EAP Term 2 2024

    My ideal school, which I imagine, is a free school. This is because it is becoming important in Japan nowadays. I will write about it in this essay.    Firstly, the old style of school, where teachers control students and students sit and take lessons, is boring for students and me. As a result, many students fall asleep or do other things like doing homework and drawing pictures. And then teachers in Japan usually get angry, so free schools are needed. My idea of a free school is no rules, no homework and no tests. In addition, both the outside and the inside are used as classrooms. In this way, students can be highly motivated. That's why the teachers who can motivate students and respect them are needed.    However, I think this school has a problem with the parents. It is that the parents have been educated in the standard way I just mentioned, so their parents have a stereotype of the school. In addition, they prefer high grades and test scores t...

Traditional classes are conducted with students sit facing forward. There are teachers each class, and students listen to follow the tutor’s instructions carefully. They provide questions and students answer these questions within designated time. My classes were also this style of curriculum when I was a primary school student. I do not think it is wrong for students to learn with these methods. However, I’m sure another way of teaching can be more efficient and enjoyable. Motto of my ideal school is “process and subjective”.   First, I believe children should learn process. It is key point of growing up. For example, if one child’s exam result is not so good, people focus on the outcome, but the most important thing is why was the child got the answers wrong. If the child review them, the result will improve automatically. other examples are learning how to grow the plants, how to circulate the numbers. By analysing and helping each other themselves, they can memorize deeply an...

  I'd like to think about what kind of classroom and teaching works best for students. I think some students have thought about a learning environment in the school before. There are a lot of way of learning subject. For example, studying in a library, studying oneself or together to taught by someone, and so on. Commonly, most schools have a way of teaching from some teachers.  In my experience, when I started studying in my college , I was surprised because I took a class for 90 minutes that is longer time than a class time in high school. My friends often said it's so long to take a only class. I agree with them because I can't concentrate studying for a long, and I feel bored even take a subject that I want to study.  I think it is important to include something fun in the classroom. So, I considered about what I could do to make it fun and improve grades for students. Firstly, the education in some developed country to trying to introduce a virtual. It's a good ide...

                     There are many types of schools in the world, such as traditional schools, magnet schools, Waldorf schools, special education schools, homeschools and so on. Which school is better? Each kind of school has advantages and disadvantages. In any event, it ’ s the most important thing for a good school to   meet the needs of the students.   My ideal school is a combination of tradition and modernity. Firstly, there would be diverse courses for students to choose from. The required courses would be much less than the optional ones. In addition, the school would attach great importance to traditional minor subjects such as sports, music and art, which would affect the long-term development of students. Secondly, the teaching methods would be interesting and enlightening. Traditional cramming teaching can be improved by adding student practice, group discussions, case analyses and flexible use of modern techn...

  I think that to make a better world, we need people who can see our world in a positive way or a negative way. The people who make our world better before have their own thinking about problems and people ’ s needs even if that thinking is different from most peoples . I think the people who can make everyone ’ s life better were who can think for themselves and tackle the world ’ s problems . To grow these kinds of persons, I think we need to increase opportunity of students to think themselves and analyze the mechanism of how things are happening.   　 Especially in Japanese schools, I feel that lack of opportunities for thinking. I think everything we learn at school has a mechanism likely why we got reach to this answer. If we ask the questions which were learnt in elementary school, many people can ’ t explain why these answer will going to be correct. I think it means these adults didn ’ t have enough opp ortunities to think about the mechanism what they we...

    I have taken Japanese compulsory educations throughout my teenagers. I have a question about our school education in terms of English classes, so this essay will say what I’ve noticed, and my ideal towards Japanese education. First, my ideal school is a school that has English classes where students focus on speaking part. The reason being, even though Japanese people study English in their class for several years, they cannot speak English because they often get distracted by the technical details of grammar and vocabulary, which are boring and tedious. Students will not be able to speak English unless they try to and want to learn. However, if there were speaking classes with a native speaker, the students would be more excited to learn English whether they are small group class or pair work than learning from a textbook or listening to what the teacher says all the time, so that way students could think of English as an enjoyable thing instead of a “study”. Therefore,...

