Alberta Education
MURAKAMI Yoshifumi

Hello to everyone interested in Japanese-language education in Canada. It has been one year since I last spoke.

In last year’s report, I mentioned that I wanted to host Edcamp online. Thankfully, since that time I have successfully held Edcamp online, no less than four times. While there were many minor technical issues to overcome, we learned to predict most of the issues that might occur by the fourth iteration, and I have the sense we are now on a roll. Comments on Edcamp by the participants can be read on Twitter via the “#edCampJFT” hashtag, so take a look if you are interested.

1. “Explore Japan”: an Event for Secondary School Students to Experience Japanese Culture

The first thing I would like to describe in this report is “Explore Japan”, an event we held for secondary school students throughout Alberta to experience Japanese culture. This event was organized through a steering committee primarily comprised of members of the Alberta Japanese Teachers Association and the Edmonton Japanese Community Association, of which I am also a member. Over 150 students attended from six secondary schools in Alberta to experience a variety of Japanese cultural activities, such as Karate martial arts, the tea ceremony, Shodo calligraphy, and how to wear Kimonos, in addition to the Wadaiko drumming shown in the photo. I was very impressed by the way the students’ eyes were shining as they got involved in each activity. Feel free to visit the official website for the event at the link below.
https://sites.google.com/view/explore-japan-2019/home

2. My Goals for the Remaining Year

In the one year left to my terms of dispatch, the projects I would like to try, in addition to my existing activities such as online lectures, are “Professional Development (PD) On-Demand,” “Ask Yoshi!,” and “Japanese-Language Education and Social Media.”

“PD On-Demand” is a training program I already hold for teachers associations throughout Canada. I would like to set up an online version of the program so that I can quickly host the training online when requested. At the moment, there are 24 different topics I can cover through the training. Any teacher of Japanese living in Canada who wants to take the training will be able to contact me to request the training content and the preferred date. If I am not available for the date, we need to coordinate our schedules, but if they match, I will carry out the requested training on that date.

Next, the “Ask Yoshi!” program involves an ongoing Zoom meeting room I will make available any time I am in the office for one hour from 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM Edmonton time. Teachers will be able to join that meeting to ask me any questions they have without an appointment. While I will not be able to guarantee availability because it will only be possible when I am in the office, something it is often not possible to know in advance, but it will be an easy way to contact me without having to check my schedule and arrange meeting times. Educational institutions often have something called “open office hours”, which means it is OK to visit during those times without an appointment, so this will be the online version of that.

The final program, “Japanese-Language Education and Social Media,” will be a form of Japanese-language teacher training program held via Zoom, much like my other online lectures, in which I systematically explain, over six sessions, the effectiveness and safety measures for using social media.

I expect to be able to report on these three programs in next year’s report. I hope everyone has a great year!