that conversation in the upcoming TTT #242.

We plan to continue to talk about these issues, questions, assessments of the situation, and ways we can help. What can we learn and teach now and in the future about the Great Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011?

(Image from U.S. Navy on Wikipedia)

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.