Merry Christmas

I don't do much for Christmas anymore.  I rarely even bother to go shopping.  The party for the kids at the school is about all I really do. I do decorate my house and do a bit of illuminating too.

It looks like another Christmas has passed and I hope everyone enjoyed it in their own way.  As for the Donoho's of Japan, we still struggle with health issues that seem to increase daily.  Good news is that Hitomi's hand is feeling better after the surgery.  Bad news is she has a some kind of stomach flu.  Good news is my back feels much better.  Bad news is well actually there isn't any from my end for now...knock on wood...Hoping for the best.  I will be writing on this blog more...

If this were a snowboard I'd know that Santa was in Hokkaido. It's snowing again!!! I believe the mountain may be calling me.  Time to go to bed and be ready for the possibility...

May blessings come to you.

Hopefully,
Patrick

The First Panic

I couldn't quite believe what she was telling me, but apparently Hitomi, our school mother, had fallen in front of the school and hurt her hand.  She had been hurrying back to our house to pick up a speaker to play some Christmas music for the kids in Kitano.  She didn't look like she was going to shake it off, so I said I would drop her at the hospital and I would go out there alone.  She said she could make it, but in the end she was just in far too much pain to be doing anything, but seeking medical help.  We parted ways at Toko store in Hiraoka.  She made her way back to Asabu Orthopedic and I faced thirty some kids without any assistant.  It was madness, but I think we made out alright.

The only thing I'm really worried about is, of course, a full recovery for Hitomi.　I can't imagine how much it hurt.


ひと美さん

早く元気になって下さい。

Sympathetically,
Pat

Book of the Week

I'm exhausted.  I thought it would have been an easier week, but unfortunately I wasn't as ready as I should have been and it turned frantic here and there. I hope it didn't show too much... I will make some updates this weekend but for now, please accept my weekly book blurb.

This is it.  I haven't really used it seriously yet, but it looks like a winner and as I have introduced the English Island stamp card to be stamped for both attendance and homework, I must provide quality exercises for students too advanced for the game based homework I usually give.  The exercises are short and clear.  The grammar presented is very well thought out and easy to follow.  If you are interested in this book, I have a copy and I might even buy some and pass them along to students who are looking to shore up their grammar.

すみません。。。今回の翻訳もちょっと待って下さい。とにかくこの本は文法の本なんですけど、わかりやすい！

Grammatically,

Pat

Labour Day

お気に入り

勤労感謝の日です。教室はお休みです。それにしても今日は英会話と別な仕事を朝から行って、買い物に出かけて、たった今帰りました。働いたという事で発寒ジャスコで買ったちょっとだけ高いビールを頂きます。

Today is Labor Day in Japan and the school is off today. This morning I went to another job, after that, shopping, and now I'm back home.  I can't say that I've labored to the point of deserving a reward but I have decided to partake in a slight luxury that I picked up at Hassamu Jusco the other day.

Book of the Week

Mottainai Grandma

It's mostly for the younger kids although I tried it with a few third graders and they ate it up.  The reason I think it works better for the younger kids is simply because the vocabulary and possibilities for expansion are a bit elementary.  I have been using it to review colors and elicit responses.

Grey is not in the rainbow pencil.

Green is in the rainbow pencil.

For those of you who have not read Mottainai Grandma in neither Japanese nor English, I truly think it might be worth the 90 seconds it will take you.  It's a classic or so my kids tell me!

Frugally,

Patrick

Book of The Week and more...

This month we are well under way studying our town and what's in it.  We have brand new material and we are looking at what's there and how to talk about what is there at the moment.  For the younger kids we also read yet another Eric Carle book called, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?  We are expanding on the idea of "What can you see?" trying to guess where a student has pretended to go.

Like this:


Student A:   I can see monkeys.
                 There are elephants.
                 There is a polar bear.


Student B:   Are you at the zoo?


Student A:   Yes, I am.


This line of questioning has led the kids to start asking questions about the amount of certain nouns found at the places we are studying.  A question like, "How many fish are there?" for example, might help Student A determine whether Student B is at the aquarium or the local supermarket.

I am busily trying to put some material together that might help the kids understand the difference between count and no count nouns as painlessly as possible.  I'm not really a big fan of teaching count and no count.  In Hawaii, questions like, "How much birds get ova' dea?" seemed to get the job done just as well as "correct" English, so I don't want to burden my students with this one too much.  BUT, my JHS students need this one for the tests so I'm making it...

Much Than??ks,
Many thanks,
A ??lot of tha??nkses,
A lot of mu??ch about nothing,


Until next time,

Pat

Book of the Week?

About two weeks ago, I thought that a book of the week post would be a nice addition to this blog that so few people comment on.

