• Headmaster
George Pruitt
Yale Law School, JD (1992)
Kyoto University, Rotary Scholar (1987-1989)
Harvard University, AB (1985)
George enjoys reading, writing fiction and traveling and is currently pursuing a master's degree in educational administration. He joined the faculty in 2001. George is married to Zou Qian, a Chinese national.
Tom Lechner
Senior High School English Instructor
Head of the English Department (High School)
Boise State University, MS Educational Technology (2004)
Montana State University, BA Teacher Certification, (1998)
Montana State University, BA Political Science (1990)
Tom joined the faculty in 2003. He is keenly interested in harnessing the power of new technologies in the classroom to link students from all over the world. TomÕs interests include bicycle touring, blues music and travel. TomÕs students have recently participate in the Global Village Internet project with student from Russia and India and have conducted a Model United Nations meeting in English.
Douglas Evans
Junior and Senior High School English Instructor
Director of Curriculum Development
Walden University, MA in Education (2004)
University of Iowa, BA (1991)
Licensed Public Teacher (Junior High School and High School, Iowa)
Doug joined the faculty in 2002. He has taught English in Russia, Poland, South Korea, Los Angeles and Japan. His hobbies and interests include travel, people, music, sports and volunteer work. He married his girlfriend, Alisa, in March. Some of Doug's main educational interests are curriculum development, learning styles and professional development. He hopes to gain further knowledge in these and other areas as he pursues a doctorate in education.
Anton Luiten
Senior High School English Instructor
Co-Director of Professional Development
Cambridge University, Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults (2001)
Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, Master of Musicology (1999)
University of Hong Kong, PGCE (1997)
University of Western Australia, Bachelor of Music (1990)
Anton joined the faculty in 2003. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in musicology, has written music for film and has a licentiate in piano performance. He has taught music history at the Conservatory of Music in Sydney. He has also taught English in Hong Kong for ten years. He enjoys playing tennis and singing.
Clive Hazell
Senior High School English Instructor
Co-Director of Professional Development
University of Sydney, Bachelor of Education (1995)
Macquarie University, Bachelor of Early Childhood Teaching (1993)
ESL Certification, Grades 7-12
Licensed English, History and Legal Studies Teacher (Grades 7-12)
Clive joined the faculty in 2003. He enjoys collecting woodblock prints from the Meiji period and has classroom experience in three countries. Clive was born in Australia but was raised in Canada. He enjoys reading and is interested in cultural studies. He has begun to study Japanese in earnest. He has wide experience as a teacher trainer in Japan. He is a member of the Golden Key Society, an organization that recognizes academic achievement internationally. Recently, he has begun a masterÕs degree program through Macquarie University.
Manisha Sharma
Junior and Senior High School English Instructor
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Masters in Art Education (2002)
College of Art, Delhi, Bachelor of Fine Arts (1998)
Manisha joined the faculty in 2004. She is a visual artist from India. Manisha likes to give expression to her perceptions in various media including writing and photography and is currently experimenting with Artists' Books. She has been a part of group shows in Delhi and Chicago and has experience teaching art to various age groups in the US and India. One of her chief passions is exploring Indian Aesthetics and its roots in philosophy and spirituality. As an artist and educator, she seeks to use the power of art making to facilitate conversations about the nature of class, gender and community. She aims to examine the spirit that drives us as individuals and to explore how the communities we live in affect that spirit. In other avatars, Manisha is an avid student of cinema and literature and enjoys long walks and traveling, of both the real and armchair kind.
Chris Wyle
Senior High School English Instructor
Monterey Institute of International Studies, Masters in International Policy Studies (2003)
University of California, Berkeley, Certificate in TESL (1996)
University of New Mexico, Bachelor of University Studies (1995)
Chris joined the faculty in 2004. He is from the Bay Area and has traveled and lived in Europe, Australia, Japan, Thailand and Southeast Asia. His other academic interests include international relations, environmental studies, other cultures and history. He studied Navajo as an undergraduate. His hobbies include guitar, photography, creative writing, the outdoors and nature, movies and music. HeÕs had his share of unusual jobs, including a stint as a ranch-hand in Australia.
