Japan’s Independent Network of English Schools - ジネス

Japan’s Independent Network of English Schools - ジネス

E-mail Newsletter - July, 2011
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Concert to help rebuild schools after Earthquake.
Now here is an interesting and worthwhile idea.

On August 27th, in one of the most beautiful islands in Japan, Okinawa, there will be the ECOLIVE Charity Event 2011.
This event is to raise enough money to assist with the building of a new pre-fabricated school in Iwate, an area severely damaged after the March 11 earthquake.
With a unique and alternative theme ECOLIVE Japan will be completely supported by a combination of solar, wind, and bio diesel fuel to bring loud, constant, and crystal clear sound and lighting throughout the concert.

For more information on this unique even please the ECOLIVE Japan website at:
http://www.ecolivejapan.com/index.html

Here you can also make donations towards this charity event.
So many thanks to our network member Kevin Palmer who sent along the details of this fund raising concert and we all hope it goes well.

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The U.S.A. Drops the pen from schools
This has been one of the most interesting developments I have seen this year.
According to the Australian Newspaper the following will be happening;
About 40 states in the US have adopted the national curriculum, known as the Common Core State Standards, which dumps mandatory teaching of longhand and leaves it to schools to decide whether to teach handwriting.
In its place they will be required to teach keyboard skills.
This is an interesting move and one which has a more unusual stance here in Japan. For in Junior High School here they still learn cursive writing as well as the standard printing of of the alphabet.
Who knows, but maybe in 20 years time Japanese kids will write English better than kids of the same age from the USA.

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New look front page for Jines
With the steady increase in traffic through the Jines website we felt it was well overdue for a small facelift and this week the first changes have been made.
There is more information for potential students to look at and we have provided specialised fields for ESL information gathering.
Along with all of this we have also added extra information into the School Owners section with listings of all the international schools on the Jines iPhone app.
And lastly, due to the number of job requests we receive we have added a direct link to gaijinpot.com. So if you are looking for work in Japan this is a good place to start.
We hope you find this new look useful.


Education news from News On Japan
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Fund set up to repair music instruments at disaster-hit schools+.  (Breitbart)
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9OJQ6101&show_article=1

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JET’s fresh from the U.S. Ready to help.  (The Japan Times)
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110727a5.html

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Todai plans English-only course.  (The Japan Times)
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110723b1.html

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First term ends in disaster hit areas.  (The Daily Yomiuri)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110720005336.htm

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English teachers sent abroad. (The Japan Times)
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20110717a1.html

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Panel targets English language proficiency.  (The Japan Times)
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110714b2.html

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Foreign students back but numbers look likely to fall. (The Japan Times)
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20110712zg.html


International and Higher Education news
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Cap on government funded students in Britain. (The Australian)
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/cap-on-government-funded-students-in-britain/story-e6frgcjx-1226093334491

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The top 100 university rankings for Social Sciences. (The Guardian Online)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jul/27/top-100-world-university-rankings-social-sciences

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More grad students eyeing the U.S. (Inside Higher Ed)
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/04/12/survey_shows_international_graduate_student_applications_increasing_at_colleges_in_u_s

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Digital textbooks and the future. (Newsweek)
http://education.newsweek.com/2010/09/12/digital-textbooks-may-revolutionize-education.html


All about Jines
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Web: http://www.jines.jp

iPhone App: http://itunes.apple.com/tw/app/id394593500?mt=8

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