• Upcoming – Daniel Newbury – Google Education Suite

    Event Speaker: Daniel Newbury
    Fee for JALT members: free
    Fee for non-JALT members: 1000 yen (500 yen for students)
    Contact or Queries: iwatejalt@hotmail.com
    Date and Time: Sunday, January 27, 2019 – 1:30pm to 4:30pm
    Location: AIINA in Morioka Rm 809 – View Map

     

    Note: The speaker will be referencing Google during their talk. Participants are encouraged to bring a smartphone, tablet or laptop with cellular connectivity. There is no reliable Wi-Fi connectivity at the presentation site.

    Abstract:

    Do more with less by leveraging Google Education productivity tools to support improved learning outcomes while reducing your workload. Google’s search engine is the world’s most used search engine, but it’s lesser known Google Classroom suite provides a set of tools for fostering engagement and productivity in the classroom. Everything from testing, content delivery, and collaboration can be streamlined and improved through this free Google-driven toolbox. In this presentation I will provide hands-on lessons in maximizing this powerful tool so that you can provide superior results in your teaching.

    Units of study in speaking textbooks often culminate in a cumulative end-of-unit task. These tasks are valuable to learners in both their preparation and performance. As useful as these tasks are, their complexity can result in disappointing outcomes that leave both learners and the teacher befuddled. I will explore different ways to get the most out of these tasks and turn them into tools for supporting learning in the oral communication classroom.

    Bio:

    Daniel Newbury’s research interests are integrating technology with language learning and designing tasks that balance fluency and accuracy. Dan is associate professor at Fuji University.

     

  • Teaching English to Young Learners: six challenges in search of solutions

    Jamie Hall from Iwate University asked me to pass this information along. The event is free to attend. Please let him know by email if you coming. Thank you.

    _____________________________________

    Iwate Association of English Education

     (東北英語教育学会岩手支部) Presents

    Teaching English to Young Learners:

    six challenges in search of solutions

    Day and time: Monday, November 12, 18:00 – 19:30

    Place: Room E22 Faculty of Education （総合教育研究棟(教育系) E22号室

    Description:

    English is being introduced globally to children at increasingly lower ages in state and private schools. Recent research has identified a number of key challenges that teachers face in the young learner classroom as a result of these new policy directives (Copland et al. 2014).  This presentation will introduce 6 of these challenges and, drawing on chapters from The Routledge Handbook of Teaching English to Young Learners (Garton and Copland, 2018), it will suggest some tentative solutions.

    Biography:

    pdplkoapggnkikglFiona Copland is Professor of TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) at the University of Stirling, Scotland, where she is also Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Social Sciences. She has taught English in Nigeria, Hong Kong, Japan and the UK, and has worked as ateacher trainer in Japan and the UK. She has been Programme Director of a number of master’s programmes in TESOL and supervises PhD students in a range of areas.  Dr. Copland has researched and published in the areas of teacher education, teaching English to young learners, native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) and linguistic ethnography.

    Please direct inquiries to (問い合わせ先)：James Hall (jhall@iwate-u.ac.jp)

    Anyone can attend, but it would be appreciated if you would inform James beforehand.

  • 2018 Iwate JALT Election Results

    The results are in for this year’s Iwate JALT exectutive committee. All of the positions were uncontested. I was happy to see that voter turnout was surprisingly high.  20 out of 28 members submitted a ballot. Usually we hold elections at our annual general meeting, and unfortunately, not everyone can attend. I wanted to make sure every voice could be heard during this election, so I the used the online election service Opavote. They allowed me to run the election online, offering  ease of use and security. Going forward, I feel that Opavote will serve us well.  And now, here is your 2018 Iwate JALT executive:

    Officers

    President – Mary Burkitt
    Treasurer – Peggy Ishikawa
    Membership – Vikki Williams 
    Publicity – Jason Hill
    Programs – Mary Burkitt
    Aomori-Shi Area Coodinator – Michael Smith
    Hachinohe Area Co-Coordinators – Greg Anthony and Barry Grossman
    Office at Large – Edo Forsythe

    Volunteer Positions 

    Webmaster – Jason Hill

       We are always looking for future officers and volunteers to help us not only at Iwate JALT, but JALT on the national level. If you are a JALT member and are interested in becoming more involved with organization, please reach out to me here. Thank you.