A little about Me
Hola folks,
My name is Rich Dysinger. I’m a 6th grade teacher in Iwakuni, Japan at MC Perry Elementary. We’re located on a Marine Corps Air Station, but I live economy with my beautiful wife Billie. We have truly been blessed by the opportunity to live in this wonderful country and we love everything Japan and its people have to offer. I also enjoy reading, writing, running, basketball, weightlifting and playing bass guitar in a band of wannabe rockers.
My familiarity with blogs is way more extensive than anything I’ve ever done with wikis or podcasting, of which I have zero experience. I ran a blog through our online gaggle.net program here in Japan and my kids loved it. Likewise, I created a blog for another class in the COMET cohort. I look forward to the opportunity to use cutting edge technology to deliver lessons to my kids because I have found that they respond well to tech in the classroom.
As for my final project, I’m not sure as to what I want to do quite yet. I’m thinking of utilizing the wiki and podcasting to expand our online JASON project we do with our sixth grade science students. I want to make it more interactive and tech heavy. As of now we only really have one portion that is electronic and everything is very simplistic. My kids are beyond this. I’m not but they are. J Perhaps this course can help me bring forth ideas that are new and invigorating and update the curriculum a bit for this next generation. It’s just an idea.
Rich
July 16, 2008 @ 9:23 am
Hi Rich,
How cool that you’re joining us from Japan.
July 16, 2008 @ 1:41 pm
do the japanese watch “Heroes”? what do they think of “Hiro”?
They love Hiro because he pretty much embodies everything that is Japanese. Again, this is from the point of view of my Japanese national firends. They also love Claire for obvious reasons.
July 16, 2008 @ 7:39 pm
Hi, Rich! Do you find that you mainly interact with Americans in Japan since you’re located on a Marine Corps Air Station?
My wife and I live off base in a Japanese neighborhood so we interact with all types of people although communication is still an issue.
July 16, 2008 @ 9:27 pm
Hi Rich,
Wow, what an experience it must be to live and work in Japan. My wife is half-Japanese and it’s one of the places we would love to visit before having kids.
It’s well worth it. Tokyo is nuts.
July 17, 2008 @ 2:23 pm
Glad to see you are still with us. It’s cool how we can all be so far apart and share the COMET together.
My old roomy from college, who is from Japan is coming in on Aug 1st and she keeps asking me what I want from Japan. Any ideas?
Monica
Hi Monica,
Well, you name it and it will be nice. Vases are great as are hanging scrolls. You can also ask for a kokeyshi (spelling?) doll which are very popular. Then again, a chop stick or sake set is very popular.
July 17, 2008 @ 3:11 pm
What a great experience it is to live in a different culture.
July 17, 2008 @ 8:33 pm
Hi Rich! I wish we all of us COMETeers had more of an opportunity to interact with you live. We should try to find a convenient time where the time zones overlap and all meet in Adobe Connect or Second Life. I’m sure everyone would have tons of questions about your experiences teaching in Japan. I know I do. By they way, have you gone anywhere cool recently? You and your wife always seem to be taking incredible trips.
Well, I happen to be in the states right now visiting family so I’ll be there for tomorrow’s class so this will be fun. Hoepfully everythingw orks right. I have my laptop and I’m ready to go. As for recent trips, my wife and I just came back from 18 gorgeous days in vietnam where we had a chance to hit Hanoi, Siagon and Danang. It was a very cool experience. This August we’re also going to climb Mt. Fuji near Tokyo.
July 17, 2008 @ 9:18 pm
How awesome to live in Japan. I’ve looked at teaching English or in an American School abroad many times. Is the food fabulous? I bet it is.
Alex
The food amazing. For a Montana kid, it’s been a change of pace but now I love it.
July 17, 2008 @ 9:37 pm
I want to visit Japan someday. Your my idol!
July 17, 2008 @ 11:56 pm
Awesome that you’re in Japan!!
July 18, 2008 @ 9:38 am
I, too, play bass guitar. Was in a band in high school and for a couple more years after that until everyone starting moving away. Rock on!
July 20, 2008 @ 9:46 am
Hi, what a wonderful experience to be living in Japan and teaching! My husband and i went to Mexico and taught English for a summer and it was very interesting a wonderful experience that I am so glad to have!