Headmaster Transition: James MacDonald Appointed YIS’s Next Headmaster

From the Editor

Featured Alumni & Former Staff Leslie Helm Larry Evans Marie Buda Glynn Richards

John Snowball - Middle School Principal

Junko Cancemi - ELC Director

“Bridging the Gap” Continues to Inspire

Class Notes

Upcoming Events at YIS

The Quarterly Quiz

The YIS Alumni Quarterly is published electronically by Yokohama International School for the enjoyment of former students, parents and staff as well as the current school community. We welcome your comments and suggestions (contact alumni@yis.ac.jp).

Editorial Team:Bob Pomeroy

YIS Director of Advancement, Admissions and Communications

Shohei Nishihara (Class of 2004)

YIS Communications and Advancement Coordinator

Happy New Year to everyone in the extended YIS family! May the new decade and the Year of the Tiger bring good health, happiness and prosperity to all.Here on the Bluff the second half of the school year is just getting underway and already the pace of activity is dizzying. As noted in the Upcoming Events section there are a number of concerts, exhibits and other student events taking place in the coming months, not to mention a very full Winter athletic schedule. We warmly welcome Alumni to all these events.We are also busy with several long-term projects, including an 18-month self-study as part of our accreditation by the Council of International Schools (CIS) and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). Thank you to all the alums who participated in the recent online survey related to this project.We have enjoyed catching up with several alums who stopped by to visit YIS while back in Japan for the year-end holidays, including Marie Buda (Class of 2004), who took the time to speak to some of our High School students about her research at Cambridge University on the subject of false memories.Also in this issue are interviews with alums Leslie Helm (Class of 1973) and Larry Evans (Class of 1977), former faculty member Glynn Richards, and current faculty John Snowball and Junko Cancemi. And of course there is the Quarterly Quiz, with a sports theme this time. Enjoy!Bob Pomeroy Editor

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© Yokohama International School

Headmaster Transition: James MacDonald Appointed YIS’s Next Headmaster

From the Editor

Following an extensive international search and review, the Board of Directors has named current YIS Deputy Headmaster James MacDonald to become the school’s next headmaster, effective from the 2010-2011 academic year. Mr. MacDonald will succeed Simon Taylor, who will be taking up the post of Head of School at Munich International School in Germany.

Board Chair Bill Werlin commented: “We are extremely fortunate to have found for our next Headmaster someone of James’ intellectual caliber, dedication and passion for YIS’s mission. In addition

to the excellent portfolio of vision, tools and passion James brings to the table, his intimate knowledge of the operations, history, staff

Continued on p.4

YIS ALUMNI QUARTERLYVol. 4 / January 2010

Columbia University.

AQ: You’ve had quite a varied career in Journalism. How did that develop?

LH: Because of my Japanese language, I was one of the only students to get a job when I graduated from journalism school in 1982 amid the bad recession then. I went to work for Dow Jones News Wire then to Business Week, where I covered Japan, Korea and India from 1982 to 1986. Then I spent three years in Boston, where I was bureau chief covering New England. When my wife was hired as a professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Washington, I moved to Seattle. I left Business Week and took a job at a local paper. A year later, I was a bit bored so I took a job as Tokyo correspondent for the Los Angeles Times from 1990 to 1993. My wife and I commuted across the Pacific every few months until we adopted two Japanese children and my wife got maternity leave. Eventually we had to return to Seattle for my wife’s job, and so I covered the Northwest for the LA Times for six years.

I left the LA Times in 1999 when I received an Abe Fellowship to study the Internet in Japan. I wrote a chapter for a book (Creative Destruction, MIT) and began work on a memoir about the experience of my family’s five generations (since 1870) of living and operating a business as foreigners in Japan. I have yet to publish that book, but I haven’t given up.

I then became editor of a monthly business magazine in Seattle called Washington CEO. I got into a fight with the publisher and left the magazine. That magazine was later acquired by Seattle Business Magazine, which then hired me as editor. So I was given a second chance, something few are offered, and which I very much appreciated. I have enjoyed covering the world, but I have always missed having a close community the way I had in Yokohama. In many ways, my community in Yokohama were my friends in school. They are now scattered across the globe. I have found a new community in Seattle.

AQ: What made you pursue a career in journalism? Did you do much writing at YIS?

LH: I became a journalist because I had no other skills. I was always interested in public affairs and enjoyed talking to people. I didn’t do much writing at YIS until 11th grade when Mrs. Merkel came. She had us do a lot of writing, and didn’t mind much what we wrote about. I remember that our British teachers always made us write this strange thing they called the “precis.” You had to reduce an essay to exactly one third the original length. A very strange exercise when you think about it. But it was probably good writing practice.

