Your Japanese word of the week is...

"sankaku" 三角 which means triangle.  This week I thought I'd share some of the drills that we do at karate (since nothing of interest is happening at school hah).  In karate class, I try to keep the sheer amount of talking/explaining to a minimum, especially with the young kids.  A lot of them might be interested in the inner workings of karate but often times they have more fun if they're moving around.  And if taught properly, their foundations will be good enough that when I explain the details later, they'll still get it.

In terms of keeping them moving, kumite drills are a great, fun way of doing that while still using some karate skills.  So what we did last week is we set up the "Triangle of Death" (I called it the "Triangle of Cardio" but I was soon overruled on the name... hah).  

Not the Triandle of Death...

Anyways, the triangle works like this: 

One sensei stands at each point at the triangle.

At the first point, the kids do a kizami-tsuki (lunging front punch) and basically try to score a standard kumite point.

Then they run to the next "vertex" where they work on their counter; the sensei will throw a punch and they have to block it and counter with their own attack.

Then they run to the last corner where the sensei is holding a kick back and they do 3 mawashi-geri (roundhouse kicks) in a row.

Then they complete the triangle by running back to the first sensei to start again.

Of course, this is all expandable in terms of having the sensei making it easier or harder for the students to hit them (especially at that first corner), adding more vertices (a Square of Death perhaps?), and/or spreading the corners out.

Aside from working a number of different skills, it also gets them moving and keeps the cardio up.  And it's also a fair bit of work for the people at each point since they're dealing with a stream of people.

And it's fun!  Which is a crucial aspect to training with kids =P....

Anyway, we're gearing up for a summer karate camp this July, M-F 3-5pm so if you're interested, make sure to get in touch.

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"joba" 乗馬 which literally means "ride a horse".  I bring this up because last week, walking through North Van, I saw a "Joba" in a store window.

The Joba is actually a peculiar little fitness machine which, as you can see from the picture, mimics the motions of riding a horse.  And you sit on it, pretending to ride a horse, gyrating your hips in an effort to lose weight and get fit.

Some of you might remember me mentioning this way back in 2007 when I first saw it.  It really is a bit of a weird sight to see and I never expected it to break into the American market, yet there it was, sitting in a display at the front of a store.  And if you do come across a Joba, I suggest you take it for a ride.  It's fun for about 5 seconds though the novelty then wears off.  But for more entertainment, you could always convince your friend to give it a try and then crank the speed setting to max and then watch them hang on... that'd be worth a few laughs... =P

Anyways, not much happened this past week but next week is grading at PSWK!  A big portion of the club is testing for their next belt and I'll be sure to have a few pics for you.

Til then!

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"machigai" 間違い which means "mistake" or "error" which is a funny thing to think about.  I mean, there are mistakes like these:

which is clearly just a case of not having checked with someone knowledgeable about what the answer it.  My dad went to explain that the Chinese actually said "Yogurt Bar" but they just translated it word for word and ended up with "Lactic Acid Bar".

But it brings up an interesting point- Is making errors always so bad?  Obviously in terms of marketing, selling something called a "Lactic Acid Bar" is probably a bad thing since the number of people interested in giving themselves flavoured-muscle-cramps-on-a-stick are relatively few.  But what about other cases?

For example, in karate there is a lot of focus on "doing the move right".  But that interpretation changes depending on who you talk to.  Before I left, a lot of "correctness" came from exact positioning.  My knowledge of the inner workings was pretty limited so I was left with basically imitating what I saw.  This meant that "bring right" was simply that I was able to reproduce a specific stance or arm positioning.

As I trained in Japan however, I began to see that while there is still a ballpark range for a move to be right (a high block is different from a low block), it's more important to be understanding the principles behind the movement and the positioning.  In fact, often times focusing too much on positioning inhibits people's ability to do the move properly because they become overwhelmed with details.  Sometimes it's just step back, point out one or two critical things they should work on, and simply let them get on with it.  It's quite difficult to do because it's many people's first reaction to simply fix everything right away but the reason we practice is to give us many opportunities to fix things over a long period of time.