Petra McSporran
Senior High School English Instructor
Auckland University, B.A (1998)
Auckland University, Dip Teaching (1999)
Petra joined the faculty in September 2004. She has a keen interest in languages, having studied Japanese, Chinese and French. She taught in New Zealand for two years prior to teaching English in London, where she was based for 2 1/2 years. She enjoys traveling, and both watching and participating in musical, cultural and sporting events. She is looking forward to improving her Japanese and meeting new people.
Taeko Tofts
Junior and Senior High School English Instructor
University of Sheffield, Masters of Arts in Journalism Studies (2003)
University of Keele, Masters of Arts in Education Management (2001)
English Language Centre, London, TEFL Certificate (1996)
University of Wales, Bachelor of Arts (1995)
Taeko joined the faculty in 2004. She is British but has spent many years living overseas in the Middle East, in the Bahamas and, more recently, in Japan. She spent six years in Shizuoka Prefecture on the JET Programme and has taught English at the elementary, junior and senior high school level. She also worked for the Shizuoka Prefectural Board of Education as an education advisor. She enjoys drama, both as a participant and an observer. Her other hobbies include reading, writing and watching movies. She is interested in holistic health and hopes to learn about Japanese-style acupuncture.
Aimee Lyons
Junior High School English Instructor
University of Kent at Canterbury, LLB (2000)
Aimee's interest in languages began early, when she studied French and German at an Irish language immersion elementary school. She later studied Spanish as part of the International Baccalaureate program at L.B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific in Canada. She has recently passed Level 2 of the Japanese Proficiency Test. Her experience at the United World College altered her perspective on the world and provided her with a vision of the kind of teacher she might become. Spreading the United World perspective was one of the motivations that brought her to Japan. She has been teaching here for five years. She is stimulated by the challenge of teaching multiple languages and she emphasizes the use of multimedia resources. She has a personal interest in student welfare and guidance issues and is contemplating pursuing a master's degree in education and counseling. She is interested in humanitarian issues and enjoys travel, movies, music from all over the world and a variety of sports, especially soccer.
Christopher Pickering
Senior High School English Instructor
Somerville College, Oxford University, BA Honors (2001)
Chris has a TESOL certificate and has taught English to children and adults in London, Greece and Korea. He has also launched and directed a successful IT consultancy. He was involved in numerous web-based projects and spent much of his time ensuring that the web pages his company designed were tagged appropriately to maximize their potential on search engines. He has traveled extensively through the USA and Europe and more recently to Asia. He enjoys reading and writing shorts stories and poetry. He also has a keen interest in sports. He represented his college in football, squash, cricket, snowboarding and tennis.
Trang Nguyen
Junior and Senior High School English Instructor
Macquarie University, MA (Applied Linguistics) (expected 2006)
Griffith University, BA (Asian International Studies) (1992)
Trang joined the faculty in 2005. She was born in Vietnam but moved at an early age to Australia and currently holds Australian citizenship. She attended primary school in France. She has four years of teaching experience in Japan, at both the junior high school and university level. She is a passionate student of languages. She speaks fluent English, Vietnamese and French and is currently studying Japanese. She participated in a cultural exchange program in Indonesia for two months in order to learn the language and culture. She enjoys reading, cycling, yoga and calligraphy.
Matthew Sanders
Junior and Senior High School English Instructor
City University, Master in Teaching (2002)
University of Washington, BA (2000)
Matthew joined the faculty in 2005. He is a licensed teacher and has one year of experience teaching math in a junior high school in Seattle and eighteen months experience working as an assistant English teacher in Japan. He has also taught English in Taiwan. He has coached youth soccer and basketball teams. He has a keen interest in history, which was his undergraduate major.
Yang Yu
Chinese Language
Nanzan University, M.A. (2002)
Sichuan University of Foreign Languages, B.A. (1998)
Yang-san (You-san in Japanese) joined the faculty in 2005. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in literature at Nanzan University. He speaks Japanese and English fluently. He was living in Chongching before coming to Japan.
Chris Brown
Junior and Senior High School English Instructor
University of New Hampshire, Master of Secondary Education (2003)
University of New Hampshire, BA (2002)
Chris joined the faculty in 2005. He was captain of his university basketball team and was named to the first-team all-conference squad. He has played in professional leagues in Yokohama and in Australia. He currently plays basketball for the Toyota Trading Company professional team. His older brother plays basketball for the Mitsubishi team and was on the Japanese Olympic team. Chris intends to obtain a PhD in education in the near future. He recently became engaged to an Australian citizen.
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