Category: Online

  • Chapter Online Meet and Greet + Jim Smiley Presentation

    Date: Sunday, January 26, 2025

    Time: 1:30pm

    Location: Online

    Link:

    Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting

    Our Chapter’s first meeting of the year will be an online gathering. Come chat with the officers, and feel free to give us feedback on what you’d like to see for presentations this year and next year at our chapter.

    Jim Smiley Presentation

    How can reading instructors develop materials that support engagement beyond traditional comprehension? This presentation introduces ’pedagogising’: an innovative approach that creates a structured sequence of interactive activities, transforming a static reading passage into a dynamic learning experience that promotes critical engagement with the text.

    Zoom link to be provided here on Friday before event. You can also indicate you are coming through our Facebook event page:

    Facebook event page:

    https://www.facebook.com/events/923189773125454

  • Music and language in the brain: Ways to use music to facilitate language learning – Amanda Gillis-Furutaka

    • Date: Sunday, February 26 1:30pm
    • Location: Online – Zoom link included when you register for event
    • Cost: JALT Members – Free. Non-member – 500 yen
    • Event Registration is here: https://iwamorifeb26.peatix.com/view

    Outline: Music is found in all cultures worldwide. It is an international language that communicates emotion across other language barriers. Importantly, listening to music involves the whole brain. We will explore how music is processed not only through our ears and auditory cortex, but also through our senses of touch and sight, and how we can recall music through visual and tactile stimuli as well as an audio stimulus. We will experience howinstrumental music activates areas of the brain associated with language. And understand why motor areas of our brain are activated automatically when we hear music, even when we are sitting or lying still. These phenomena explain why using music in a classroom is especially stimulating and conducive to learning. Participants will be invited to share the ways in which they use music in their classrooms and the positive outcomes they have experienced. The presenter will also introduce additional suggestions for using music to stimulate language learning both in the face-to-face classroom and when teaching online.

    Bio: Amanda Gillis-Furutaka is a professor in the Department of English at Kyoto Sangyo University. She has an MA in TESOL from the University of Birmingham and a PhD in music from the University of London Goldsmiths College. She has taught in a variety of countries and researched in a variety of fields but her main interest these days is how to apply the latest findings in brain science to the language classroom. She is currently the Coordinator of the JALT
    Mind, Brain, and Education SIG.

  • 2022 Officers Election Announcement

    The annual election for Iwate-Aomori JALT Officers will be held online from November 01-12, 2022. The following members have volunteered to serve as officers. Members in good standing will be asked to vote in our online election. They will receive an online ballot by email. Thank you to everyone who served on the previous committee.

    2022-23 Iwate-Aomori JALT Candidates (The first 5 positions are mandated by JALT National. Other positions are created by Iwate JALT.)

    Chapter President – Mary Burkitt

    Membership Chair – Jim Smiley

    Program Chair – Position Open

    Publicity Chair – Jason Hill

    Treasurer – Jacob Petersen

    Tsugaru Co-Coordinator – Edo Forsythe

    Tsugaru Co-Coordinator – Steven MacWhinnie

    Member at Large – Satomi Ogasawara

    Hachinohe Co-Coordinator – Barry Grossman

    Hachinohe Co-Coordinator – Greg Anthony

    Note: We are currently looking for a program chair. If you are interested in helping us, please use the contact email below. Mark subject as “Join Officer Team.” A brief description of each position follows.

    Program Chair:

    The program chair helps to plan the Chapter’s monthly meetings and events throughout the year, and coordinates guest speakers and other similar logistical things.

    The Chapter’s Officer corps works closely with the program chair to help make our events happen—the program chair is not solely responsible for running events.

    It should be noted that the above positions are currently uncontested, however volunteers for future service are always welcome! If you are interested in volunteering with Iwate-Aomori JALT, please send an email to iwatejalt@hotmail.com and let us know.