HA　HA　HA　HA!!!

I didn't last a week before missing an entry.  The next entry will be called Book of the Month, but for the time being here is the second entry for Book of the Week.  This week I read, "From Head to Toe" by Eric Carle to some of the classes.  It's a kindergarten classic but to tell you that I like it for it's deep message or art would be misleading at best. But, I do love the way this book moves children.  THEY　love it and since THEY　are what it's all about it.  I　read it.  I recently bought the BIG book version and although it was awkward to hold, it certainly had impact!

Gruntingly,

Pat

November

hospital

寒くなりました、雪虫もいっぱい！今年特に多く感じます。飲み込まないように。。。

今月のトピックは場所です。今回も色々な言い方を練習するよ。

There is a swing in the park.
There are monkeys at the zoo.

これでボキャブラリも増やせたら幅広く表現出来ます。中学生はこれだけじゃなくて、現在進行形、法助動詞（can）、と現在形を使ってたくさん話す事が出来るように頑張りましょう。

Yes the weather has turned rather chilly although today is beautiful, except for the "yukimushi" that I keep swallowing.

supermarket

This months topic is "PLACES" and I plan to do exercise that will get the kids using the patterns above.  Junior high school kids will also look at the regular present tense, present progressive tense, and "can" used as a helping modal.  Let's have fun using these patterns to talk about our favorite places.


Neighborly,

Pat

city

お菓子

The pumpkins are carved and Halloween is upon us and that's means tons of chocolate and candy.  This year is going to be no exception.  Don't forget to brush your teeth.

Thank you Osamu.  

Also Kiyoshi, Hiroko, Keiko and Ryo.  Thank you for your help.

Sweetily,

Pat

Book of the Week

It's a little long for reading to the class, so when I do read it to the class I truncate the sentences by reading just the last few words of the sentences from the longer sections.What I really like about the book Green Eggs and Ham is Sam-I-Am, the incessant idea man always coming up with new ways to make those green eggs more appealing.

In other news, I found my Halloween costume for 2011.  I don't want to say what it is here, but I can tell you that is pretty deluxe.  Don Quixote always seems to have some silly stuff for looking at, but I actually bought something there today (other than dill pickles) while I was shopping for my costume.

I think it will do well for displaying the book of the week.  Be sure to check this one out either at the school or from the library and I'll be back with another recommendation next week.  

New corner unit

Cornerly,

Dr. Pat

Facebook

Facebook のページも始めました。宜しくお願いします。リンクは。。。

http://www.facebook.com/englishislander

ここに毎日教室に関してのアプデートしたいと思います。Check it out!

Bookily,

Pat

Still Confused but...

I figured it out!  It was too big...  I don't know why it's so big.  All my other handouts were under 5mb so they uploaded without any problems.  It was over 5 mb. I chopped off the bottom part and put it up on the English Island HP.  I'll figure some more later when I have time to swear at the computer.


Check it out!

新しい教材が出来ました！

I am not exactly the handyman husband.  I do weed the  garden, replace a light bulb, or even tighten a loose screw on occasion, but definitely not a "handy man". However, this weekend I did manage to replace the casters on the whiteboard in the Shinkotoni school!!!  No more lugging a broken whiteboard around or having the wheels come off either.  I　was inspired enough by my humble achievement to make a home repair unit for the kids (and maybe adults too).







For some reason I can't seem to upload it because the server claims it is too big.  Just 4 kb so it can't be true.  I'll try to figure it out but for now I'll be handing it out in class.

Homerepairingly,

Pat

ちょっと言い過ぎたかな。。。

子供たちに頑張って、大きな声で歌えるかなと言いたらこの通りになりました。本当に頑張りました

Inspirationally,

Pat

- Posted from mobile device

Location:きたの

Hiking Yotei Again

I should say that Rhys and I had deep philosophical talks about teaching and the direction the school is headed. In fact, we did talk some teacher talk, but most of all we enjoyed the beauty of Hokkaido and what a beautiful day it was!!!!

レッスンについての話をあまり出来なかった。　

北海道の美しさを感謝する日でした。

今週のレッスン（月・火）はとても楽しかったです。聞いてくれる事と参加して頂いた事ありがとう。
まだまだ続きます！

Admiringly,
Patrick

Short Week

Beautiful day today ...though...
It rained all through the weekend and all of my grand plans came to nothing.  I didn't climb any mountains or do any camping.  BUT, I made some new bingo cards for phonics and I also got about one-third through the curriculum for English Island.

カリキュラムは３分の一出来ました！全部出来たらアップします。イングリッシュアイランドで覚える英単語や文法が全て表示されます。日本語も付いていますよ！

This is my size !!!!

