The First Submission To I Identify As By A High Schooler! Submit Your Own Self-definition. Check Out

The first submission to i identify as by a high schooler! Submit your own self-definition. Check out the how-to at: http://iidentifyas.tumblr.com/

Six draft pages from autumn 2013 edition of The Yoka, a publication by and for JET Program participants in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. I developed the color scheme from local wild flowers which I threw under the scanner. I'll post the finished publication when it's released later this month.

This is the latest English newsletter I made for my middle school students. With each newsletter I try to present English as doorway to art and culture, rather than an onerous school subject. I also work to make them very multicultural and therefore always include at least one section about second-language English speakers. In this case, I featured the Norwegian "What Does The Fox Say" video and the Brazilian Humanae art project. You can download the PDF version here!

Asahi Newspaper: Kumamoto edition. June 4, 2012.

Stand Out Individual. American Mangaka Exhibition

25-year-old Zachary Johnson, an American ALT from Illinois currently working at Kawaura Middle and Elementary schools in Amakusa, organized and exhibited ten American comic artists at the Amakusa Cultural Exchange Center.  Johnson studied contemporary art history as well as arts business in college. "Artworks and artists are intertwined. Through these artworks, I want people to feel the humanity of the artists," he commented on the exhibition.

The work on exhibition focused on works by artists born in the 1980's and 90's. The pieces were different from general Japanese manga in their simple panel division, but the fact that the work inspired thoughts of pictures books and woodcuts, and in their humorous touches and other qualities, they made each of the individual artists stand out. Of the ten, Johnson had only met two in person. He discovered the remaining eight online. Similarly, nine of the ten artists' works were sent and received electronically.

Johnson has been interested in Japan, China, and Asian nations in general since childhood. During high school, he spent two months in Niigata prefecture on a home stay. Japanese architecture in particular, has been an interest of his. "I love Karatsu Castle. It's small size and age are really nice." He arrived in Japan last August.  At Kawaura Middle School he works to incorporate art into the classroom. Speaking on the satisfaction that comes with life in Amakusa surrounded by the sea and mountains, he said, "I've never lived in a place this beautiful before." Though it's the same country as Niigata and the sight-seeing areas of Tokyo, he said he finds happiness in the fact that unlike those places, here strangers talk to each other.

To engage the students with 75 Voices, the exhibition of work by Mark Addison Smith that just finished its run at my middle school, I had them respond to Mark's pieces. Each illustration by Mark comes from a snippet of conversation he hears in his everyday life. So, as an optional English assignment, I asked students to choose one piece and imagine either the proceeding or following sentence in that conversation.

Twelve students participated, including some who usually show no interest in English. I especially liked the abstract interpretation by M. Shimasaki who imaged Mark's piece "Yes yes yes. No no no." as the silent conversations we have with ourselves.

I displayed their pieces side by side with Mark's for the remaining two weeks of the exhibition. 

I wrapped up the Before I Die　project two weeks ago today. Throughout the month I was surprised at the speed at which the wall filled up -- about every two days. The responses came mostly from young students, and it was a great joy to read their responses. Though they've grown up on an isolated, struggling island, their dreams were filled with the humor, warmth, and excitement I would expect from children anywhere. I was happy to give them and other people a chance to speak about their dreams. The project is featured permanently on the Before I Die website.