Author: jasohill

  • Iwate-Aomori JALT 2019 Self-Assessment Report

    2019 Chapter Self-assessment report

    This self-assessment report is due January 10, 2020, (not Dec 31, as is still mistakenly listed on the website and had originally been the rule) in reference to the rubric that appears in officer resources. It’s recommended that you have a look at it before or while you complete this online form which consists of just 20 questions: https://jalt.org/system/files/uploads/Self-AssessmentRubric_draft.pdf
    Which Chapter are you representing? 
    Iwate-Aomori
    How many regular JALT members did you have in your chapter this year, on average? 
    •  less than 15 regular members (0 points)
    •  15-19 regular members (15 points)
    •  20-39 regular members (20 points)
    •  40 or more regular members (30 points)
    Does your chapter have “local members”? If so, about how many, and how much do you charge them for their annual dues? 
    We currently do not have any local members.
    How many officers did you have this year? 
    •  less than 3 (0 points)
    •  3-4 (10 points)
    •  5-6 (15 points)
    •  7 or more (20 points)
    Please list your officers for the past year here, including both their names and officer positions: 
    • Mary Burkitt, president and program chair
    • Jacob Petersen, treasurer
    • Jason Hill, publicity chair
    • Vikki Williams, membership chair
    • Barry Grossman and Gregory Anthony, Hachinohe area co-cordinators
    • Michael Smith, Aomori/Tsugaru area coordinator
    • Edo Forsythe, Steven MacWhinnie and Satomi Ogasawara, members-at-large.
    How many public events did your chapter hold in 2019, including both individually sponsored and co-sponsored ones? (This includes professional development meetings as well as social events, with 1 “event” being counted as 4 hours or less, so an all-day event longer than 4 hours usually counts as 2 but could be counted as 3 if more than 8 hours in total.) 
    •  less than 3 (0 points)
    •  3-4 (10 points)
    •  5-7 (15 points)
    •  8+ (20 points)
    Please list your sponsored and co-sponsored public events held in 2019 with start and end times here: 
    • Jan 27th Dan Newberry ( Morioka-shi) 1:30-4:30Leveraging Google Education Suite for Productivity
    • Feb 24th Edo Forsythe ( Morioka-shi) 1:30-4:30 Google Forms for Assessments and Classroom Surveys
    • Apr 20th Aleda Krause (Aomori-shi) 1:30-3:30 Fun Activities With “Let’s Try” – Or Anytime!
    • Apr 21st Aleda Krause (Morioka-shi) 1:30-3:30 Fun Activities With “Let’s Try” – Or Anytime!
    • June 23rd (Hachinohe-shi) 10am-4pm 2019 MEES – Michinoku English Education Summit Sept 29th (Aomori-shi) 12pm-4pm Tsugaru Ideas in Language Education Symposium (TILES) 2019
    • Oct 28th Ron Morrain7:00pm-8:00pm (4C tour)(Morioka-shi) 21st Century Skills Training using Mind Maps
    Are all of your above listed events posted on the JALT events calendar (ie on jalt.org)? Please check here <https://jalt.org/event-fees-summary> and if necessary add events to the JALT events calendar that were not already posted there. 
    •  All of our sponsored and co-sponsored events are listed on jalt.org .
    •  Other:
    How many publications, if any, did your Chapter produce in 2019? (Newsletters can be archived postings on your website, etc. that announce events and other chapter activities.) 
    •  less than 4 newsletters (0 points)
    •  4+ newsletters (5 points)
    •  2+ officer reviewed (8 points)
    •  1+ Peer reviewed (15 points)
    For purposes of publicity, _approximately_ how many messages did your chapter send out to your members and the public via email, SNS, or otherwise, disseminated in a timely manner to publicize events and other group activities? The same or similar message sent out at about the same time on various platforms counts as one, but sending repeated reminders at various times (such as a reminder a month before and then two weeks before an event, etc.) count as one each time. 
    •  less than 3 (0 points)
    •  3-5 (5 points)
    •  6-11 (10 points)
    •  12+ (15 points)
    What sort of website or web presence did your chapter have in 2019? (Note that not all JALT members or members of the public use Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, etc, so a regular website that can be found in a web search is desirable.) 
    •  None (0 points)
    •  Simple, accurate, but static website (5 points)
    •  Accurate with regular updates and multi-pages (10 points)
    •  Multi-page, frequently updated, professional (15 points)
    What is your chapter’s website url, if any? Did you have the JALT2019 Conference logo and a link to jalt.org posted there this year? 
    Http://iwatejalt.wordpress.com; yes we posted the logo and link
    Aside from the events calendar on jalt.org and your chapter website and emails that you sent out, what other forms of publicity does your chapter typically use? 
    •  Facebook page or group
    •  Twitter
    •  ELT Calendar
    •  Other: 
    Did your chapter complete its annual self-assessment report on time and report it to your members earlier this year? 
    •  Self-assessment not completed by Jan 31 (0 points)
    •  Self-assessment completed by Jan 31 (5 points)
    •  Self-assessment completed by Jan 10 (10 points)
    •  Self-assessment completed by Jan 10 and reported to chapter members by Jan 31 (15 points)
    •  Other:
    How many EBMs did your chapter send a representative to in 2019? 
    •  None or only the Conference EBM (0 points)
    •  1 other than the Conference EBM (5 points)
    •  2, possibly including the Conference EBM (10 points)
    •  All 3: Feb, June, and Conference EBMs (15 points)
    Treasury reports: 
    •  Submitted fewer than 7 MAS reports on time. (0 points)
    •  7-9 MAS reports submitted on time and/or annual financial review delayed (5 points)
    •  10-11 MAS filed on time and annual review passed in a timely manner (10 points)
    •  12 MAS filed on time and annual review passed in a timely manner (20 points)
    By your count and your estimation, how many total points should your Chapter get this year from the above data? (100 or more = voting, 80~99= non-voting, less than 80 = probation) 
    130
    In general, how was 2019 for your Chapter? Any specific challenges or successes you’d like to share here with everyone? Do you have any other feedback related to this rubric or anything else you think is relevant to mention here for the historical record for everyone to consider? 
    It was a good year, busy with events in both prefectures, most well-attended. Two of our events were co-sponsored by the Iwate Branch of the Tohoku English Education Society (東北英語教育学会岩手支部) and held at Iwate University. We changed our name to include Aomori prefecture (seven of our ten officers are in Aomori) and we conducted a vote for that online as well as an online vote for officers. We also had a speaker from the Four Corners Tour. And last, but not least, we have a new treasurer, Jacob Petersen, who is based at Iwate University. Peggy Ishikawa served the chapter well for eight years as treasurer. We are looking forward to an even better year in 2020.