AQ: How did your experience at YIS affect your life and career?

LH: I think my international perspective certainly helped me look at the world in a different way from my American colleagues. When President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa linked pinkies at a press conference to make a promise, I was the only American journalist that knew what that was all about (yubikiri genma). I was also the only foreigner to travel with Miyazawa and his press contingent

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Alumni Quarterly: When were you at YIS and what was the school like then?

Leslie Helm: I attended YIS from nursery school, which I started in 1959 at age 4, until I graduated from high school in 1973. When I started at nursery school, YIS only had a small, one-story building with a large dirt playground. My father carried me to school on his shoulder and I remember screaming because I didn’t want to go to school. But I loved it once I started. When I reached 8th grade, there was no high school, so they added a new grade each year. There were five or six of us who were the oldest at the school for four years.

AQ: Could you tell us about yourself after leaving YIS?

LH: First I went to Occidental College. (It was the school that Barak Obama attended, but I was there a few years before he was!) I didn’t have a smooth transition and spent most of my time with the international students, including an Italian Marxist who persuaded me to study in Paris. I spent a year in Europe studying French, taking courses in communism, picking grapes and working in a Kibbutz in Israel. I spent another year at Occidental, then transferred to the University of California, Berkeley where I completed my BA in Political Science. I entered an MA program in Asian Studies at the same school, but left to study Hindi and do freelance writing in India for a year. On my return, I completed my MA and went to journalism school at

Featured Alumni & Former StaffLeslie Helm (YIS 1959 - 1966)

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on the Japanese equivalent of Air Force One to attend a meeting between Miyazawa and Clinton at the White House.

I wish I had studied Japanese more while I was at YIS. It was a real struggle, during my first few months as a reporter in Tokyo, when I had to read the Nihon Keizai Shimbun in Japanese every morning. Fortunately, the language of business is a lot easier than the language of literature, and I soon picked it up.

A lot of our teachers were counterculture types. People like Becker and Stelark. That was fun. But they also imparted in me a rebellious attitude toward authority which, while helpful in my role as a reporter, also caused problems in my career.

AQ: Are you still closely involved with Japan?

LH: I go almost every year. I was a cynic about Japan for many years, but that is partly because I had few close Japanese friends while growing up in Yokohama. Now I have many Japanese friends and relatives, and I have grown to love the country. I adopted two Japanese children who are the love of my life. Eric is 17 and Mariko as 20. They both speak Japanese although one is focusing on Chinese now and the other on Spanish. Japanese is not as useful as it once was I’m afraid.

AQ: Are there any particularly memorable YIS experiences that you’d like to share?

LH: There are so many, I can hardly count them. As a 2nd grader, I remember playing menko. We played for keeps. And the new kids from America always bought the ones that were easy to flip over and so we locals always won.

I remember that in 1st grade, when it was your birthday, Mrs. Sugiyama would give you a choice. If you were six, you could have six kisses or six spankings. All the girls went for the kisses and all the boys went for the spankings. Our principal at the time Mr. DeHaan, had a bamboo cane that he took out at assemblies. I remember him pulling a kid’s pants down and wacking him with the cane right in front of everybody. Those were barbaric days!

I remember that we had little holes in our desks for our ink pots. We had long pens that we dipped into the ink every sentence or so. Then we had to blot the paper before continuing. I always made a mess of it. Later, when ballpoint pens came along, I remember Mr. Kerr, our British science teacher, denouncing them as the beginning of the end of education. “You have to draw a line in the sand,” Kerr said. “If you allow ballpoint pens into schools, where will it stop?”

In 7th grade change swept into YIS in the shape of the beautiful and incredibly charming Miss Mance. She wore low-cut dresses, had long hair that she flicked over her shoulder, and played Joan Baez while we wrote our compositions. She took us to see “To Sir With Love” and taught us all the Bob Dylan ballads. When she was angry she could be a tyrant! Then came the wonderful hippie period. I remember going with my friends to the Minato no Mieru Oka Koen with Mr. Becker and discussing Salinger’s Franny and Zooey. Appearing in nothing but a jockstrap in an “event” by Stelark; crawling across the

floor of the Christ Church dragging a giant crystal behind me on which lasers flashed. Weird stuff. But fun.

Above all I remember the incredible field trips where we became so close to our friends it was like we were a big family and our teachers were like uncles and aunts. I remember doing zazen at a Zen temple and feeling like there couldn’t be a worse form of torture than to force a teenager to sit in one spot for 45 minutes.

