1/30-31 BEING A KANAZAWA-ER

Reflection:
Jan 30. Fri.
Taiwan Hour (Class B&C)
After listening to our advice on the previous day, the high school did some revision on the Taiwan Hour procedure, and the efficiency was amazing. (i was SO IMPRESSED.) The activity went very successfully.

*Revision of the first class*
1. Move to a bigger classroom.
2. Sit in a triangle seat arrangement: easier for everyone to see and listen to the presentation.
3. Use big posters to show seat arrangement, procedure, and topics of each group.
4. Self-introduction of Taiwanese teachers to the whole class moves to the beginning.
5. Time controlled by one teacher.

The event was reported in the newspaper :D

For dinner, Mr. Takahashi took us to a very nice sushi restaurant. I LOVE IT! The seafood was so fresh! (Kanazawa is famous for its seafood.) It was interesting to have dinner with Japanese teachers.
I found Japanese people very thoughtful.
1. Mr. Takahashi prepared a list of questions in both Japanese and English to make small talks with us.
2. The other two teachers from the high school ordered two plates of the same sushi for us, one with wasabi and the other without. Just because my friend and I wanted to have the same sushi but I want it with wasabi and she didn't want it.

Jan 31. Sat.
Experience as a KU student: breakfast at the K convenience store and lunch at the school cafeteria.

Experience as a tourist: city excursion with KU students and high school students.
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art--> 兼六園 (金澤神社)--> 金澤城

1. In the museum, we saw an exhibition about how Japanese rebuilt their hometown after the 311 earthquake. The concept is "home for all." They invited citizens to join the project because these would be their homes in the future. This reminds me of Finnish community. No matter how old you are, as long as you're the citizen in the community, you're part of it, and you have a say in the community projects.
2. One student told me that 兼六園 was the park of a king. This garden is huge and full of cherry blossom trees without any flowers. I can imagine how pretty it'll be when spring comes! Living in a country with four distinctive seasons is so nice <3 金澤神社 is famous for the study god. We went there and performed their traditional rituals, which was really interesting.
3. 金澤城 is the old castle where KU once located. Very spacious, very impressive, but most of the students were freezing to death (including us...), so we didn't really see much in it.

All the people we met here are kind and friendly, it's easy to get along with Japanese people and I really enjoyed each day we spent here :D

1/28-29 KANAZAWA HIGH SCHOOL

Reflection:
Jan 28. Wed.
Some thought-provoking ideas from the talk with the principle of Kanazawa High School.
1. Ask students to write some questions after the lesson on a small piece of paper. The questions will be a quiz for other classmates. If the question is good, the teacher will include it in the mid-term exam. Everyone works hard on the questions.
2. Autonomy: Students are more willing to make effort to clean the school if they're going to wear slippers in the school. 
3. Why do Taiwanese teachers use microphones? They want to make sure everyone can hear them, but is teaching only about teachers' "show and tell"?
4. Newspaper test: Every class gets 6 types of newspaper every day. And every week, students have to take a test on current news. The test is a competition between classes and the student who gets the highest scores will be awarded.
5. There are two blackboards in the classroom, one in the front, the other at the back; one is for teaching, the other is for discussion.

We observed an English class with exchange students in the afternoon:
Procedures:
1. Students sit in groups with 2-3 exchange students.
2. They have a worksheet to work on: How much is .... in your country?
3. When time is up, exchange students move to a different group.
4. Students continue to ask the rest of the questions.
Notes:
1. Teaching can be done as a big class; practice can be done in small groups.
2. The person who leads the discussion in small groups should be well-prepared (in this case, the exchange students with better lg proficiency).
3. Ask more open-ended questions.
4. Tasks should be cognitive challenging for perception, but suitable for production. 
5. Tasks should have clear goals.
6. Worksheet is simple and easy to fill in.
7. Spend short time on instruction.
8. Comprehension check: Q: Are we on the same page? Am I making sense? Am I clear?

Japanese English textbook:
1. Topics are more local (Japanese).
2. The layout: Reading--> Comprehension Qs--> Grammar--> Activities
3. There is no Vocabulary section. All definition are written in the margin only.

Jan 29. Thu.
We participated in Taiwan Hour, which is an activity that these students will do with Taiwanese students. The Japanese students researched on a topic to compare Japan and Taiwan and they made posters to display. There are some questions they want to ask TW students and we try to help them with their presentation and answer the questions. There is a check sheet that both the students and us have to complete.
Procedure (in groups):
0. Teacher gives instruction on the procedure.
1. Students sit in groups. 
2. Self-introduction as ice-breaking.
3. Start the poster presentation.
4. QA section.
5. Advice from us.
6. Advice from peer (L1 allowed).

Check sheet:
1. Notes and suggestions for each presenter.
2. Advice for the group as a whole.
3. Advice for the activity as a whole.

MATCHA BROWN SUGAR CHIFFON CAKE

抹茶控第二個甜點就是簡單的抹茶黑糖戚風蛋糕！
為甚麼看起來沒有抹茶的顏色？因為黑糖色遠遠蓋過了抹茶色，但抹茶味道還是在的 :D
今天的食譜來自這邊。
這次的蛋糕是要分離蛋黃和蛋白的，蛋白需要打發，所以盆子裡不能有水喔！

1/26-27 ARRIVED AT KANAZAWA, JP!

Reflection:
Jan 26. Mon. Rainy.
A warm welcome from three Japanese teachers and three KU students greeted us at the airport. It was a rainy and cold day (for us...). The weather was bad but our spirits were high. After one hour of driving, we arrived at the hotel and had a very nice reception dinner with so many teachers--principle of the high school, teachers from the high school, and professors from the university. The dinner was lovely. We were seated between teachers and all the teachers tried to make small talks with us. The topics ranged from education to 巧連智. LOL so much fun.

Jan 27. Tue. Snowy.
Our first time at AHS. A Chinese third grader introduced the campus for us. We were amazed by how clean their school was--take off your shoes and put on slippers before you leave! The umbrellas were neatly stored in rows; the heavy coats were hanged at the back of the classrooms; the restrooms were so dry...And strange thing is that you don't get hot water here. 
Our first interaction with the Japanese students was Tony's Taiwan Hour. The students looked interested but most of them were too shy to speak (same thing in TW). Some of them asked their classmates next to them if they could not understand, and some nodded their heads a lot. 
Lunch with Class C, one of the three classes (first grade), was fun. Each of us had to sit with one group (about 7 ppl), and we chatted about school life, Taiwan, how much freedom they enjoy at their school, etc. 
At night, when all of us were about to pass out (discussing Taiwan Hour), it started to snow!!!! Honestly, snow looked like shaved ice and tasted like water...