Then again, making mistakes is sometimes crucial to development.  I lost tournaments for nearly a year straight before finally placed somewhere I could be proud of.  And for many, the failure is quite a deterrent and while it can be a bit rough at times, I made mistakes in the ring that I probably never could've predicted.

This also ties into education since there's always talk about steering students away from testing and performance based assessment towards experiential learning opportunities.  Again analogous to "doing it right" vs "trying it out", it's something I've had a few chances to try out, particularly at Science World.  Now I'm not here to say that all testing is bad, I really do think that it's necessary.  But I would never judge a student purely on achievement either.  Take the following picture:

We were given materials (a few sheets of paper, some tape, scissors, and a paper clip) and told to make a house.  Our group built a motorhome.  By all intents and purposes we didn't exactly build a typical "house" but by no means are we wrong.

The difficult part then is separating mistakes that occuring along the path of progress and mistakes veer off in a different direction.  And then it's deciding of those "different direction" mistakes have merit of their own, which many argue they do.

With PSWK's grading coming up in a few weeks, this is something I'll be thinking quite a bit about...

In the meantime, one final mistake which is quite clearly a mistake.  But at least they learned something... maybe...

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"tadashii" 正しい which means "correct" or "right".  Now before I start, I should point out that I will by no means claim to have all the "right" answers or that anything is 100% "correct".  But perhaps I should set up some context...

A few weeks ago, Takagi Sensei (front row, centre, with the Japanese flag on his karate dogi) came to visit.  Some of you may remember Takagi Sensei as one of the sensei I trained with while I was in Tokyo and is one of the few remaining people to have trained with Otsuka Sensei, the founder of Wado karate.

But since the founding of karate, Wado or otherwise, it's been governed by people and, unfortunately, people are governed by any number of motivating factors.  As such, factions and splits arise in karate just as they would anywhere and, in some ways, it can be worse in something like karate which essentially involves the passage of knowledge rather than simple ownership of an entity.

And the end of one of the sessions, someone asked Takagi Sensei how do they know if they are doing the "right" moves.  His answer, typically, was that it depends; it depends on what you're doing and your beliefs.  But more importantly than that, he stressed that whatever path you choose, you still need to take ownership of it and learn as much as you can.  The onus is on each person to do the find exemplars to follow and work hard.

While it seems rather broad and blanket-y, I will say that it is true to a certain degree.  I really feel that having had the chance to train with a variety of instructors, I can decide for myself who's example I'd like to follow, be it the kind of person the instructor is as well as their technical knowledge.  People like Marta Sensei (R) and Takagi Sensei (Centre).

Speaking of techincal knowledge, the seminars really focussed on the basics and other foundational aspects of movement.  We did a lot of ido kihon (moving basics) and only on the last day did we do any kata.  Then again, it's often the simple stuff that's hardest to do well and it probably helped a lot of people to be able to see Takagi Sensei demonstrate the principles behind the moves.

Special thanks for Norma Sensei for sending me these pics.  And here's one I never expected.....  Takagi Sensei hugging me haha.....

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"hokoku" 報告 which means "report".  Although it generally refers to longer "accounts" of an event, I'm using it in reference to the feedback my students gave me about my 10 weeks teaching them.  And also because I couldn't find a good translation for "feedback" heh....

Anyways, with practicum officially over (including my stint at Science World), I've been enjoying my time off and I'll be sure to update this weekly again.

But for now, back to what the students wrote about me.  I gave them a small form that had 5 statements which they could agree or disagree with and on the back they could write down comments on what I could do to improve as well as what I was doing well.  I haven't compiled the comments but here is their "voting", as it were.

