By tonight, all four reactors at the Fukushima #1 power plant are having serious problems. Explosions, fires, failures of back up safety systems: two reactors are missing their outer housings, and the others have leaks in their inner housings which …
An unseasonably warm and beautiful day contrasted with images on TV. In Miyagi Prefecture alone, the body count was over 2000…many of those washed up on the beach today. Bodies are lined up in community centers and even a kindergarten. …
After 3/11, we are in a different world here. That night, 6 of Sam’s friends who were stranded at school spent the night. (Trains/subways weren’t running, taxis were scarce, many people spent hours walking home from work or slept at …
I finally got around to grading all the essays on homelessness. What great students! Of course, here and there were some pretty awkward sentences, but overall I was awed by how seriously the students had taken the assignment. To be …
Tagged : homeless, hope, tests
Twenty years ago when I moved to the rice-field turned bedroom town of Isesaki about 100 kilometers from Tokyo, recycling was almost unheard of. Home garbage was disposed of in two categories: burnable and non-burnable, which was dumped in landfill. …
Tagged : call, environment, hope, recycling
Here’s one of the reasons I feel lucky to be living in Japan. Happy Body Balanced Lunch Box is the cute name written across this lunch choice. Where else in the world would I get to eat this at a …
Tagged : culture, food
I thought some of you might be interested in seeing what a student wrote in response to her introduction to the concept of multiple intelligences and some of its implications in education: “In conclusion, I think schools all over the …
Tagged : educational practice, Howard Gardner, multiple intelligences
February means finals in Japanese universities. One of my pet peeves is testing that isn’t a learning experience itself. (Haven’t we all taken, even given, too many of those kind?!?) Hmmm, what kind of a final test would be good …
Tagged : cultural change, homeless, teaching, tests
Fifteen years ago, anyone past 40 who did email was considered pretty cool. Now it seems to be the lower end of normal. A recent Google blog featured online teaching videos as gifts from young people to their parents to …
Tagged : laziness, technology
This carved wooden spoon from Tanzania was a gift from my parents. I loved the look and feel of the curving intertwined lines of the handle carved from a single solid chunk. Even so, it slept in the kitchen drawer …
Tagged : guidance, ministry, vocation
Thank God for Howard Gardner. What if he hadn’t come along to shake up our complacency, to remind us that the gift of intelligence has a lot more dimensions than used to be recognized? By now, few people haven’t heard …
Tagged : educational practice, Howard Gardner, learning styles, multiple intelligences
Today is beautiful, bright, and sunny- everything radiates life and energy, except inside my heart I quietly place a bouquet of garden flowers on Karen’s grave.
One beautiful early summer day in 1981, I drove the familiar stretch of road …