YIS was going through a lot of change when I was there. I may not have gotten the best education in the world. But my teachers were great and I respected them because they were smart and thoughtful, not because they were the teachers. They are responsible for the love of learning that I still have today.

AQ: Do you think a YIS education is an advantage for aspiring journalists?

LH: Absolutely! You learn to handle multicultural situations with ease. You learn to look at the world from many perspectives. You learn to see the world from someone else’s perspective. That’s something Americans still have trouble with. What I am not sure of is what kind of jobs will be available for journalists in the future. The golden age of journalism, when we had almost unlimited time and money to report and write stories, seems all but over. Increasingly the jobs are for blogging, which seems to demand somewhat less perspective. There are fewer and fewer family-wage jobs for journalists. Both Business Week and LA Times are a small fraction of the size they were when I worked there. On the other hand, I’m sure that new forms of journalism will emerge. And with globalism increasingly a reality, having that international perspective will always help.

YIS teaches us to be adaptable and to learn outside the classroom. Those are probably the most important things I learned at YIS. I should add, of course, that my time at YIS gave me another great lesson: I learned what it feels like to have lots of wonderful friends with whom to laugh and to share thoughts. As anyone who has been around the block a few times will tell you, it is in sharing those thoughts and that laughter that we learn the most important thing of all: to love life.

Leslie would love to hear from former classmates or anyone in the extended YIS family. You may contact him at lesliehelm@comcast.net

Leslie (second from left) in school play at YC&AC

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Alumni Quarterly: How long were you at YIS and what have you been doing since then?

Larry Evans: I transferred from Japanese school to YIS in 1969 and stayed there until I graduated in 1977, so eight years altogether. I’ve changed jobs several times over the years. I started scuba diving for pleasure in 1981 and then in 1986 I became a professional scuba diving guide. Then in 1995 I became a scuba diving instructor until 2001, when I started a different business.

AQ: We understand that you’ve been involved in an organization that trains rescue dogs for disaster relief missions. Could you tell us about

that?

LE: The Rescue Dog Trainers’ Association (RDTA) is a non-profit

organization, founded in 2004 and based in Fujisawa.

It is also a member of International Rescue Dog Organization (IRO, Salzburg, http://www.iro-dogs.org/), which is an umbrella organization. RDTA sends out search and rescue dogs and handlers to disaster-stricken areas in

Japan and abroad, for example, to cities in

Nagano and Iwate that were hit by earthquakes

and to Sumatra, Indonesia following the devastating

earthquake and tsunami there. I joined RDTA in 2004 as an

advisor, and the following year became a full member and vice-

Larry Evans (YIS 1969 - 1977)

secretariat chief. In 2006 I became secretariat chief for the organization, and I still serve in that role as a volunteer, taking care of administrative matters. More information about the organization (in Japanese) is available on our website (http://www.rdta.or.jp/)

AQ: Are there any particularly memorable teachers or other experiences from your time at YIS?

LE: I remember that all the teachers were nice to me and helped me a lot. I especially appreciate Mr. and Mrs. Rideout, Mr. Lux, Ms. Markel, Mr. French, Ms. Benevedes, and Ms. Sugiyama. Sometimes I wish I could go back to the good old days again. I miss all my school friends too. When I was in YIS, I spent most of my spare time working on the CHOWA yearbook. I joined the photography club in 1972 and started to take pictures, and became a photography editor for the CHOWA in 1977. I really enjoyed making the CHOWA, which remains a great compilation of my schooldays at YIS.

Larry (left) at “alert agreement” ceremony between RDTA and Samukawa-machi

and students of YIS are of major importance. I would also like to express the Board’s great appreciation to Simon Taylor, who has been leading a number of key school initiatives in areas such as assessment, reporting, curriculum development, and accreditation, to name just a few. These and other important initiatives will move forward, and he and James will continue to work very closely together over the remainder of the school year to further develop the school and effect a smooth and successful transition.”

Mr. MacDonald is well known throughout the YIS community, having served as Deputy Headmaster since 2006 and as Director of School Operations from 2004 – 2006. A Canadian citizen, he holds dual bachelor’s degrees in Education and Management from the University of Lethbridge, an MA in Education from the University of Bath, an MBA from the University of British Columbia, and is currently working toward a doctorate in Education from the University of Bath. After teaching in Canada he began his international school career as a secondary teacher and Director of IT at YIS, and later worked at Canadian International School in Singapore as a teacher and IB Diploma Programme Coordinator before returning to YIS. He has published several articles on issues impacting international schools, presented at IB and other conferences, and participated in CIS and NEASC accreditation teams. Currently he is serving as an invited participant on a senior strategic IB committee looking to design structures for the next generation of IB schools. Also well known to the YIS community are James’ wife Corry and children Kianna, Josiah and Nicholas.

