Happy 2022 everyone! Hope you all had a nice winter break.
So as you may have guessed, our first get-together this year is once again going to be an on-line event rather than the in-person one which we had hoped for. It’s a ‘My Share,’ a tried-and-true event in which various people give a short talk/simple presentation on a teaching idea or activity that has worked well for you and which could be of interest to others in the group.
Your talk could be as sweet and simple as a 2-3 minute shout-out, or as detailed as a 10-minute slide presentation. The date for the My Share is Sunday, January 30, with a time of 2-4PM.
Enhancing social presence in online classes
Bradley Irwin
In online learning environments (both synchronous and asynchronous), students often report a feeling of isolation or disconnect from their teachers and classmates that negatively impacts their learning experiences. Thus, a challenge educators face while teaching online is how to effectively build a rapport with students to help create a community of learners. This presentation will describe innovative approaches to providing feedback that can diminish this feeling of isolation, increase motivation, and improve student-teacher rapport in online learning environments.
Bio: Over the last seventeen years I’ve taught in Canada, France, and Japan, where I currently reside. At present, I’m an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Liberal Arts at Nihon University College of International Relations. My research interests include critical literacies, language learner identity, autonomous learning, and computer assisted language learning. When I’m not thinking about education, I’m usually thinking about waves or snow. I enjoy surfing and snowboarding in my free time.
Extensive reading – using books in the classroom
E. Jean Taylor and Noriko Kobayashi
Both presenters are interested in using books to motivate students and increase their English ability. We would like to talk a bit about our experience in the high school and senmon gakko settings with such grader reader series as Oxford’s Reading Tree line and Atama Ii’s Choose Your Own Adventure books.
Bio: Noriko Kobayashi received her MA in English education from Shizuoka University. She has taught English to students in various age groups since 2003. Her interests include EFL pedagogy, extensive reading, and the effects of multiculturalism in EFL education.
Bio: Jean Taylor came to Japan on the JET program with a teacher’s license and planned to go back to Canada and teach French and Social Studies. That was in 1990. She’s been working in Shizuoka ever since, mainly at the high school level.
From Research Project to Edited Book – My Journey
Adrianne Verla Uchida
In 2018, Jennie Roloff Rothman and I were entering new stages of our careers and decided to meet weekly to provide support and professional development opportunities for each other. This became the first stage of our formalized critical friendship research. In 2020, we realized that people were engaging in collaborative work together that were clear examples of critical friendships even though they may not have been viewing their relationships as critical friendships. We approached various people about writing a chapter for our book and ended up with 11 examples of critical friendships taking place as a means of professional development in Japan. We are currently working with Candlin and Mynard e-publishing and hope to see the book completed this year. This My Share will share a little about the journey of going from a research project to a book proposal and an almost fully compiled book.
Bio: Adrianne Verla Uchida has taught English in Japan since 2004. She is an Assistant Professor at Nihon University College of International Relations. Her academic interests include reflective practice, professional development, and teacher identity.
How to Format Hanging Indents in Word
Susan Laura Sullivan
Submitting papers for publication is often required of language instructors. One of the trickiest things to format can be the reference list if APA is required. However, if writers are using MS Word, it is very easy to format hanging indents. In my role as a reader of academic papers and associate editor of several publications, it is apparent that many writers don’t have this knowledge. Hopefully this short presentation will shed some light on it. If time allows, formatting paragraph indents will also be discussed.
Bio: Susan Laura Sullivan works at Tokai University. Research areas of interest include creativity, student autonomy and lifelong learning. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Wollongong, and a Master of TESOL/ Applied Linguistics from the University of Southern Queensland.
Professional-level textbook self-publishing
R. Gregg McNabb
Even though we are spending more time online than ever before, book sales have not declined. And students prefer to have textbooks. Publishing an ELT textbook domestically doesn’t always result in an ideal product. Therefore, time permitting, I will explain as much as possible about professional-level self-publishing. It’s easier than you may think and the rewards can be worth the effort.
(not exactly teaching tips or activities, but your own textbook to your own standards, could indeed improve your lessons)
Bio: R. Gregg McNabb has lived in Japan for 30+ years. In addition to having taught high school French in Canada, he has taught elementary and high school English in Japan and at the university level full-time for decades. He is very interested in materials development and has published a variety of textbooks.
SDCE: a model for scaffolding e-learning
Adam Jenkins
The Covid-19 pandemic has seen a surge in the number of people experiencing educational technology (edtech) for the first time. In order to accommodate the increased demand for beginner training for Learning Management Systems and edtech in general, the SDCE model for edtech deployment was developed to scaffold edtech training and use for both educators and students. The model divides edtech adoption into four stages, with each stage increasing in either technical, pedagogical, or psychological difficulty. In the first stage, students are provided with Static content that students only view. The second stage adds Dynamic content where students can manipulate the system and receive automated feedback. In the third stage students Communicate with other people via the technology, and in the final stage they Explore the world creating their own learning experiences. This model helps planning online learning to scaffold it gently and prevent student/teacher burnout.
Bio: Adam Jenkins is a lecturer at the Shizuoka Institute of Science and Technology where he created and administers the iLearn@SIST e-learning system based on Moodle. In his role as system administrator, Adam oversees nearly 500 online courses taught by more than 70 professors and delivered to over 1,500 students university-wide.
