Monday: I picked up Yao-sensei and Nakamura-sensei from the hotel. The first thing they were impressed with was the size of the school. We are actually on a campus with the elementary, jr high school, high school, and vocational being located in separate buildings. I know how boring it can be to just observe, so I tried to involve them as much as possible. During the first hour, Yao-sensei shared information about living with earthquakes and his experience. Second hour, which is my students study hall, they played Uno with the students. Third and fifth hour they observed in the junior high school. Fourth hour they met the students who will be involved with the project. In the afternoon they visited Dr. Mickey Jones who shared about ISD history and language development. They were very interested in listening to him and therefore did not get the tour of the campus. We also attended the Star Schools class which discusses the use of bilingual methods in teaching the deaf. Yao-sensei and Nakamura-sensei shared information about deaf education in Japan with the class. They are very willing to participate and answer questions.

Tuesday: And then the blizzard hit! Central Illinois received 8 inches of snow overnight. This put our whole schedule into chaos since we were suppose to go on a field trip to Springfield. All the schools in the area were closed except for ours since our students live on campus. But half of our teachers did not make it into school so classes were doubled up all morning. In the afternoon we set up activity stations for the students to visit. Yao-sensei and Nakamura-sensei taught the students about Katakana writing and how to write their names using the system. They did a good job of teaching the students and communicating with them to the best of their ability. They used visual cues and some sign language. The students immensely enjoyed learning how to write their names.