James MacDonald appointed next headmaster - continued from p.1

Marie (Second from right) and classmates at Cambridge matriculation

Marie Buda spent 13 years at YIS, joining the Kindergarten class in 1991 and graduating High School with the Class of 2004. Following graduation she moved to the UK, where she attended the University of Nottingham, receiving her B.Sc. in Psychology in 2007. She is currently a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge, where she is pursuing research in the “neurocorrelates of false memories.” We had a chance to catch up with Marie during a recent visit to YIS.

Alumni Quarterly: When did you first get interested in psychology and neuroscience and what sparked those interests?

Marie Buda: It evolved over time but I remember that when I was about 10 years old I had an interest in neuroscience. I would watch tv programmes on the topic and was fascinated by what happens to the brain when people have hallucinations or mystical religious experiences. Then I became interested in archeology and up until 11th grade I thought that I would pursue that subject in university. However, I soon started to have doubts about this decision. When I was 16, by chance I picked up a book on evolutionary psychology, and this solidified my decision to go into psychology. When I was an undergraduate, my father gave me a fantastic book by Harvard professor Daniel L. Schacter, called The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers, and this really drew me to the subject of memory. I ended up doing my undergraduate thesis on false memories, with a focus on memory in the elderly.

AQ: After graduating from the University of Nottingham, did you go straight into graduate school?

MB: I knew right away that I wanted to pursue a PhD, but funding was a bit of a problem then. So I found a job at Nottingham doing research on the psychology of educational technology. I had a chance to go into a lot of schools and to work on software for peer-to-peer applications used in 11th and 12th grade classrooms. But I still had a dream to do advanced research in false memories, and in 2008 I was able to enter the PhD program at Cambridge.

AQ: Why are you so interested in false memories and what is the focus of your research?

MB: Well, for one thing, I am shocked by how easily they can occur. False memories can happen in all of us. There can also be very serious implications, such as in the justice system when false memories can be the basis of incarcerating someone accused of a crime. I’m looking into how specific areas of the brain are involved, how particular physical characteristics of the brain may correlate with the propensity to experience false memories. For instance, one of my experiments has looked at the correlation between the amount of grey matter in the front of the brain and the incidence of false memories in the elderly. In another experiment I’ve looked at the subject of unconscious plagiarism from the neuroscientific perspective.

AQ: What are your career plans after you finish your doctorate?

MB: I like research – though it can get a bit lonely at times – and I will probably do some sort of post-doctoral program. But I love teaching and interacting with people, and in the long run I would like to be a university lecturer.

AQ: Looking back at your YIS education, do you feel that you were well prepared for the path you have pursued since then?

MB: Overall, yes. I think the IB Diploma Programme and the courses at YIS provided a challenging and very well rounded education. In addition, painful though it was at the time, the extended essay helped prepare me well for the heavier writing demands of university education. Going from a small school like YIS to a university with more than 30,000 people was a bit of a challenge, and my Americanized accent drew a few comments.

AQ: What are your impressions of YIS now; has your visit brought back any memories?

MB: I’m really surprised by how much it has grown. I enjoyed giving a presentation to the students, who seemed very engaged and interested in what I had to say. Memories? There are so many. I am very thankful for the Field Studies trips that I was able to go on. It was great to see and learn about other areas of Japan, and to spend time with friends and teachers outside the classroom. I still keep in touch with my YIS friends on Facebook and the YIS alumni website, and I enjoy getting together with those in Japan when I’m back here.

Marie Buda (YIS 1991 - 2004)

correspondence for something like 4 years! I was told that the school is still going strong, with many students, strong community support, and a number of former bonded laborer children now attending the school. I think this is something that YIS can be very proud of.

AQ: When did the IB start managing the program and how has it developed over the years?

GR: The IB took the Schools Building Schools idea and turned it into Schools to Schools. That concept is going very strong in Cambodia, where a number of IB schools are supporting Cambodian elementary schools. However, the focus for the past two years now has actually very much changed to teacher training, rather than on building. I would use the analogy of one of our head advisors, who says it’s up to others with better resources to build the roof and the four walls, but it’s teachers (with the support of their schools) that can work on the minds of the teachers who work under those roofs. YIS has been one of the major supporters of this IB “service” type training, with several teachers volunteering to train in Sri Lanka.

AQ: How did you enjoy working at YIS? What are some of your memories from your time here?

