2015 December 5 | Andy Boon | Two Fabulous Presentations (and a Bonenkai!)

"Teaching is all about
making the teacher redundant,"
Boon, 2015 December 5
Chapter Meeting Presentation

Investigating the world outside: Students as researchers

Project work can be a powerful means of empowering students to take their learning beyond the borders of the classroom, to examine the world outside, to seek answers, and suggest change. This workshop will examine the process of engaging students in semester-long projects from equipping them with the necessary research tools to having them deliver the end-product via various media in the final class. It will also describe students’ reactions to the overall learning experience

2015 October 18 | Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto | Creative teaching for 21st century learners

Creative teaching for 21^st century learners

Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto

There’s a lot of talk these days about including 21^st century skills in language classes. What are these skills, and do they have any place in a language class where teachers have limited contact time, and the priority is, still, to teach English? In this workshop, teachers will learn teaching techniques to help their learners become strong English users and also critical and creative thinkers. By making every moment of class time count, teachers can help students succeed – on exams and in future jobs. Teachers can build both the traditional four skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) and the 21^st century 4Cs (communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking) in every class.

2015 August 8 | Matthew Cotter | Kinesthetic Learning - Finding a Balance

Matthew Cotter

This was an excellent presentation that was not to be missed.

The presentation began by outlining some principles of kinaesthetic learning. Matt then gave examples from his own past experiences as a self-identified kinaesthetic learner and as a teacher of different age ranges and types of students. In the second half of the presentation, Matt had everyone on their feet as he demonstrated some techniques to incorporate more physical movement into the learning process. The presentation culminated with an example Maori lesson using kinaesthetic learning.

2015 June 27 | Rob Fritz | The (Intercultural) Language Classroom

Thanks to everyone who braved the rainy weather to make it out! 

Notes from the presentation

Part 1: Theory

Rob Fritz

Despite the Ministry of Education's (MEXT) aims to produce globally-minded citizens, the recent educational climate in Japan is that of students who are inward-looking, or uchi-muki. The problem is exacerbated by the implantation of language education that remains focused on grammatical accuracy. To achieve the Ministry's stated aims, Mr. Fritz argues that language education must incorporate culture into the curriculum in a meaningful way. He advocates the following changes:

• Deep adjustment to the educational infrastructure
• Deep awareness of development of self 
• Awareness of how sociocultural factors influence our subjective world view

2015 April 12 | Nagasaki JALT Executive | Poster Sessions: Meet YOUR Nagasaki JALT Executive

Thanks to everyone who came out for the April meeting. The executives presented on a range of topics, providing something for everyone.

Thom Rawson (President) presented about making a digital textbook.

Thom Rawson

• By making learning materials digital, teachers are better able to engage students where they spend much of their time and attention already: online and on their digital devices.
• Digital textbooks allow for immediate feedback to students through automatic grading. This not only saves time for the teacher but can motivate students.
• There are a variety of platforms available for creating digital coursework, including the following:
• • LMS: Moodle, Blackboard, Manaba
  • Google: Google Docs, YouTube, Blogger

2015 February 22 | Sergio Mazzarelli | Fostering Learning Autonomy with the European Language Portfolio / Peer Evaluation Using Moodle

Sergio Mazzarelli
Kwassui Women's University

The speaker will offer two presentations. The first will explain how an adapted version of the European Language Portfolio (ELP) was used to foster student autonomy and motivation in three classes at a Japanese university. In particular, the presentation will focus on how the ELP helped students formulate learning goals and self-monitor progress in achieving those goals. There is growing interest in the ELP, but many teachers are not sure how to make it work in the Japanese context. Far from intending to be prescriptive, the presenter hopes to inspire others to find their own way to deploy this powerful tool.

2015 January 10 | Dawn Kobayashi | Focus on Drama | Sponsored by CUE SIG!

Dawn Kobayashi
Sponsored by CUE SIG

This presentation will both introduce to attendees how the presenter is using drama as the main teaching methodology in university English lessons and give attendees a chance to try out some of the drama techniques for themselves. Finally attendees will be encouraged to reflect on how they might employ similar techniques in their teaching environments.