Kind of looked like it would be the perfect storm today, but the most of it went north. It cleared up here at around noon. Seems just a little early for typhoons.

Used the weather to work on finding some resources online. Wasn't really successful. I was looking for ready-made units on culture. I guess my ideas of what I want to do and what is actually available are different. Fine. I'll just put it together myself and put it up for students and teachers.

Yeah, working on the web page to make it more accessable to the students. Trying to figure out how people do all this cool stuff. It's getting there.

If students could use my web site as a resource that could help them, I'd be happy. The reality of it is though, that it is difficult for them to imagine using it, and there are infrastructure problems. Not everyone is connected for what ever reason. One of the big ones is the cost. There is a real lag in the process of making material accessable on the Internet, and actually getting students to value the tool as more than an entertainment devise.

This year more students are using my site than last year, but the students who really seem to need it the most, students who for whatever reason can't or don't make it to school, are least likely to use what is available to them.

Back on top of the wave and hanging ten here in Yokkaichi. Last night was the final class in a series of six that I do with the Community College here on speech making. The students who turn out for this speak relatively well, and have loads of life experience that makes the classes interesting. Since last night was the final one of the course, each person gave a longer speech, about 10 minutes each. Some of them are born salespeople. They did a great job of explaining which product they liked, and why. Some of them gave more informative presentations, one about human nature, one about travel. I was happy that most of them had taken what I said about organization on board. Good organization make speeches so much easier to listen to.

Some did compare and contrast, and others did argumentative styles, but they were all interesting to listen to. One participant spoke about two types of Chinese noodles in a cup. Great stuff, and very convincing.

Stuff like this irresponsible, hate mongering journalism really gets me. Give it a look if you have time.
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20030526p2a00m0dm005000c.html
Any Japanese infant with an attentive ear can utter the words, "money." For a journalist to use that utterance from the mouths of desperate people as evidence of their foreignness is illogical in the extreme. Using that same variety of logic, I could claim that any human on the face of the earth had committed the crime in question.

How ironic that on the same page as this article they advertise an English vocabulary learning system, an American based hotel chain, and a German housewares company. The English vocabulary system that is advertised there uses the slogan, �h�p��͂�Bς�P�ꂪ��{�B�h
Do you think they understand the irony there? It would be interesting to see how they felt about the kind of shabby, hate inspiring journalism their ads are attached to.

I wonder if the criminals learned the word "money" the learning system advertised there.

Big weekend ended, and back to classes. One successful seminar for English teachers, and one significant night adventure.

Saturday's teacher development seminar was successful, I think. It is tough to read the audience's reaction. I enjoyed it, though. It is great to work with such a dedicated group of teachers and find out about what drives them. We did a section on autobiography for self development. We wrote and then presented the stories of how we became English teachers. Some of the points that we had in common were a desire to travel and interest in foreign culture(s).

From Saturday night to Sunday morning my son, his Scout troop and I walked. We walked from Tsu back to Yokkaichi, about a 30 kilometer hike. It was much more difficult than I imagined. I had imagined that I could put on a backpack and walk all I wanted. In reality, 30 kilometers is more than I can walk comfortably. The route was very well planned. The kids were in charge of reading the maps and keeping us on course, which they did very well. Only one or two minor detours. They were allowed to ask the adult leaders two questions per 10 kilometer leg. They were very reluctant to use this tool, though, and so took some wrong turns.

The kids built tremendous self confidence on the trip. Walking 30 kilometers for 11 and 12 year old children is a fete that few of their peers can claim to have accomplished. I guess that both my son and I are pleased with our accomplishments this weekend.