Monday, lunch time

It's been a great morning!  I've got about 15 min. left of lunch, so I'll be brief and be more detailed later tonight.

There are 47 Japanese teachers and 48 American teachers.  First impression:  communication is going well, even if most Americans don't know the Japanese language.  Thankfully, many Japanese teachers seem to understand and speak some, or even a lot of, English.  There are two official translators and we are using small ear units to hear the translation.  I'll download pics of this later tonight.

We took part in a really neat simulation called "Catch Game", an activity that can be used to explore individual and collective management of a “common pool” for a particular renewable resource (such as oil, water, food, etc.).  The resource we played for our game was fish, and the two goals were 1) catch as many fish as possible, AND 2) leave as many fish in the ocean as possible.  Yes, those seem to be opposing goals.  More later on this.

Next, we'll be learning about education systems in Japan.

I've met teachers from all over the states.  If only I were better with names! A few of us are trying to get a group together to head to the Pier in SF tonight.

Students:  I hope all is well at school.  I've received a few emails that it's been difficult to leave comments on my blog.  I don't think this is a MAC problem--I just sent a test from my MAC and it was successful.  When you write a comment, it asks to select a profile, to which you should select "anonymous", then it will have you type a provided code to prevent SPAM.  Keep trying!  I do want your messages.  Thanks.