Japan

Teachers Teaching Teachers #246 - Quakestories - Updates from Japan: Kim Cofino, Eric Bossieux, Mary Fish, David Bantz - 5.4.11

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.72256687_dbeb50d63f

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.



Every few weeks, since the 72256687_dbeb50d63fMarch 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.

Teachers Teaching Teachers #242 - Energy Disasters: Massey, BP, and TEPCO - Local Reports on Our Global Crises - 4.6.11

Our guests on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers suggest our topic, or perhaps it would be better to say, our questions. It seemed to us that a teacher from West Virginia, near last year's Massey Mine Disaster, would have something to say to a teacher from Louisiana who lives not far from the BP Oil Spill. And both of these teachers might have something to say to teachers who live near Tokyo, south of TEPCO's damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear-power plant. It has been our goal on Teachers Teaching Teachers to understand these crises through the eyes of our colleagues and their students whose lives are most immediately impacted. Thanks to our guests on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, we might better understand how and why it is important to bring these stories to our students.

Here's who joined us on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers:

The introductions are pretty interesting on their own, but we hope you take the time to listen to the entire conversation!

Our guests on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers suggest our topic, or perhaps it would be better to say, our questions. It seemed to us that a teacher from West Virginia, near last year's Massey Mine Disaster, would have something to say to a teacher from Louisiana who lives not far from the BP Oil Spill. And both of these teachers might have something to say to teachers who live near Tokyo, south of TEPCO's damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear-power plant. It has been our goal on Teachers Teaching Teachers to understand these crises through the eyes of our colleagues and their students whose lives are most immediately impacted. Thanks to our guests on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, we might better understand how and why it is important to bring these stories to our students.

Here's who joined us on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers:

The introductions are pretty interesting on their own, but we hope you take the time to listen to the entire conversation!

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

Teachers Teaching Teachers #240 - A crisis that will be resolved or a crisis out of control? Stories from Japan - 3.23.11

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 (EWSIS) 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 seniors from EWSIS, Martha and Christian.

This was the middle of three podcasts that we done so far with teachers 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?

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 come398px-US_Navy_110315-N-5503T-756_A_Japanese_search_and_rescue_team_searches_the_rubble_near_a_high-rise_building_in_Wakuya%2C_Japan 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.

Teachers Teaching Teachers #239 - Bringing the crises in Japan into our classes: Dave Mammen, Kim Cofino, and Scott Lo -03.16.11

Teaching about the crises in Japan is the focus of this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers. What relevance does the earthquake/ tsunami/ nuclear power catastrophe unfolding in Japan have to our students lives and our curriculum? We suspect that there are many “teachable moments” in the stories coming to us from Japan. But what are they?  What are the lessons we might be learning alongside our students?

Many teachers contributed their thoughts and links in the chat (see below), and four guest joined us in the Skype conversation:

  • To help us answer some of our questions, we invited Dave Mammen to join us. Dave is an urban planner who has worked on disaster recovery efforts in Kobe, Japan and Aceh, Indonesia.  He was a Visiting Professor at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI) at Kyoto University and has directed many joint research projects with Japanese government agencies, universities and thinktanks.  His research on ten years of recovery efforts in New York after 9/11 will be published later this year in Japanese and English by Fuji Technology Press. Recently Dave answered question on a CNN blog: Lessons from 9/11 will apply to helping earthquake victims in Japan – In the Arena - CNN.com Blogs http://t.co/030uvui.

  • We were also joined by Martha, a senior where Paul Allison teaches, East-West School of International Studies. Martha is not shy about her love of all things Japanese, an affection that only grew after she was able to visit Tokyo on a school trip in the summer of 2009. This was the podcast we did with Martha her Japanese teacher and another student upon their return in the summer of 2009: Teachers Teaching Teachers #161 - 07.29.09 - Summer Special: Submitting Your Own Docs Templates, Japan, and Digital Storytelling.

  • Kim Cofino gave us her perspectives as well.  Kim is currently the Technology and Learning Coach at Yokohama International School in Japan.  On her blog, Always Learning, Kim writes, "As in all my previous schools, I enjoy working with my colleagues to design authentic and engaging international projects incorporating social networking, blogs, wikis, and podcasts, and whatever comes next!" On the podcast, Kim talked about how difficult it was to write about this crisis, but she found a way. Kim was able to develop some of her thoughts in a post well worth checking out, Two Crises, Many Connections.

  • Our fourth guest, Scott Lo also has a few wonderful places where you can continue to hear his perspectives. It's often a treat to check out Scott's Radio Tokyo, especially these days. Scott's plan "is to make the live recordings of these podcasts on Friday evenings on ds106 Radio." We were delighted to learn from Scott on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers as well!
As is often true in crises like this, a great source for teachers is the Learning Network at the New York Times. On Friday, March 18, 2011, Shannon Doyne and Katherine Schulten collected teaching ideas in a post, Teachers Respond to the Crisis in Japan. What a service they continue to provide!

We encourage you to share your teaching and learning ideas and your questions!

