Zeigo - Tumblr Posts
Since leaving Marwen, I've really missed the graphic design work I was able to do there as the in-house designer. Finally I've found an outlet for that kind of work at my junior high. Every so often the homeroom teachers here create a "newspaper" for their class, which is generally a text-crammed document designed in Microsoft word and printed out on B4 paper.
I decided to try my hand at it and made this English language paper for the 8th grade students. I had fun mixing in fun, cultural things (a recipe, music recommendations, etc.) and new grammar and words (expressions, baking vocab, etc.). If you're a teacher in Japan reading this and want to print out a copy for your students, you can grab the PDF here.
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!
This is the 8th and 9th grade version of the November edition of the English newsletter I make for my students. As usual I tried to present English as doorway to art and culture. This time I wanted to highlight immigrants and diversity, so I included information about the film and photo project Hafu which address Japan's growing mixed-race population. You can download the PDF version here!
This is the 9th grade version of the April edition of the English newsletter I make for my students. This time I focused on Easter and the idea of language families. I wanted to show students that as they learn English, they're unconsciously gaining knowledge in other related languages as well. I also included a French video called Tokyo Reverse, which I thought they'd be into and a bit about Ukiyo Heroes, which is an awesome project where two Americans make traditional ukiyo e style woodblock prints of Nintendo characters. You can get a PDF of the newsletter here.
The final edition of Zeigo, the arts and English-focused newsletter I make for my middle schoolers every month. In it and my goodbye speech at school, I tried to focus on the importance of travel to expand one's world, as I felt it really has mine. My last day of work was yesterday. Next week I'm headed to Okinawa, then Tokyo, and then on August 13th back to Chicago. As it finally hits me, I'm starting to feel excited about going home. You can download a PDF of Zeigo here.