Tag: teacher

  • 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.

     

  • Upcoming – September 27, 2015 – Andrew Boon

    Date and Time: Sunday, 27 September 2015 – 1:30pm – 4:30pm
    Speaker: Andrew Boon
    Location: AIINA Rm 605  814
    Fee for JALT members: Free
    Fee for one-day members: 1,000 yen

    !!!!We are meeting in a different room than usual. Rm 605  814!!!IMG_6889

    We loved the presentations by Andrew Boon in June. We loved them so much, we are bringing him back to do two more presentations on September 27. If you missed him the first time, please be sure not to miss these.

    1] The reflective teacher

    In the act of teaching, we have little time to reflect on the successes or puzzles that occur within our classes and can lose valuable opportunities for gaining insights into our pedagogic practice. there is a need, therefore, for practical ways to
    help us think back upon our experiences more deeply and to discover what is actually happening in our classrooms. This workshop discusses the process of becoming reflective and the journey towards pedagogic self-actualization. It also provides
    a number of strategies and frameworks that can be used by teachers to facilitate critical reflection on their teaching and find new discoveries, possibilities, and ideas for research themes there.

    2] Negotiated syllabuses: Do you want to?

    It has been said that negotiated syllabuses can increase student motivation and involvement in the learning process. And yet, learner and teacher reservations towards gaining or relinquishing control of syllabus design decisions can often mean that negotiated syllabuses are difficult to implement. This presentation will look at three different teaching contexts in which negotiated syllabuses (or certain elements of negotiation) have been implemented (business courses, extension center courses, and university courses). It will describe the results of a qualitative research study into whether teachers and students really want to negotiate syllabuses. Finally, the audience will be invited to share their own experiences by answering the questions; have you and do you want to?

    Bio

    Andrew Boon is an associate professor in the faculty of humanities at Toyo Gakuen University, Tokyo. He has been teaching in Japan for over 17 years and is an Aston University PhD student. He has been an active member of JALT since 2004, has presented at numerous conferences, and has published several articles on teacher development, motivation, and methodology. He is also co-author of Inspire; a 3-level listening and speaking coursebook (Cengage Learning, 2013-14).

    Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1041167942568271/

  • Motivation: The Importance of Social Influences – Margarita Foster

    On January 25, Iwate JALT Margarita Foster, a teacher at Hachinohe Gakuin University whose studies include psychology and criminology gave a talk. She is currently researching juvenile delinquency and resilience, but what brought her to us this past Sunday was a discussion about teachers and what motivates them.

    Foster had recently completed some research on the topic of teacher motivation, and she spoke of her results. She explained that there were many external and internal factors that motivate or demotivate a teacher, and that these factors can also cause stress and even burnout if they aren’t dealt with properly.  She went over the results of her teacher survey and outlined that in Japan, working conditions within schools can lead to burnout in teachers. She offered some ways in which teachers might be able to reignite their passion for teaching, and find new ways to keep their motivation up.   We want to thank Margarita for joining us and sharing her research with us.

    Reported by Jason Hill