Teaching about the crises in Japan is the focus of this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers. What relevance does the earthquake/ tsunami/ nuclear power catastrophe unfolding in Japan have to our students lives and our curriculum? We suspect that there are many “teachable moments” in the stories coming to us from Japan. But what are they?  What are the lessons we might be learning alongside our students?

Many teachers contributed their thoughts and links in the chat (see below), and four guest joined us in the Skype conversation:

  • To help us answer some of our questions, we invited Dave Mammen to join us. Dave is an urban planner who has worked on disaster recovery efforts in Kobe, Japan and Aceh, Indonesia. He was a Visiting Professor at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI) at Kyoto University and has directed many joint research projects with Japanese government agencies, universities and thinktanks. His research on ten years of recovery efforts in New York after 9/11 will be published later this year in Japanese and English by Fuji Technology Press. Recently Dave answered question on a CNN blog: Lessons from 9/11 will apply to helping earthquake victims in Japan – In the Arena - CNN.com Blogs http://t.co/030uvui.

  • We were also joined by Martha, a senior where Paul Allison teaches, East-West School of International Studies. Martha is not shy about her love of all things Japanese, an affection that only grew after she was able to visit Tokyo on a school trip in the summer of 2009. This was the podcast we did with Martha her Japanese teacher and another student upon their return in the summer of 2009: Teachers Teaching Teachers #161 - 07.29.09 - Summer Special: Submitting Your Own Docs Templates, Japan, and Digital Storytelling.

  • Kim Cofino gave us her perspectives as well. Kim is currently the Technology and Learning Coach at Yokohama International School in Japan. On her blog, Always Learning, Kim writes, "As in all my previous schools, I enjoy working with my colleagues to design authentic and engaging international projects incorporating social networking, blogs, wikis, and podcasts, and whatever comes next!" On the podcast, Kim talked about how difficult it was to write about this crisis, but she found a way. Kim was able to develop some of her thoughts in a post well worth checking out, Two Crises, Many Connections.

  • Our fourth guest, Scott Lo also has a few wonderful places where you can continue to hear his perspectives. It's often a treat to check out Scott's Radio Tokyo, especially these days. Scott's plan "is to make the live recordings of these podcasts on Friday evenings on ds106 Radio." We were delighted to learn from Scott on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers as well!
As is often true in crises like this, a great source for teachers is the Learning Network at the New York Times. On Friday, March 18, 2011, Shannon Doyne and Katherine Schulten collected teaching ideas in a post, Teachers Respond to the Crisis in Japan. What a service they continue to provide!

We encourage you to share your teaching and learning ideas and your questions!

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

Teachers Teaching Teachers #161 - 07.29.09 - Summer Special: Submitting Your Own Docs Templates, Japan, and Digital Storytelling


At the beginning of this podcast [0:44 - 18:52] Paul Allison and Susan Ettenheim talk to three Google managers and engineers about a new Docs feature: being able to upload our own templates. We were joined by:

  • Ronald Ho, a Google Docs Product Manager
  • Michael Thomas and Valerie Blechar, Google Docs Templates Engineers

Next up [18:53 - 29:29] are three people from

The East-West School of International Studies

(EWSIS), Ben Sherman, Principal. Paul Allison teaches English at EWSIS, and he is joined in the second part of this podcast by his colleague and two students who had just returned from a 10-day visit to Japan which was sponsored by

Women Welcome Women World Wide

:

 

  • David Bantz, Japanese Language teacher at EWSIS
  • Martha and Kwaku, Juniors at EWSIS

Finally we find some (although not nearly enough) time [29:30 - 36:21] to talk with

Larry Newberger

,

Tech Liaison for the Ozarks Writing Project

(OWP). Larry was excited to report on a 5-day OWP Advanced Institute on Digital Storytelling,

"Trachers Traversing the Technology Highway

, that he had just finished. Don't miss their teachers

Digital Stories

and

VoiceThreads

.

"We squeezed three shows into one," Peggy George said in the chat room toward the end of the webcast. It's a summer special!

At the beginning of this podcast [0:44 - 18:52] Paul Allison and Susan Ettenheim talk to three Google managers and engineers about a new Docs feature: being able to upload our own templates. We were joined by:

  • Ronald Ho, a Google Docs Product Manager
  • Michael Thomas and Valerie Blechar, Google Docs Templates Engineers

Next up [18:53 - 29:29] are three people from The East-West School of International Studies (EWSIS), Ben Sherman, Principal. Paul Allison teaches English at EWSIS, and he is joined in the second part of this podcast by his colleague and two students who had just returned from a 10-day visit to Japan which was sponsored by Women Welcome Women World Wide:

  • David Bantz, Japanese Language teacher at EWSIS
  • Martha and Kwaku, Juniors at EWSIS

Finally we find some (although not nearly enough) time [29:30 - 36:21] to talk with Larry Newberger, Tech Liaison for the Ozarks Writing Project (OWP). Larry was excited to report on a 5-day OWP Advanced Institute on Digital Storytelling, "Trachers Traversing the Technology Highway," that he had just finished. Don't miss their teachers' Digital Stories and VoiceThreads.


Find more videos like this on OWP Advanced Institute

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