GR: I enjoyed my time in YIS very much! I often have the chance to talk of my experience at YIS with others and the reputation is already there. The students at YIS are amazing. I had such a great time with my students—it’s one of the things I miss most in having made the change from the classroom. I have many

distinct and dear memories from my time with each of my classes and I keep up with many of my former students on Facebook. My colleagues and the entire staff too were fantastic so I would say overall that YIS is a great place to be.

Glynn Richards was at YIS from 1998 to 2006, teaching in the elementary and middle schools. He is currently the Head of Access & Service Projects for the International Baccalaureate. The job centers on training for teachers in disadvantaged circumstances, projects in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Cambodia, and projects soon to be introduced in Mexico, India, Nepal, and other places.

Alumni Quarterly: We understand that your current career has been shaped by your early experience with the Schools Building Schools (now Schools to Schools) program at YIS. How did the program get started?

Glynn Richards: The Schools Building Schools program was initiated in 1998 by the Wycherleys, a teaching couple in the high school, and it was supported very strongly by the then head Neil Richards. But it was really a whole school endeavor, from the teachers to the students, from the administration, to the parents. The involvement and support for the program was very strong from the very beginning.

AQ: Where were the first schools built and were you personally involved in the projects?

GR: The first schools were built in Nepal and Cambodia. Those schools are still going strong. Interestingly, I met this year with the person who oversaw construction of our Nepal school, Som Paneru, as the IB was planning teacher training for that country. We’d never met before;

we just looked at each other’s

nametags and figured out that we had

been in

Glynn Richards (Faculty 1998 – 2006)

Glynn Richards (third from back left) in Sri Lanka

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Alumni Quarterly: What is your background and why did you join YIS?

John Snowball: I am originally from Australia and prior to joining YIS I was at an international school in Singapore. The main reason I wanted to join YIS was simply that – YIS. I was attracted to the good reputation the school has in international school circles, and as I learned more about the school, it seemed to me to be a school with good values.

AQ: Did you or your family experience any culture shocks when you came to Japan?

JS: Not so many, as it is still Asia. Probably the language was the main area, but that is also a big attraction. Learning the language of the host country is perhaps the best way to get to know the culture better and, after all, this is one of the principle reasons for living and working internationally. The weather in winter came as a bit of a schock, however.

AQ: How have you found the YIS Middle School compared with your last school?

JS: The main difference is size - by the time I left my last middle school, it had 840 students. We also have more “long termers” at YIS than my last school. In terms of the children’s natures though, there are many similarities: the warmth, the openness, the positive attitudes, the humor. I have been so impressed with how positive YIS students are, how welcoming they were – and continue to be - to me when I joined. I think this is a great little middle school!

AQ: YIS has recently made a significant decision in choosing to introduce the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) beginning next year. Could you tell us about the rationale for this change and what to expect going forward?

JS: The decision to look at the current middle years

John Snowball – Middle School Principalcurriculum was part of the school’s review process. When we undertook this review, we came up with what we considered to be the ideal framework for a middle years curriculum and compared our current model and the MYP to this. The feeling was that adopting the MYP would give us greater continuity – following from the PYP and coming before the IBDP – in our curricular offerings. This would allow us to map our program better. We also felt that the MYP assessment would provide students, parents and teachers with better information on a student’s progress. Having a common “language” throughout the secondary sector will allow for greater collaboration between teachers and also provide more opportunities for professional development. The introduction of technology will be another benefit of adopting this program.

AQ: What are some of your key goals for the Middle School?

JS: The major one is of course, the successful implementation of the MYP – the assessment, the Areas of Interaction, interdisciplinary units of teaching. I’m also looking to further embed the community service program we are running. I think that this gives us the opportunity to see how we can celebrate our internationalism, but also incorporate this into our curriculum. I want to be able to see our students making the most opportunity of their time at YIS, both in the classroom and outside. We want to make sure we have active and principled students - who want to do their best, and who also want to make a difference in the world.

AQ: What do you miss the most from your home country?

JS: Although I have lived in different places in Australia, I consider myself a Melburnian, and for me, that means coffee and coffee shops.

John Snowball (center) and family at a Yokohama Baystars game

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time, there were only three classes – a Nursery class for 3 year olds, a Transition class for 4 year olds, and a Kindergarten class for 5 year olds, all under the umbrella of ‘Kindergarten’. The curriculum at the time was traditional, following a thematic approach. With the years, there was movement, both conceptually and physically, where we resided in borrowed facilities at Sancta Maria while the present Kindergarten/First Grade building was being built, and also resided at St Joseph’s College, while the present ELC was under construction, and our curriculum transitioning from a thematic approach to the Primary Years Program/Reggio Emilia Approach. It was during the time we resided in the borrowed facility at St. Joseph’s College that we created a Pre-Kindergarten section (the present E1 & E2 classes) separating ourselves from the 5 year old classes which became part of the Elementary School.

