Yirun Jin left me a comment on my first intro blog post! I was very excited to hear that you like Japan! I also agree, food there is amazing! I unfortunately haven’t been able to go back to see my family in two years and I thoroughly miss a lot of things there. I was supposed to go back this year but because of Covid, that got postponed 🙁

And lastly, to answer your question about who my favourite basketball player is, I am also a huge fan of Kobe. I wore Kobe 8 (sorry I am getting a bit nerdy here. It’s a type of basketball shoes for those who are not familiar) when I was still actively playing. I still treasure them. I have been watching a lot of NBA games,  and I am very very excited about the upcoming ones!

Alright, today I am going to share a bit of my experience on how I started to enjoy “learning.”

Growing up in a Japanese family with a very strict dad who believed that success in life comes from getting “good grades”, I was often allocated some time to do extra studying on my day off. As a kid who loved moving my body, playing outside with my friends, and constantly coming up with activities/games, I would find every possible reasons not to study when that time  was approaching. It just wasn’t my thing. I was not interested in sitting down in my desk for a long time to memorize Japanese characters (Kanji) and solve equations.

I never really felt the joy of learning until I got into the university in Canada. How we learn here was very different from how I learned in Japan. In Japan (and Japanese education in general), it was all about the grades and almost all of my friends in school were hustling everyday either getting tutored after school or studying late at night so that they can get good grades, which will allow you to get into good university, and potentially get great jobs. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Japan, and I absolutely enjoyed a lot of things at school, but in terms of education, I was getting overwhelmed by how people were constantly competing over grades, and that is why I decided to get out of that culture and come to Canada for University for a change.

After I moved here, I got into the education program and that’s where everything changed for me. I learned about many different kinds of learning challenges that people face that we never discussed about at the school in Japan I used to go to. We also never even talked about mental health issues or the importance of self care as if it was almost a taboo to have that kind of mindset. Fortunately, it has been few years after I left Japan, and I’ve been seeing many changes and shifts in how people think about education and everything around it. Some still have those academic competitions going on, but many have started to accept differentiated learning and are a bit more flexible in how students learn and show their learning.

At the beginning of my university life, I was very afraid that my professor will think that I am not good enough for the course, or when I couldn’t find the right word or phrase to explain my ideas, I got very shy and frustrated. However, through multiple courses and professors in the education department, I learned that there is no just one way in learning and showing that. When I realized that, university became less of a stress because I felt accepted. Less stress naturally opened up my mind to be more creative and I really started to enjoy learning about how learning happens.  As also mentioned in the article, learning becomes meaningful when there are options on how we learn instead of restricting to just one because learning happens differently for everyone (Ertmer & Newby, 2018, p. 26).

Ertmer, P. A. & Newby, T. (2018). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing Critical Features From an Instructional Design Perspective. In R. E. West (Ed.), Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology. EdTech Books. https://edtechbooks.org/lidtfoundations/behaviorism_cognitivism_constructivism

Hi everyone! My name is Anna!

I graduated from the elementary education program at Uvic last year, and I am currently working as a childcare provider, supervisor/trainer at the University of Victoria Student Union Building, and an eyelash technician in downtown Victoria!

I moved here after graduating high school in Tokyo, Japan, which is where my hometown is, and have been living in Victoria since! I really love it here, but to be honest, I am also ready to move on to a new city just for some changes. My first language is Japanese, but I was lucky enough to spend some time in Hong Kong and Singapore during my childhood, which is where I learned how to speak English.

I used to play basketball during middle school and high school, and I also played Intramural basketball at Uvic for couple years. After that, as much as I wanted to keep on playing, I realized it was time for me to start making some money so I started working for them. I am also a big hiker, so I go on multiple hikes and camping trips throughout the year. The most recent accomplishment is hiking up Mount Cascade in Banff, Alberta. It sure was not an easy hike, but oh the view was so worth it and S T U N N I N G !! 

Some other things I enjoy doing are playing spike ball, listening to music, playing guitar, going out for delicious food (yes I am a foodie), taking pictures (casually), hanging out with friends, and watching movies. Speaking of movies, I recently watched “Tenet” and I was mind blown once again by Christopher Nolan. I highly recommend watching it if you haven’t yet.

I can keep on talking about myself, but I am not planning on writing an essay here, so I will attach a link to some google slides that talk a bit more about myself and my beliefs in education.
I am very excited for this course, and I hope to get to know you all better throughout!