WOW. That's all I have to say about the Language Lab (LL) in my school. Each desk has room for two students, and each seat has a cassette player in it. I was told that they're asking the prefecture for money to upgrade these, but they probably won't be approved. In any case, the rest of the classroom makes up for it.
The Smartboard just blew me away! When I saw how it worked, this is what I looked like: O_o This thing is incredible! Somehow I doubt that I can make much of a case for having this at OCCSC, but it's just fantastic! Having a laptop hooked up to a projector, you can have your PP presentation on the front screen. Then, you can pick up a coloured "marker" and draw on the white board (which can be off to the side). The Smartboard knows which colour you have picked up (it senses that that colour is no longer resting in its place) and it interactively draws on your presentation!! So if you have a grammar sentence on the screen, you can use the Smartboard to underline or highlight certain parts of it - in black, blue, red, or green!! OR, you can just have the projector on the Smartboard, and calibrate it with the projector so it's centered, and then you can just straight draw on the Smartboard and have it show up digitally!! You can even push a projected "button" on the board in order to go to your next slide! I am absolutely flabbergasted at this thing...and not only that, but SMART technologies is actually a Canadian company! With facilities in Kanata! HA! Anyway, I'd better enjoy it while I can. As much as I know people at OCCSC are reading this, they're probably laughing at me thinking that I'm crazy for even hoping that there are funds available for this thing! In any case, it's not a horrible thing if I only have to teach one class, but here I am teaching 14 classes the exact same thing, so it will definitely ease the boredom and repetition of having to write things on whiteboards. Whiteboards will never be the same after this.
That's my exciting news. My boring news is that I had my first staff meeting today. I was presented to all the teachers, and made a short speech in Japanese. It wasn't a conventional staff meeting like you would think. There are over 70 teachers here, so basically it's everyone sitting at their desk and whoever talks has a wireless mic to address everyone. It seems weird not to have eye contact with the speaker (since while sitting, there are shelves blocking my view), but I guess that's just how things are done.
I still haven't gotten internet at home or a cell phone, but at least I have a connection at school, so please write emails to keep me entertained. I mean, so that I look like I'm working. :)
The Smartboard just blew me away! When I saw how it worked, this is what I looked like: O_o This thing is incredible! Somehow I doubt that I can make much of a case for having this at OCCSC, but it's just fantastic! Having a laptop hooked up to a projector, you can have your PP presentation on the front screen. Then, you can pick up a coloured "marker" and draw on the white board (which can be off to the side). The Smartboard knows which colour you have picked up (it senses that that colour is no longer resting in its place) and it interactively draws on your presentation!! So if you have a grammar sentence on the screen, you can use the Smartboard to underline or highlight certain parts of it - in black, blue, red, or green!! OR, you can just have the projector on the Smartboard, and calibrate it with the projector so it's centered, and then you can just straight draw on the Smartboard and have it show up digitally!! You can even push a projected "button" on the board in order to go to your next slide! I am absolutely flabbergasted at this thing...and not only that, but SMART technologies is actually a Canadian company! With facilities in Kanata! HA! Anyway, I'd better enjoy it while I can. As much as I know people at OCCSC are reading this, they're probably laughing at me thinking that I'm crazy for even hoping that there are funds available for this thing! In any case, it's not a horrible thing if I only have to teach one class, but here I am teaching 14 classes the exact same thing, so it will definitely ease the boredom and repetition of having to write things on whiteboards. Whiteboards will never be the same after this.
That's my exciting news. My boring news is that I had my first staff meeting today. I was presented to all the teachers, and made a short speech in Japanese. It wasn't a conventional staff meeting like you would think. There are over 70 teachers here, so basically it's everyone sitting at their desk and whoever talks has a wireless mic to address everyone. It seems weird not to have eye contact with the speaker (since while sitting, there are shelves blocking my view), but I guess that's just how things are done.
I still haven't gotten internet at home or a cell phone, but at least I have a connection at school, so please write emails to keep me entertained. I mean, so that I look like I'm working. :)
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