AQ: Could you tell us a little about the Reggio Emilia approach and how it is put in practice at YIS?

JC: Reggio Emilia is the name of a city in the northern part of Italy, in the region of Emilia Romagna, a rich industrial city embedded in history and famous for their parmesan cheese and balsamic

vinegar. More importantly, they are known for their commitment to the education of young children 0-6

years of age through their municipal schools, which was originally led by a remarkable and charismatic man named Loris Malaguzzi who convinced the local government to make an enormous financial commitment in establishing many centers for young children.

There are many pedagogical principles underpinning the work of the Reggio educators derived from the writings of Lev Vygotsky, John Dewey, Jerome Bruner, Howard Gardner, David Hawkins, however, the following are the main principles of the Reggio Emilia Approach:

Alumni Quarterly: How and when did you get interested in early childhood education?

Junko Cancemi: My first teaching position was at the International School of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo, where I taught a class of 4 year old children. At this time, the school was interested in implementing the ‘Open Classroom’ approach, where literally the classroom walls were knocked down to create space for the young children to explore, both physically and conceptually, not confined to a single classroom space, but creating larger areas for block building, role play, wood work areas, and the like. The possibilities of learning together with the children in such an environment was such a rewarding experience and a joy to work in pushing the boundaries out of a comfort zone as an educator that I have stayed in the field of early childhood education ever since.

AQ: When did you join YIS and how has the ELC developed in that time?

JC: I first joined YIS in 1983 as a parent when we moved to

Yokohama from Tokyo and enrolled our two

children at YIS. I joined the YIS

faculty in 1985 as a half-day teacher as my children were still young at the time,

and transferred to full-time teaching after two years. At the

Junko Cancemi – ELC Director

Junko Cancemi making shadow puppets with ELC children

Bridging the Gap (BTG), our groundbreaking annual conference held in November marked its eighth year with a return to the original theme of 21st Century Education and a collaborative, unconventional

format. Taking advantage of the wealth of talent and experience among YIS faculty and other community members, Friday November 20th featured workshops and breakout sessions on topics ranging from “Restless Digital Natives” to “The Social Implications of Web 2.0” to “What does brain research say about how and what 21st century learners need to be taught?” The next day saw the introduction of Yokohama BarCamp, an “unconference” approach involving participant-initiated discussions that evolved spontaneously over the course of the day.

Guest presenters and participants for both days were “Any Century Learning and Leadership Facilitator” Chris Toy, who has over 30 years of experience as a teacher, principal, university instructor, presenter and writer, and Kim Coffino, an experienced international educator whose work focuses on helping core subject teachers authentically embed current and emerging technologies in the classroom to create a global and collaborative learning environment.

BTG is a community conference that provides an opportunity for teachers, parents, alumni and others in the broader community to explore some of the ideas that are influencing the development of education and also affecting the traditional links between home and school.

The pedagogy of relationships•The pedagogy of listening•The image of the child•Pedagogical documentation•‘the Hundred Languages’•Communication and collaboration•Social constructivism•The Environment as ‘the third teacher’ •

At our ELC, we incorporate these principles into our daily practice in our work with the children within the curricular framework of the Primary Years Programme.

AQ: What are some of your memorable experiences at YIS?

JC: This is a very difficult question to answer, as I have experienced so many memorable experiences over the years. You can also imagine that everyday at the ELC is a memorable experience where I am able to ‘connect’ with

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“Bridging the Gap” Continues to Inspire

Participants select visual images for warming up exercise with BTG guest Chris Toy Kim Coffino discusses 21st Century Classroom

the children, parents and staff in so many varied ways. But if I must give some experiences, perhaps witnessing the graduation of the students who have been at the ELC is always an emotional experience, as well as having past students come back to visit the school who are now grown young adults. Sometimes, I am able to better recognize the parents than the students themselves (!), but after a while, I begin to recognize familiar smiles.

AQ: Do you have any special hobbies or passions?

JC: I enjoy playing tennis, and lately golf, although I seem to laugh more often when I am on the tennis court than on the golf course. I also enjoy swimming and have been more diligent going to the fitness center this year. I like reading, believe it or not, professional reading. I enjoy cooking, when I have all the ingredients I need, but also improvising with what is left in the fridge; but I also do like going to new and different restaurants!

