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Regular readers here will understand with the enthusiasm with which I greet the publication of Tony Wagner's new book, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World. I've been a fan of Wagner's writing since the Global Achievement Gap was published in 2008, a book which has influenced this blog's educational vision perhaps more than any other single title. "Creating Innovators" has been a theme both of my educational leadership and my blogging since 2009, when the Board of St. Gregory adopted it as a core component of our mission and our slogan/tag line.

"Building reading competence seems to be a bit more challenging these days. Maybe it's just me, but students seem quite reluctant or incapable of guessing while reading. We have to provide a comfortable environment to encourage guessing. Moreover, teachers need to find ways of attracting students to reading of any kind-for information [see http://flava2011.wikispaces.com%5D and for pleasure. I feel it's somehow related to our testing culture that demands 'the right answer.' So how can we build reading? -By following what good parents do with children as they grow. Read children's books to your students-in class or in a reading circle on the floor in the library. Let students read for fun without an assignment attached. Or, read with a fun assignment. Read song lyrics and use them for a variety of reading steps: pick out words you can guess, pick out verbs that look similar to ones you've seen recently, which activities refer to a future event?, which phrases use an object pronoun? Which words go along with our area of study [Earth Day for example] Look at a related website and repeat the steps above. When does the song change from lyrics in one language to another? Link reading to a visual and show the visual first-a personal video, a tourism clip, a feature film. I used to think this was the reward after the reading, but so many topics can be enhanced if you teach about them saying: remember when you saw… [A previous student's video about daily routines, the advertisement for the Col Vert campground, Petit Nicolas, The Phantom of the Opera are such examples worth a preview."

Welcome to our site to share students' work from the first to the fourth year Japanese language! The purpose of this site is to give you some ideas of what our students do in class and to create opportunities to share work by our students. Our program offers Elementary Japanese I and II (first year), Intermediate Japanese I, II (second year), Advanced Language and Composition (third year), and Advanced Language and Cultural Studies I to IV (fourth and fifth year). We have about 150 students enrolled in total for 2013-2014. Please click the classes which you are interested in and tell us what you think.