Look and Listen

Biography

After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English from Carleton University in 1990, I entered the field of child-care education and have continued to work in the same capacity here in Japan for the past ten years. I am currently working as a juku teacher with Shingakusha as well as with Mitsui Gardens International Preschool (U.S Embassy). I have completed a Master’s degree in TESOL through Columbia University (Teachers College). My thesis had its focus on endangered languages and language revitalization. The courses that have changed me the most as a teacher include “Learner Autonomy,” “InnerVoice,” “Sociolinguistics,” “Ecology of the Classroom,” and “Bilingual Education.” I am very interested in the language policies that affect teachers in so many different contexts and have presented my findings at JALT (Hiroshima 2010) with regards to the potential effects of re-directing language learners away from the use their L1 in L2 learning environments. I have been fortunate enough to work with the “Mind Your Own Learning” group that will launch its home page in the very near future and I am a co-contributor to the chapter “Creating a Writing Center: Autonomy, Interdependence, and Empowerment” to be included in the anthology “Realizing Autonomy” being published through Pelgrave-MacMillan. I have also recently come out with the first of three children’s books that have the protagonist teaching children to follow their dreams and to never give up. The language learning component found within “Cole the Mole and a Whole Lot of Hole” features prepositions and phrasal verbs or motion.

Inspiration

“A Mole Named Cole and a Whole Lot of Hole,” the first of the ”Cole the Mole” trilogy, began as a section of a grammar portfolio while completing graduate studies at Columbia Teachers College in Tokyo. It has since become a double volume book featuring a beautifully illustrated story and fun mini-chants. The book has been dedicated to my two year old daughter who also is brave in her approach to new adventures. There are downloadable online audio resources available and they include the story being read (piano background), as well as the mini-chants (percussion background). There are also assessment worksheets for testing understanding and included in this resource is a game board print. These stories teach prepositions and phrasal verbs of motion and the rhythm and rhyme of each page can provide learning opportunities for young learners in their phonemic awareness growth. Teachers and parents alike will find this trilogy to be a valuable resource for inspiring independence, imagination and a love for reading.