  • Upcoming – Overcoming Barriers to Critical Thinking – February 2

    Event Speaker: Jim Smiley
    Fee for non-JALT members: 500 yen
    Contact or Queries: iwatejalt@hotmail.com
    Date and Time: Sunday, February 2, 2020 – 1:30pm to 4:30pm
    Location: Iwate University Student Center A Room G23

    Abstract
    Educators in the Japanese context face significant difficulties in developing critical thinking skills in students. Much of these difficulties are well-known, such as the competition for time resources when students have to spend most of their energies cramming for memorization based high-school and university entrance exams and national qualification exams while in university. This results in students being relatively unprepared for and unknowledgeable about critical thinking. However, two other key aspects that hinder critical thinking skills are relatively unknown: students’ epistemic cognition and their underlying knowledge structure. Epistemic cognition refers to how knowledge itself is understood. For example, if information given by an authority figure is automatically believed to be true, critically analysing that information is seen to be a waste of time by students. Furthermore, in the Japanese educational context, the institutional learning experience of students leads to a belief that most information is either a fact or is an opinion. This fact/opinion knowledge structure also presents significant barriers to developing critical thinking skills.
    In the first section, Smiley will interactively survey these barriers with attendees. While exploring these topics, attendees will develop insights into how their students’ epistemic cognition and knowledge structures may be better understood. This understanding leads to more focussed instruction that targets the problematic bases of critical thinking. The second section comprises a set of demonstrations of concrete examples of critical thinking practices and a workshop in which attendees’ own classroom readings are used as the basis for critical thinking activities. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own classroom readings for use in the session.

    Bio Data
    Jim Smiley is an Associate Professor at Iwate National University. He is the author of *Writing a Graduation Thesis *and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Higher Education with the University of Liverpool, focusing on epistemic cognition and academic reasoning in Japanese undergraduates.

  • The Sixth Annual MEES in Hachinohe

    Here is a selection of photos from the sixth annual Michinoku English Education Summit in Hachinohe.  Thanks for coming out again everyone! We’ll see you all next year!

    All Photography ©2019 Jason Hill