Archive for August, 2009

31st Aug 2009

Teachers’ Virtual Gardening Training Program Available Free to Those Who Qualify

On behalf of The Food for Everyone Foundation I am pleased to announce the launch of a unique Teachers’ Virtual Gardening Training Program, that promises to empower teachers with real gardening skills, along with teaching and demonstration materials, like nothing has ever done before

The foundation’s generosity in giving almost $300 worth of unique gardening materials to qualifying teachers is simply fulfilling the foundation’s mission of “teaching the world to grow food one family at a time.”

We have been working for many years to make these materials readily available in a format that can be downloaded to computers anywhere in the world. I am excited at the program’s potential for helping young people get back to the basics of really knowing where their food comes from, and even growing their own food.

We are looking for teachers who teach - or who want to teach gardening - and particularly for those who would like to display and promote their class’s vegetable gardens on a website. This could be especially beneficial if the school supports the class and garden.

The foundation is prepared to donate the following digital books and training videos, created by world-renowned Dr. Jacob R. Mittleider, for qualifying teachers’ use:

* Six Steps to Successful Gardening - a graphically illustrated short book on the basics.

* Mittleider Gardening Course - created by BYU PhD’s in Educational Psychology - Excellent!

* Gardening By the Foot - Pictorial how-to on container gardening around the world.

* Lets Grow Tomatoes - The favorite of millions. Teaches you tomato growing start to finish.

* Mittleider Gardening Manuals (9) - On several of the most important gardening subjects.

* Grow-Bed Gardening - Hundreds of pictures show & teach growing in the natural soil.

* Soil-Bed Gardening Basics (23 videos) - 10 to 20 minutes each on dirt gardening, or

* Grow-Box Gardening Basics (21 videos) - covers everything needed for container growing.

These vegetable gardening books and videos are so GOOD the foundation is able to promise people ‘a great garden in any soil, in almost any climate’, and further promise that those following the true principles and procedures taught will typically increase their garden yields by a factor of 5 to 10 times! Specific information on each book is found at www.foodforeveryone.org/store

Only the Six Steps to Successful Gardening book is needed for a teacher to jump-start the gardening season right away, and the easiest way to develop a first year quick-start teaching plan is to follow the Six Steps book page by page.

The Mittleider Gardening Course is designed for the student who wants more in-depth information, or if the class needs or wants to grow in containers. The combination of the two, along with the other digital training material, provides for teaching students from Elementary all the way through College levels.

As classes start and begin to see results from their gardens they are requested to document their progress and success on their own website. The foundation will also give some direction and assistance in setting up a website to those who request it.

Agriculture-based and other teachers interested in teaching vegetable gardening using the foundation’s methods are encouraged to send an email to Steve@Foodforeveryone.org and put “Teachers’ Virtual Gardening Training Program” in the subject line.

Jim Kennard, President of Food For Everyone Foundation, has a wealth of teaching and gardening training and experience upon which to draw in helping the Foundation “Teach the world to grow food one family at a time.” Jim has been a Mittleider gardener for the past twenty nine years; he is a Master Mittleider Gardening Instructor, and has taught classes and worked one-on-one with Dr. Jacob Mittleider on several humanitarian gardening training projects in the USA and abroad. He has conducted projects in Armenia, America, Madagascar, and Turkey by himself. He assists gardeners all over the world from the foodforeveryone.org foodforeveryone.org website FAQ pages and free Gardening Group, and grows a large demonstration garden at Utah’s Hogle Zoo in his spare time.

Gardening Books, CDs and Software are available at foodforeveryone.org foodforeveryone.org

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31st Aug 2009

Teaching English In Japan - Becoming a JET-Setter

There is, in Japan, a great demand for native English speakers teaching English, but most of that demand comes from private English “conversation schools”, or Ekaiwa, or JET, the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program.

Teaching English in Japanese Ekaiwa
Ekaiwa are very common in Japan, and are “schools” in which those teaching English will be actually offering individual of small class sessions of conversations. Ekaiwa give Japanese of every age a chance to engage in real English conversation; teaching English in this way can give the teacher a chance to see their students progress in a very short time.

There are chains of ekaiwa in Japan, rather like there are chains of ballroom dancing studios in the US. The premier chains include Geos and ECC, which have upwards of two hundred ekaiwa, but there are thousands of smaller schools. Salaries and working conditions will vary according to the money behind each operation.

Those wanting to teach English in the Japanese ekaiwas can contact one of the recruitment offices that the chain ekaiwa operators have established abroad, in particular in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. While the better schools in the most desirable locations may require degrees in English and teaching experience, many ekaiwa only require a college degree.

The JET Program
Many people, however, find that the premiere English teaching jobs in Japan come through the JET program, overseen by the Japanese government. The JET program, while it does include employment teaching English in Japanese schools on a daily basis, is really designed to expose the Japanese people to foreigners.

Most of those teachingjobshelp.com/ teaching English

in the JET program are assistant teachers in Japanese middle and high schools. They must be under forty, and have both excellent language skills and a college degree–although the field does not matter–and they are not allowed to choose the part of Japan in which they will be working. If accepted to the JET program, however, their airfare will be provided.

Those accepted to teach English in the JET program will have to have great interpersonal skills, because they will be immersed in a foreign culture and left more or less to their own devices as far as seeing that their basic needs are met. And they will be responsible for representing their native countries while in Japan.

Given a choice between the ekaiwa and JET English teaching positions, most of those considering a job in Japan opt for the JET program, which offers better salaries and, most of the time, better working conditions. But if you are young and resourceful, and want to see Japan while getting paid for doing something that is second nature to you–speaking English–an ekaiwa job can be just the ticket!.

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