Nature in our backyard

 I went on a bicycle ride today to Lake Tama. I had to stop when I saw this spectacular display of colours and the impressive contrast between the cherry blossoms, magnolia tree and tulips.
 
I started thinking about how nice it is to connect to nature in our immediate surroundings. In fact we don't really have to travel so far.
Nature is always there "in our backyard."
Recently I have taken an avid interest in stargazing.  I am enjoying spotting the planets and constellations and the movements of the stars. This is something we can do on clear nights just by stepping out of the door and looking up and if you have a pair of binoculars it is even better.

When teaching children I like to use picture books showing some aspects of nature and have the children observe and describe their surroundings as well. For example, Patty's Hot Day by Amy Uehara is a lovely, heartwarming story that features some prairie dogs looking at the shapes in clouds. They can see a snake, a tornado, a sunflower seed... After reading the book to children they go outside or look out of the window and observe the clouds.
After that they draw pictures or tell me what shapes they saw in the clouds.
Another classic and simple English picture book is The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss. This book was written over 60 years ago but conveys the joy of planting a seed and growing a carrot to children. Children can try to grow something simple (cress is always a good starter!) as homework.
Children always have so many questions about the world around them and Why do stars come out at night? by Annalena McAfee gives imaginative and humourous answers to many of those questions with wonderful pictures.

  

| Books, events and activities (past and upcoming) | 23:01 | comments(2) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |

Please Make Mistakes!

 

In Japan too many people are afraid of making mistakes when speaking English.

They are so afraid of making a mistake that often they prefer to remain silent.

There are a number of reasons that this situation has developed and probably the education system with its “right and wrong” approach is the main reason.

I teach oral English at two Tokyo Metropolitan high schools.

In the first lesson of the year I tell my students, “Please make mistakes!”

Sometimes they look a little puzzled or laugh, thinking that I had made a mistake.

I then explain that the most important aspect of speaking in another language is to quickly convey what you want to say. It doesn’t matter if the grammar is incorrect or that there may be a better choice of words, the most important point is to respond, to keep a conversation going or give your opinion.

In time, the more mistakes we make, the more we improve.

This is true of anything. Think of it as practice.

It is also true in art.

Nearly everyone who is some kind of creator has a mental block, writer's block, artist's block, or lose confidence in their creativity at some point.

I have suffered from this many times.
There are a number of reasons for these blocks.  Often they arise from a desire for perfection, a recognition of the gap between what we want to produce and what we can produce in reality and the consequent fear of failure.
At such times it is extremely difficult to keep creating.

But the most important thing is to keep at it, keep going, keep producing, not everything will be what you are trying to create, in fact, most of it will just be practice.

Recently, a friend of mine, the artist Laura Stagno, lent me an inspiring book called “Art and Fear” by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

One anecdote in the book I found particularly vivid.

There was an experiment in a ceramics class at a college. The class was divided into two groups of students. The ceramics teacher told one group to produce as much pottery as possible (quantity) and the other group to produce one perfect piece (quality) and both groups were told that they would be graded on their work. On the final day of the class everyone brought in their work but, strangely enough, by far the highest quality of pottery was produced by the group being graded for quantity. The “quantity” group learned from their mistakes whilst churning out a large quantity of work and made great improvements. But the “quality” group was so tense, trying too hard to produce the perfect piece; they were too afraid to make a mistake and their work suffered from this paralysis.
This "fear of failure" in art is not so different from the "fear of making mistakes" in a foreign language.

| Books, events and activities (past and upcoming) | 23:17 | comments(4) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |

Regular blogging

 

I got a surprise when I looked at my blog yesterday and found that I had been punished for not updating my blog for 60 days by having a whole load of ads posted on my blog instead.

Well, I thought, I really should write my blog more regularly.

Particularly, as every day a number of people visit my site. Thank you! I have no idea who you are or whether you are regular visitors or random guests but I should write something to make it worth your while to visit.

But what should I write about?

Usually I write about some of my activities related to picture books but I feel I should broaden the scope of what I write.

So I started trying to define what it is I actually do or am that could be a springboard for a regular blog and may be of interest to some readers.

I am writing, illustrating and narrating stories, teaching English and translating from Japanese to English. All of these activities are connected to language and imagination.

So I thought I could write a regular blog on topics such as:

What is important when learning or teaching a language?

What role does imagination play in our lives?

What kind of experiences have I had when teaching English?

What words or expressions present a challenge when translating them from Japanese to English?

How am I inspired to write stories?

How can we use picture books to teach English?

How does imagination influence learning?

I thought these kinds of topics could be rather interesting.

I will try to write something once a week or so and I will start from today…

| Books, events and activities (past and upcoming) | 23:13 | comments(0) | trackbacks(0) | pookmark |

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