This young man went to Nara for the 

National JHS tennis championships.  

Nice going!!!

(I'm crouching a bit...)

Hungrily,
Pat

Sports of autumn

現在２４種類のスポーツでしたが新たに１６種類が加わりました。これから色々な表現の仕方を勉強します。

Yes the new sports have arrived and we are using a whole lot more adjectives to mix them up and learning how to say a lot of things about the sports.

   1. Rugby is an English sport.
   2. Rugby is a dangerous sport.
   3. I want to try rugby.
   4. My father played rugby. I played volleyball last weekend.

これからイングリッシュアイランドのHPに新しいHANDOUTアプロードしますので見て下さい。Thank you.

Thank you.
Frankensteinly,

Pat

   

Fired Up!!

It's great to be starting sports again.  I do love my sports.  As I get older though,  one of the best things about sports is watching them.  I have my favorites both then and now.

When I was a kid I was a big fan of Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Magic Johnson, Tony Dorsett, Charlie Waters, and so many more.  I　like to follow Ryo Ishikawa, Yuto Nagatomo, and Makun now.

I asked my Junior High School class who their sport's heroes were and they told me they didn't have any!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We will be starting a unit on the importance of sports and who the heroes are for us here in Japan.

What can we learn from the struggle to succeed?

Fired up,

Pat

Please visit us at イングリッシュアイランド英会話教室

The week in review 今週の感想

Hello,

今週は本当に楽しい一週間でした！約二週間ぶりにみんなの顔を見る事が出来ました。みんなの元気な顔を見てほっとしました。今、ボードゲーム（すごろく）をやったり、色々な健康についての話をしたり、英語の勉強が進んでいます。また来週から新しいトピック（スポーツ）が始まります！

It was a very fun week at English Island. It'd been 2 weeks since I'd seen everyone. Seeing everyone again really put my heart at ease, I am surprised to know how much meeting everyone each and every week has become something I not only look forward to, but without it, I feel downright uneasy. In the classroom now, we are playing various board games for review of the body, health, and talking about appearances. The kids are amazing me with their ability.　They are great!!!  If you have the time, come visit!!!  見学どうぞ！


Healthily,

Pat

  

And back again...

Today is the second day of rain camping. We travelled south from Nijibetsu through Kushiro and down the coast. After crossing the last bit of the Hidaka mountains we stayed the night here in Samani. It isn't raining now, but it doesn't look like the sun will be out anytime soon.







I was very surprised at the number of deer we saw on the way over the mountains in the afternoon. We must have seen a hundred deer!!! I bought deer meat (venison) at the Shiranuka and also deer ham. We had it last night and it was really good, no gamey taste at all. The highlight was definitely the red crested cranes (丹頂鶴) The Hokkaido prefectural bird made many appearances and we even saw two of them do a courting dance.


Anyway, I'll be back in the classroom tonight and I am looking forward to a great fall and I'd like to do some things outside of the classroom for the kids too. It's time to be back home already, but this daily pattern of relaxation and play was nice while it lasted.

Lastily,

Pat

- Posted from mobile device

Location:Samani,Japan

Summer Camping

Now that I have learned how to blog and upload snapshots from a mobile, I hope to be more active here on the englishislander blog.

As for today, I am still on the road and I have reached Nijibetsu just in front of the rain that was forecasted for today and tomorrow. We are all set up for a drizzly day tomorrow.

Drippily,

Pat





- Posted from mobile device

Location:虹別 Nijibetsu, East Hokaaido

浜中町 キャンプ

この所で...のんびりしています。小さい虫がたくさん。刺さるとひと美が言っていますけど僕平気みたい。。。

これから花咲港に行きます!

This place is not bad, but the soft serve ice cream is out of this world!!!



- Posted from mobile device

Location:浜中町

Summer Vacation

I am now traveling by car and trailer around East Hokkaido with my family. On the first night we stayed in the parking lot of an Onsen Hotel. During the day we played tennis and of course took a hot spring at the hotel. The next day we headed out toward Oneto lake and we took another hot spring at a ryokan there.


The smell of sulfur and gasoline and no place to wash was different. I was the only one there and the only time I've ever had such a looooong private bath. The next day Kai and I climbed Mt. Meakkan.


Today is the morning of the fourth day. Last night we stayed in a parking lot in Hamanaka Town. We are going to head into Nemuro and then up to Nijibetsu for the last three nights.

I'm enjoying the time away but I am also looking forward to a fresh start after the break too.

旅パット

Location:浜中町

Midsummer

We are in the middle of summer in Hokkaido now.  The kids are talking about camping, swimming, and going to Grandma's house.  My mother has returned to Hawaii after a two week visit. Thanks to everyone for showing such great hospitality.  She says she had fun.