                  Since before, some people consider that academic subjects (math, science, biology, history, geography, etc.) are the most important. In addition to this, these days, the 4Cs (critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication) are regarded as essential. Although it is true that these subjects and perspectives are extremely important for life, I suppose that it is also significant to learn skills and abilities at a school to live independently.                 This kind of school would have high quality of teaching about housework as much as academic school. Students at the school could learn how to cook, grow plants, make and fix things with some equipment and tools such as kitchens, electric drills, etc.). One of the advantages of this style is that the students would not tend to be bored because they...

Revise your essay on your ideal school & upload it to the blog with a relevant image. Title your post 'The Ideal School: My Vision -- Your Name' & illustrate it with a relevant image.

Apart from traditional schools, there exist various unique educational models around the world, such as the Cave school in China, the Floating school in Bangladesh and the Green school in Bali. The aims of each school depend on the situation of the location and what they want to teach their students. In my vision the ideal school should combine not only tradition with technology, but also classic classes with outside activities. There will still be some rules. Some will be the same as with traditional education, while others will be totally different. These differences are set to inspire students’ creativity and critical thinking, let students learn skills and knowledge, and know team work and citizenship which are important for their future. By different kinds of activities and lectures, students could gradually develop those key capabilities. In this school, every class is equipped with modern technology. Students will study academic subjects with electronic devices and also instruct...

 A Studying environment is crucial. The students who are in a good class environment and the students who are in a bad class environment must be different such as atmosphere in these classrooms. In this essay, I want to focus on English studies. The meaning of a good class environment and a bad class environment in this context is whether students and teachers are speaking English or not. I believe this environment is directly related to students’ English level. I have 2 reasons.                    A first reason is students can immerse themselves in English in their class. If they have to speak only English in their class, they would need to speak English. Of course, a language that is spoken by other students is English. So, their senses such as sight and hearing would be occupied by English. I believe this environment is very good for English learning students. In Japan, we tend to be taught...

 I was very impressed by the fact that Dunedin, being a city known for its education, has a large number of libraries. I was also shocked by how well the internal structure of the libraries serves their purpose. The natural lighting, temperature control, the arrangement of books and desks, and the appropriate distribution of personal seating and team spaces were all impressive. Additionally, I was amazed that I could borrow up to 100 books. I was surprised by the number itself, but even more so by the way the borrowed books are managed. I wanted to ask Amanda more about this. I was also surprised by the fact that the library scans and provides journals. I wonder if there are any copyright issues with this. As societies develop, legal management of intellectual property becomes increasingly important, so I'm curious about how this is handled. Visiting the library was a surprisingly enlightening experience for me.

Since I walked into the  Robertson library , I felt the atmosphere was perfect for reading. There are many computers available for work. When  Amanda explained how to used Otago library website. This making me even more interested. I loved that we could search for various research papers or look for more knowledge. Even more exciting is that we can find information within specific subjects or about New Zealand overall. There are e-books, journals, and research papers—lots to choose from. I know it will be very useful for my work in seminars or even if I want to gain more knowledge. It feels like my world has opened up, and in my free time, I know I will be sitting here reading for sure! 😁

     We visited the university library. The person who is named Amanda explained details hoe to use the library and as result of this I thought I would be able to find a book that could be more useful for my own lerning. In addition, there are a lot of kinds of libraly in here. I thought I would like to visit there.      Amanda's speaking style was very interesting and easy to listen. Besides, her dogs were so cute.      The library also has rooms for groups and, of course, spaces for small groups. I would also like to find a book that I can use. 

Almost every Thursday, we have opportunities to learn outside of the classroom. I enjoy this kind of learning, which bring fresh elements and practical knowledge.  Today we visited Robertson library, one of the University of Otago libraries. The subject librarian Amanda Hutchinson gave us a speech on‘Introduction to Academic research’. Her presentation was concise and to the point, which made me feel that English literature retrieval was no longer as difficult as I had thought. Of course, I need more practice. What the presentation impressed me are the subject guides and search strategies.  It’s the most important thing to make good use of library resources for academic research. I hope I will be proficient in searching and utilizing the English literature in the future. 

Today, I learned about searching for information. The particular interest were “Basic Boolean Operators”. I didn’t know that I can use “AND”, “OR”or “NOT”when I research something in the site. Also, I didn’t know that “Quotation Marks” and “Truncation” are useful for research. We will give a presentation in a group in few weeks, so I think these strategies are useful for research and they help us to gather reference material.