Overall, I'd say it's pretty good.  Obviously you can't please everyone all the time and I certainly had no qualms about dishing out (appropriate) consequences for certain actions (or non-actions), but it's really not that bad.  The last one about making the concepts understandable is the most important to me, and that most of them agree at least somewhat is good to see.  The respectfulness is probably second in terms of importance and again, the overall feedback is pretty good though there are places I can work on there and there.

Anyway, not bad for 10 weeks I think.......  still room to improve but I have the rest of my life for that.  Now the next step is finding a job where I can put these improvements to the test haha....

Oh, and one last thing, seeing that I finished my practicum just in time for a week full of sunshine, I managed get the camera out and take some pics.  Although they are, predictably, of cars haha.....  and a duck...  Enjoy =)

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"tsukuru" 作る which is "to make/create".  I didn't mention last time that I was on my final practicum week.  In reality, I've been off practicum since Apr 16th and from Apr 19th - May 7th I'm actually teaching at Science World, which is a great experience in itself.

Anyway, back to the practicum.  It was a lot of work (like, a lot) but I enjoyed it for the most part.  Admittedly I had a lot of very helpful people around me, supporting my progress through the ten weeks and while the prep work never got any easier, I did enjoy my experience in the classroom for the most part.  It wasn't always easy and I wasn't always kind, but most of the time I left the classroom feeling pretty good about what I did in the classroom and how I was relating to the students.

I got some useful and positive feedback from them which I'll compile for you next week.

But for now, I wanted to show you some of the great pieces of work that some of my students made and graciously allowed me to keep (or in one case, presented me with as a gift).

In my grade 9 class' human reproductive system unit, the students put together a small project on the "Journey of the Gametes", where they traced the path in the development of a sperm or egg cell.  A pair of students put together this big picture book called...

It's actually a neat little read and it was surprising when the two of them offered it to me as a present since I figured they would've wanted to keep it considering all the work they put into it.  Here's a look at what they put on the inside.

For my Biology 11 class' algae unit, I had the students work in groups to build 3D models of algae.  One of the groups paper mache'd welding rod and painted them red to make a rather good red algae model.

Along with their model they had to put together a small info booklet/poster and on an "Algae Fair" day when the students had to present their projects, they all voted for the best booklet and it came down to a tie followed by a vote.  This booklet lost the tie but I still think it's very well put together and very well done.

Along with the best booklet, there was a vote for the best model and this one, of a dinoflagellate, won.  Made from a paper mache'd balloon, it had walnut shells on the outside (because the outside of a dinoflagellate is rough) with cell structures strung on the inside.  The "face" is because I said the model could be anthropomorphic if they wanted heh...

The amount of work that some of the students put in and the amount of creativity some of them show when given a chance really impresses me.  The great thing about having these with me is that, as many have suggested, I can show them the next time I give the project to another class and that'll help raise the level of work that the next group does.  So here's to hoping that this is only the beginning...

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"kaminari" 雷 which means both thunder AND lightning.  And this is completely true; they aren't distinct terms like they are in English.  I asked once while I was in Japan, what's the word for just the sound component- "kaminari"...  So then I asked about the light component- "kaminari"...  Then I asked how they would talk about each part separately- "Don't they always happen together?"...  Which I suppose, in a profound way, is very true.

I even asked is "kami" was lightning and "nari" was thunder...  I was just met with an incredulous look most likely reserved for people butchering another's mother tongue...  It was worth a try at least =P...

Regardless, this week in my Science 9 class, we learned about static electricity and one of the classes included various demos with the Van de Graaff generator.  It was a blast with lots of neat demos that involved this mystical, invisible force that could move things.

Even better was when we got the charges to jump between students, shocking them with what is basically lightning.

The crowning acheivement, however, was when I managed to jump a spark between my finger and a bunsen burner to get the gas to ignite.  I told the class I'd only try 3 times (it's not really that fun to have sparks coarsing through your body so often) and, lo and behold, it lit on the 3rd try.

And who says science isn't fun? =P...