Tag: new

  • Speaking in the New Normal 2

    Still time to register and join us!!

    Hey there, I’m Erin Noxon, a public high school teacher in Kyoto. I teach 16 conversational English classes a week. No grammar, no reading, just talking, lots of talking and listening.

    While many of my friends around the world were teaching online for the past year, I’ve been in the classroom, face to face teaching active speaking classes since June 1, 2020. When Twitter was exploding as people were fighting about what was causing COVID to spread so rapidly (and some were blaming English and English classes!) we were developing ways to keep talking and having an active class, so as not to stop the learning growth of a year of students, while making sure they were safe.

    I’d like to show you in detail how we set up our class safely, what activities we did, how we arranged the physical space, and what we demanded of each other and our students.

    I will say that not one of my students became infected, which could have been helped in part by our efforts but also included a lot of luck, I know. So while I can’t claim that running your class in this way will keep everyone from getting sick, I can say that it will help limit the chances of infection! That’s all I can offer.

    Please come join us on the 25th. I’ll show you what we did, and we can have a discussion about what we all can do to continue to be safe moving forward.Register in advance for this meeting:https://umuc.zoom.us/…/tJEvfuqtpj0sGdeZQ4xXaVXe…After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

  • Roundtable Discussion: Speaking in the New Normal

    Date: February 28, 2021

    Time: 1:30pm

    Early registration available on the Facebook Event Page

    https://www.facebook.com/events/171599797673696/

    Where has 2021 brought your classroom? Have you continued online, gone back to F2F? Mix of both? Have you been F2F all along? What has been your approach to speaking activities online or in the classroom with COVID protocols in place? Any life-saving hacks, tips, and tricks you have to share for the new school year? Teachers of all levels and backgrounds are welcome and encouraged to participate and present for Iwate-Aomori JALT’s upcoming roundtable discussion. We want to hear from university teachers, secondary and primary JTEs, and ALTs!

    For this event, we hope to have two designated roundtable discussions about how speaking activities are managed in different teaching contexts so as to ensure as many people benefit and take away from this event as much as possible, just in time for the new school year. 

    Of course any participant can chime in throughout these discussions, but if you have something specific you’d like to share that’s been working well in your classroom, please sign-up for your context category below! If you teach and can contribute to multiple contexts, you can sign up for all of them, or just the one you prefer. 

    Roundtable Discussion 

    13:40-15:00 Primary, Secondary, & University F2F

    NameMain topic/ tools used
    Jason HillRisk management in the classroom. My experience with dealing with Covid-19 fears when online isn’t an option (ES)
    John HozackReading discussions, getting students to delve deeper into stories/ Google CR + F2F (JHS kids)
    Evan GarciaAmending speaking activities: How to ensure communicative language practice F2F during Covid-19 (JHS)
    Parvathy RamachandranStrategies for communicating / speaking in the F2F classroom (SHS & Uni)
    Erin NoxonInstructional design for a blended learning communicative English class with shared devices and the need to have discussion based classes, all before and after lockdown (SHS)

    15:10-16:20 University Online/ Hybrid 

    NameMain topic/ tools used
    Andrew CaldwellCollaborative Activities using Moodle and Zoom
    Ivan LombardiCommunication and Public speaking with Google Classroom and Google Meet
    Revathi ViswanathanDigital tools for Speaking Practice
    Jason PipeEncouraging Critical Thinking in Academic Writing
    Barry Grossman A ‘New-Normal’ Curriculum for Speaking and More: Anime-based Classwork and AI Video Platform Homework

  • Upcoming – Getting Ready for 2020 – Alison Nemoto

    Event Speaker: Alison Nemoto
    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, April 22, 2018 – 1:30pm to 4:30pm
    Location: AIINA in Morioka Rm 813 – View Map

    Abstract:

    This is a period of enormous change in Japanese primary education, as English advances to become a subject for the upper grades and a compulsory activity for the middle grades from 2020. After working on the MEXT committee which developed the materials; “We Can!” and ”Let’s Try!” in this presentation I will share my ideas about how they should be ideally used in the classroom this year and next.  I will also provide feedback on the new curriculum from student teachers who are trying it out in university classes and from children at pilot schools already using the materials.

    Bio:

    B.Ed (Hons), M.A. in TEYL, (Teaching English to Young Learners).

    Alison is from the UK and trained as a primary school teacher, before coming to Japan on the JET programme in 1989. She has over 20 years of experience teaching in kindergartens, primary schools and junior high schools in the coastal area of Fukushima and worked for a year as the only native teacher in the 16 primary schools in Minamisoma City, Fukushima, directly after the earthquake, Tsunami and nuclear disaster of 2011.

    Since 2012, she has been as a Specially Appointed Associate Professor at Miyagi University of Education. She teaches English communication, writing and practical teaching skills to undergraduates who will become primary and secondary school teachers of English. Her areas of research are children’s opinions on reflective learning activities, active learning methods for Japanese primary English classrooms and the effect of storytelling as a gateway to English learning. She is involved in in-service teacher training at the university and works as an adviser in primary English education to numerous public schools the Tohoku area.

    Alison has worked for over ten years with various publishing companies, including Kairyudo and Kumon, on the development of materials for young learners in both public primary and junior high schools, and private language schools. She was appointed as an English curriculum and materials development adviser to the Myanmar Government, helped develop two texbooks and visited Myanmar three times from 2016-2017. She was also appointed as an English curriculum and materials development advisor for MEXT from Dec. 2016 – Dec. 2017, working on the syllabus reform and development of the materials; “Let’s Try!” and “We Can!” to be used from April 2018 until the new English primary school curriculum officially begins in 2020.

    She is programs chair for Sendai JALT and enjoys travelling, art, watching movies and yoga in her spare time.