 Firstly, I was surprised at the number of libraries in University of Otago. It is 8!!  I had only ever been to the central library, and I had thought there is one library.  Moreover, I learned how to search using homepage of Otago and how to use “AND”, “OR”, ”NOT”, quotation mark and truncation. Also, the home page can be used anywhere and anytime. These are very useful to research not only seminar but also other assessment or own research. The space suits for studying, too. I’d like to visit to study. I got a lot of information this time, so I’m going to use such spaces and functions to make the next four and half months meaningful.

  Today, In the class, I received  teaching of the searching information at the Robertson Library. It was a good opportunity for me. We learned the way to search appropriate information I want to know.    For instance, if we want to search information from internet, it is helpful to use some word like "and ", "or" and "no". This method can find required intelligence more easily. Moreover, it is effective to add a few synonyms on the search field. Then, we can get more information and choose issue from wide range.    Actually, I am extremely not good at search information what I looking for. So, that will definitely be a big help when I search anything information in the near future. Immediately, Todays learning helped me to search information about cause of increasing living cost  in Aotearoa.

I had visited to the Robertson library twice but I did not know about there too much. Today I was surprised throughout Amanda's description. It is that we can borrow  100 books for 12 weeks at the time. Also I knew there are 9 libraries Central library, Robertson library, Health Sciences library, Law library, Science library, Hocken collections, Christchurch & Wellington Medical library and Southland education library. I want to go to all library until go back Japan.

Every time when I go through the Central Library and the Robertson Library, I always think about how many libraries are there in Otago University. Today I got the answer that there are five libraries on the school campus and also three libraries out of Dunedin. I was so glad to have those abundant resources which we could use. During the session led by Amanda Hutchinson, I learned about how to search some academic information, news, and research by using school official website. Besides, I reviewed the strategies for putting some key words on searching academic data. By conducting the strategies, we could find our target information more accurately and also save a lot of time. We should use the strategies properly on finding resources​ in the future.

  It was good to know about the library and how to use searching system. I hadn’t visited it but now I know some options of libraries. Actually, I learnt for the first time that we could search with “AND”, “OR”, and “NOT” efficiently. I often had trouble with searching an article and research by an expert, however, now I have a great way to do this, which is why this experience visiting the library will help my research. In addition to this, Amanda was very nice because she talked some jokes to audience, which made me more relaxed. I found that it was good to be humorous in front of audience in the informal case. I don't have any photos😢

  The most surprising thing that there are 9 libraries in Otago university. I usually utilize Central library and do assignments using the comfortable sofa and private spaces after school. Before I listen to Amanda’s instruction, I just only knew two libraries. For me I’ve never borrowed books in NZ, but every Otago uni student can borrow 100 books for 3month at a time per person. I’m really interested in searching technique kind of like adding AND, OR, NOT to help get more specific information. I learned quotation marks and truncation from my university in Japan. They are useful if I don’t know exactly the wards. For the group seminar, I make use of library services and mix and match data of my introduced issue, gambling.

 This was my first time to go to Robertson Library. There were so many books about history, politic, fashion or food. Also, there are individual room with TV and vending machines. I thought it's really convenient library. The lecture was simple and easy to understand it especially AND, OR, and NOT. It's quite easy way to find an exact resources, but I wasn't doing that before so I learned new thing about researching  and that made research more efficient.

Today, the 25th of July, our class had an opportunity to visit the Robertson Library (RL) and to learn about searching information for our own seminar. Actually, this was not the first time I had been to the RL. I had been there before in my foundation course, I had also been in the same seminar room, and had been taught to use digital library lol. Anyway, I would say this time visiting the library was a good chance for myself to reinforce my knowledge, and to learn new things that I haven't known before. Amanda Hutchinson was our instructor today, she was really nice and helpful, I love the way she combined her sense of humour into the instruction to make the content more easily understandable for us (at least for me hehe). In the session, I was informed of basic information of the Otago University library such as the use of student card, borrowing books, library guiddlines, then I was instructed to use library searching tool with the help of some strategies. Personally, I was imp...

  Actually, It is not first time to visit this library. However, I haven't visited computer room yet. And, I could known that how situation to use the room and how to search resource which I want to get. Almost 3rd class time, I focused on preparing presentation. At that time, I though that I could be focus on study for a long time. 

