Tag: presentation

  • Upcoming – Feb 26 – Joël Laurier – Cooperative Learning: a teaching strategy and a learner’s tool

    __________________________________________

    Date and Time: Sunday, 26 February 2017– 1:30pm – 4:30pm
    Speaker: Joël Laurier
    Location: AIINA Rm 602 (map https://goo.gl/maps/kEQo5UV2jPr)
    Fee for JALT members: Free
    Fee for one-day members: 1,000 yen (500 yen for students)

    ___________________________________________

    2370963Administrators want improved student performance; parents want improved social skills instilled in their children; teachers want better performing students that are more autonomous; and students want to show everyone what they can do. But in this world of budgets over educational outcomes, standardized tests, and constant academic competition, teachers are faced with numerous constraints that make most of the above desires unattainable. But are they really?

    As more and more research is being conducted on multiple intelligences and effective group work, Cooperative Learning (CL) has proven itself as an effective teaching approach that involves students using social skills in interdependent groupings, and achieving better results.  The classroom then becomes an interactive stage for students to learn and use social skills while demonstrating more meaningful learning.

    This hands-on workshop is aimed at teachers of all academic levels, and will benefit who have varying levels of students in their class. It will show attendees how they can use CL to increase active participation between students while instilling a positive learning environment that leads to better achievement results. Attendees will be shown effective CL structures that make learning the student’s responsibility, and leave the teacher ’s concern.

    Joël Laurier teaches in the Leaning English for Academic Purposes (LEAP) program at Toyo University. He is a two time Kagan Academy Cooperative Learning Scholarship winner. His research interests include cooperative learning, language policy and bilingualism.

  • MEES 2016 Call for Presenters Deadline

    Only a few weeks left until the deadline passes. Pass it along!

    883982_1661730500759637_2953668670323284899_o

  • Autumn Meetings Report 2015

    Hi everyone. It has been quite the hectic autumn season, and I am late with the meeting reports, so I’m going to combine them both here in one article.

    Andy Boon – September 27

    On September 27 we had another amazing visit from Andy Boon. He talked to us about how teachers can be more reflective in how they approach their teaching style, and methods we as teachers can use to self-analyse our performance. One such strategy was having another co-worker listen to our reflection,not making any judgements, and summarizing what we told them,  allowing us a moment of self-reflection. Overall, Andy’s ideas for teacher self-evaluation and reflection were very helpful.

    IMG_0857

    Andy’s second talk about on Negotiated syllabuses.  This is a method of planning a course curriculum involving  the students themselves in the planning process. This allows the students to be more involved in guided learning and add their own input.  He cautioned that it can be tricky to have the student help you plan a syllabus on the first day of class when curriculums are usually supposed to be set way before then. However, if it can be done, negotiating syllabuses with the students can be a rewarding experience. Personally, I applied this to my community English class with amazing results. Thanks again for two more amazing talks, Andy!

    Louis Carlet – October 25

    This snippet form Wikipedia is probably the best way I can introduce Louis.

    “Louis Carlet is the general secretary and founder of Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union (“Tozen”), a union representing both Japanese and migrant workers, including foreign language teachers, bank and newspaper workers. Tozen is the only foreign-led amalgamated union (godo roso) in Japan.”

    IMG_0940

    Louis came to Morioka and gave us a presentation about the current state of employment in Japan. While things are grim, he spoke to us about his history in fighting for employees with his union, and how most foreign employees in Japan could benefit from union representation.  In fact, his stories highlight that many  foreign workers in Japan are simply unaware of what their rights are under Japanese Law. His talk was eye-opening, and he answered many questions from the concerned people who came to listen. We want to thank Louis for coming up and giving his presentation.

     

    Reported by Jason Hill

    All photos ©2015 Jason Hill