1970s1972Pamela Wesson (YIS 1959 – 1972)We lived on Asahi-dai and my older brothers Sheldon and David attended YIS as well. My parents Helen and Sheldon Wesson helped found the school at its old location in the 1950s. We left Japan for professional reasons (my parents were journalists). It was tough adjusting to American schools after YIS because we were more advanced aca-demically and internationally than suburban New Jersey kids. But we thought about Japan every day. I’m a design-er now, living in Paris, surrounded by woodblock prints.

1976Mike Webb (YIS 1974 – 1976)I am currently living in Buck County PA.

1977David Boddie (YIS 1966 – 1970)I met briefly with President Barack Obama on Healthcare and Small Business policy and former Attorney General Ed Meese at his 78th birthday party at Ronald Reagan Build-ing International Trade Center, Washington, D.C.

1979Karen Duffield (YIS 1977 – 1979)I’m living in Vancouver and have an online tea business. The website is under construction to set it up as a store. Love re-connecting with everyone. Look forward to hear-ing all the great news. My website is www.oohcha.com

1980s

1988Yoko Wada Decker (YIS 1984 – 1988)It’s amazing to see gray hairs and wrinkles on each other but we are all the same inside... mischievous YIS kids. It’s been over 20 years now since I graduated YIS and it’s amazing what we all have accomplished throughout the years. I fondly remember our field trips (and NO field trip during our senior year. Yes, I am part of the infamous Class of ‘88), our version of “Ski-trip” and all our classes....dances... plays.... and of course eating lunch at Minatono Mieru Oka Koen. My favorite was the art class with Stelarc. Such an inspiring teacher.

Anyway, I have been married for 12 years now with 2 wonderful children (6 year old boy and 11 months old girl) and have been living in Los Angeles for 3 years (lived in Santa Barbara for 10 years before that). Give me a shout if you are in my neck of the woods. My brother Yota Wada lives in Woking, UK and is working as some big shot. :0) Give him a call if you need a place to stay. Just kidding. He’s got 2 little gorgeous girls.

1989Brian Sletten (YIS 1986 – 1989)Greetings and salutations, all. My wife and I recently moved to the Los Angeles area, where we still haven’t gotten together with Yoko, Kayoko or Destiny because

I have been too busy. I am working on the online game League of Legends (http://leagueoflegends.com) for Riot Games (http://riotgames.com) in Culver City, CA. On the weekends, I fly around the country speaking at techni-cal conferences through the NoFluffJustStuff (http://nofluffjuststuff.com) symposium series. I’ve spoken in London and Zurich in the last year and hope to get back sometime soon. I also have contributed to several techni-cal books and frequently write articles for several online magazines. In my free time (ha!), my wife and I enjoy the weather and food in L.A. I am an avid Twitterer and would love to reconnect with YIS alums, teachers, etc. http://twitter.com/bsletten

1990s1990Eugene Saburi (YIS 1976 – 1985)Hi Everyone - hope all is well. As some of you know, I re-located to the US in July after having been back in Japan for almost 7 years from 2003. I live in Seattle, Washington now, where we have some fantastic outdoor activities, software and coffee (and a little rain) :) If any of you are in the area, drop me an email and I can show you around! eugenhs@hotmail.com. I do return to Japan frequently on business as well.

1992Lorna Marson (YIS 1988 – 1990)I just had my first baby - Maxwell William born on 20th November.

1994Katie Glynn (McCreery) (YIS 1985 – 1994)Wow a lot has happened! The short version: graduated from Annapolis in 1998, nearly a decade as a helicopter pilot in the Navy (including two lovely soiree’s in the Middle East). Got married in 2000, had a boy in 2006 (Keegan), a girl in 2008 (Fiona), and now I’m pursuing a Master’s degree in Public Policy at Harvard. The quarters are tight with two adults, two kids, a cat and two Great Danes, but life is good! Would love to get back in touch with YISers from the mid-nineties!

2000s

2006Patrick Erickson (YIS 1998 – 2001)It’s been a busy first semester of my senior year at South-ern Illinois University. Aside from finishing up my Radio-Television degree I have been working 4 jobs. The two that keep me most busy are related to my education. I am

Class Notes This section offers a chance to update fellow alums on what you’ve been doing since school days at YIS, share recent news, noteworthy accomplishments, or send a message to classmates. Entries are listed by class year, that is, the year of graduation from High School, whether at YIS or elsewhere. To submit a Class Notes entry for the next issue of the YIS Alumni Quarterly, please go to http://alumni.yis.ac.jp/?page=CN. Don’t forget to include your name, class year (i.e., the year you graduated from high school at YIS or elsewhere), and the years that you attended YIS. Please feel free to send a recent photo too.