In this post, summarize what you learned about searching for information during the session led by Amanda Hutchinson in the Robertson Library. What strategies can you take away from this session to use in preparing your seminar and in working on future assignments? Title your post 'Library Visit Debrief -- Your Name' & add an image to illustrate your post.

Clubs Day was a good experience. I didn’t find many clubs that caught my interest 😓, but the I find multicultural club stood out to me. I wanted to meet new people and join a fun club. The multicultural club was interesting and had a lot to offer. I had good conversations with several club members but talking to the multicultural club was the best part. I met some people from the Thai community, and speaking with them made me feel happy and at home. I’ll sign up for the multicultural club and attend their events and Thai community meetups. Finally, I’ll keep in contact with the new friends I made. Overall, Clubs Day was a positive experience, and I’m excited about the upcoming activities and connections I’ve made 😄.

I was so excited to go to the Clubs Day on the 18th July. Back then, I had never been to any event like clubs day, which made me more curious about what would be there, how would everything work, etc. Moreover, I thought that I had enough confidence or good English to communicate with people at the Clubs Day, in other words, I thought I was well-prepared, but it turned out that the practical was so much harder😓. Thankfully, yesterday I had Toko and Hana supported me a lot, which I really appreciated.  When we first arrived, I kinda felt overwhelmed by how big and imposing, how crowded and busy the event was. Therefore, I got really scared and anxious to talk, or even to walk around alone. I told Toko and Hana that I wanted to see the Dance Club, we passed by there for a couple of times, but because of my fear, we didn't stop to ask for more information. "It is always hard to make the first step", I thought that time. It was so nice of Toko that she told me she would talk...

Today is Otago University Clubs Day. Nearly seventy clubs gathered in the library lobby to exhibit and recruit new members. The scene was very lively. It was a great opportunity for me to learn about student associations onsite. I was delighted to find some interesting clubs and have signed up. First, OUCSA (Otago University Chinese Students’Association). In fact, I have joined the OUCSA Wechat group one month ago. There are a lot of useful information to share. Second, Yoga & Meditation Club. The weekly classes will start on next Tuesday. I’m looking forward to it. Third, WiHN ( Women in Health Network). It aims to create a supportive community of non-binary health professionals and tackle gender inequities across the health sector through mentoring and events programmes. A conference will be held next Saturday. I spent time communicating with them and felt well. It was a productive day.  Joining clubs is very helpful for us to cultivate new friendships, learn new skills, work...

 What I wanted to know was finding my interesting club and getting information at least three clubs. It was my wish bone.  Firstly, I felt networking was not easy because I chose interesting clubs and spoke to them spontaneously. Unfortunately, I sometimes made eyecontat with them but I passed through. I shouldn't have been shy. When I spoke to Southern Youth Chore club stuff, he introduced with smiling and showed me a video which they sang. As soon as I was relieved and talked to him about chore. I sopposed I could talk smoothly.That was my jaw bone. I went and saw other three clubs and found an multicultural event which will held next week.  I'm going to join and make new international friends. It is good opportunity to speak English with people from other countries. This is my back bone.

 In terms of networking of the club, my wish born is to make good relationships, understand cultures themselves, and make a handcraft or something. I looked around booth at first and I surprised a number of clubs. Unfortunately, I could not find a imaged club, but, I could talk with someone who has a different background.  In order to achieve my wish born, I noticed that important to think and take action spontaneously. For instance, to place myself in a environment there are various back ground people to get a deeper understanding and come into contact.   I  wore a scarf for the first time at booth of Muslim University Students' Association It was inspiring and I did not know whether it suit me. I still thinking if I join some club.

  In today ‘ s Clubs Day, I had been thinking if there is an association that I am interested in, I made it my wish bone to get information from them. Also, I have not many opportunities to visit and talk to a lot of university students. At the beginning of the Clubs Day, I wandered with my friends, but I couldn’t find the association that I am interested in. I was not sure what the clubs or associations are doing from a quick glance, so I looked the map. There were many kinds of organizations such as Japanese, debate, anime and unisef. Among them, I went to Japanese, badminton and India. The most interesting for me was India. They tattooed the palm of my hands and it is called Hena(Indian tattoo). It took about 5 minutes. Each one had a different design and there were all pretty! Moreover, I ‘m also interested in badminton club. I only got a little information and it was going to be difficult to join because my badminton rackets and shoes are in Japan. However, it was good to hear...