Recently, I can think of only one thing             ...beer.

Beer Gardenly,

Pat

This is the annual neighborhood association barbecue. Five hundred yen for marinated lamb, karaoke, and all the draft beer you can drink.  I'm not much for morning beer or singing but the lamb was good stuff from Naganuma.

In the afternoon I went to Joyful AK and I was shocked to see that they were selling Hale Koa as a potted plant.  The price tag blew my mind!!  7800 yen for Hale Koa?!?!

This plant grows wild in Waikoloa, the town where I grew up.  It's everywhere.  I　can't count how many times I had to take a saw and cut this stuff out.  It grows very fast and although I'm sure it has some value it always had a kind of pest status with me.

Doubtfully,

Pat

新しい看板。It's NEW!

ひと美のお父さんが作ってくれた看板です。嬉しい！今日も一日頑張ろう。

Golf

I play golf, not well, but I play.  Kai plays golf too.  He doesn't play well in the sense where you count all the strokes and compare your score with other golfers.  Yesterday, he played very well in the sense that two people can take the afternoon and enjoy each others company while playing a challenging game.  I was very proud of him.

Puttingly,

Pat

Just a test

Mobile

It's a beautiful Sunday in Hokkaido. It's still cold, especially when the wind brings that cold air from the mountains down into the city. It's just cold enough to bring back memories of winter. But winter is a thing of the future now. Cherry blossoms are beginning to show more leaf than pink recently but there are a few places that are peaking. Another busy week at English Island. I'm preparing by recharging at a hot spring near Otaru. ガンバ

Refreshingly,
Pat

iPod, iPad, iPat

I needed mail on the go and I'm not all that keen on the tiny little iPhone, although I've never really held one long enough to be sure I don't like it.  I bought it. That is the iPad2 and I haven't really a clue what it wants to do yet, but we are getting friendlier by the day.  Yesterday, we were strangers but today we're chess buddies and Skype pals. What's next?

Paddingly,
Pat

今日のレッスン

今日は本当に楽しいレッスンでした。旨く行く時とそうでもない時の違いは何？

確かに準備の時間がたっぷりありました。それと内容は難しかったけど無理でわない。今日は本当に全員楽しく50分間英語の勉強しました！嬉しい。。。明日も続くと良いですね。頑張ります！

パット

Seoul Subway

The clearest way to explain how I enjoyed traveling under Seoul...

subbing it with T-money!

April

The last time I posted here, Japan was a very different place.  The changes that are taking place here in Sapporo and across Japan won't be fully understood for some time, I'm sure.  Choices that are being made now in a time of crisis will affect many generations of both Japanese and people of other countries.  The way families react, the way businesses react, the way the government has and will continue to respond will undoubtedly set the precedence for a new Japan.  Personally, I have felt  a change in the way I live my life.  I　have to admit that my job and the things I felt I  had to do everyday took precedence over all other options that I had in day to day life.  I was even at the point that I felt I had no options.  It could very well be that all of that day to day hustle and bustle could be gone tomorrow.  What do I have then?  What do we do when everything has been taken away?  Completely gone? What's left?  I can't answer with any certainty but for some reason I seem to be listening for the real answers now when I ask those routine questions like "How are you?"  "What did you do today?"  I can't explain why, but somehow my "small talk" life and "chatty" existence has suddenly become a little more meaningful. Perhaps it had been all along.  I am thankful for many things, especially the human interaction that makes up the majority of my day.

Hoping for a quick end to the nuclear crisis in Japan,

Pat  

Middle of Feb

HI !!!

It's been a busy winter.  Some good things are going on at the island.  The kids are now learning about countries and there are a few new handouts with some material about travelling and what not.  Hopefully, we can get a few skits together and enjoy pretending to take a trip and enjoy learning the language of travelling that way.  It's in the works.

I put a few pics of a recent trip to Nagamine up.  Avalanche!!

なんちゃって日本語板


今まで今冬は忙しかった！教室で新しい事やっていますよ。今新しいハンドアウト有ります。色々な観光スポットとそれぞれの国の話いしています。これから短い寸劇みたいな事を出来るクラスにやって見る事にしました。ビデオを撮らせてもらえるならここにも乗せると思います。


下の写真は雪崩の後だよ。。。

Spookily,


Pat

www.englishisland.jp

Full Swing

It's been a while since I wrote here.  Winter is in full swing here in Sapporo now.  Shoveling snow here, there and over there too.  Hiking up and often slipping down mountains and then snowboarding down.  Not to mention getting all the lesson material ready and then actually teaching the classes.  The activity has been a nice change!  I haven't been shopping in weeks...

Hope you are enjoying this winter too!!!

Slippily,

Pat