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Brian Sletten (Class of 1989)

Mike Webb (Classof 1976)

Yoko Wada Decker (Class of 1988)

Karen Duffield (Class of 1979)

in my second year as the voice of SIU Women’s Athletics, broadcasting basketball, softball, and volleyball games on the radio and over the Internet. In my other busy job, I am the executive producer for the campus-run PBS televi-sion station, as I oversee putting on a daily news show. I also keep busy writing feature stories for the school’s ath-letic department and as a peer advisor for SIU’s College of Mass Communication.

It has been a crazy year and I can’t wait for Christmas break so I can actually sleep, although I will continue to broadcast even when school is not in session. I can’t complain though, it has given me great experience, a little bit of spending money, and a couple awards for best broadcaster in the state of Illinois and a nomination for best in the country. Home is about 2000 miles away in Gig Harbor, Washington.

Hope all is well with those at YIS. I have great memories there and I hope to be able to come visit in the next couple years. This summer will hopefully be spent in South Africa at the World Cup, but after that and finding a real job, I hope to make a trip back to Japan very soon. Best wishes to everyone I grew up with and all those who are at YIS now. Have a great holiday season.

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WJAA Invitational Round Robin JV Basketball TournamentLocation: YIS Gymnasium & St. Maur GymnasiumDate & Time: January 22 (12:00 - 7:00 pm) and January 23 (9:00 am - 4: 00 pm)

AISA Invitational Round Robin Girls Basketball TournamentLocation: YIS GymnasiumDate & Time: January 29 (9:00 - 5:00 pm) and January 30 (9:00 am - 5: 00 pm)

Grade 12 IB Music Recital SeriesLocation: Tanner AuditoriumDate & Time: February 22 - 26 (7:00 - 8:30 pm)

Artscape Student Art ExhibitionLocation: National Children’s Castle (Kodomo no Shiro), Shibuya, TokyoDate: February 26 - March 7

Tanner Community Ensemble Spring ConcertLocation: Tanner AuditoriumDate & Time: March 14 (2:00 - 4:00 pm)

Grade 11 IB Music ConcertLocation: Tanner AuditoriumDate & Time: April 2 (7:00 - 8:30 pm)

Upcoming Events at YISSports matches, concerts, art exhibits, drama performances and more – there’s always something interesting going on at YIS. We warmly welcome alumni to school events, including school-related events at other venues. Check the school calendar (http://www.yis.ac.jp/page.cfm?p=257) and athletic schedule (http://www.yis.ac.jp/page.cfm?p=754) for details. Here are a few highlighted events scheduled in the coming months.

Middle School/High School Instrumental Spring ConcertLocation: Tanner AuditoriumDate & Time: April 4 (4:00 - 6:00 pm)

IB Visual Art ExhibitLocation: BankArt Gallery, YokohamaDate & Time: April 6 - 10 (11:30 - 7:00 pm)

Middle School/High School Vocal Spring ConcertLocation: Tanner AuditoriumDate & Time: April 16 (7:00 - 8:30 pm)

High School Japanese Music Ensemble Spring ConcertLocation: Kenmin Kyosai Mirai Hall, YokohamaDate & Time: April 23 (7:00 - 8:30 pm)

Anton’s Hoff’s (Class of 2009)

Allie Dalby (Class of 2007)

2007Allie Dalby (YIS 2002 – 2007)Hey all you YIS people! Seems like it has been ages since graduating in 2007. I have recently finished my second year of graphic design in Sydney and after one more year will be moving on with a bachelors in communication design which is all very exciting! Have also been keeping busy with a few internships and freelance design work, which is currently helping with the rent! Australia has been brilliant so far and isn’t too far from Japan so I will hopefully be back again soon to visit. Not sure who’s still around at YIS but send my best wishes to those who are! Hopefully I will see you all again sometime soon.

2009Anton Hoff (YIS 2006 – 2009)I have been living in San Francisco for nearly four months now adjusting to the new environment in America and attending University of San Francisco. It’s my first time leaving Japan for so long; I can’t wait to get back in the winter. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all my YIS teachers and faculty for a great high school experience and education that has helped me stay strong in college. Thank you!

The Quarterly QuizLook familiar? The first closest person to correctly identify the name of the sport and the year in which the photos were taken will win a YIS coffee mug. Send responses to alumni@yis.ac.jp with the words “Quarterly Quiz” in the sub-ject line.

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The correct answer to the previous Quarterly Quiz question about when the YIS school song was written was “1958.“ The winner is Ashley Park ‘04 Congratulations!

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