JALT Event

Using ideas from trust theory, this workshop has three main aims: 1) to help teachers gain a deeper understanding of the nature of trust, 2) to help participants analyze specific teaching-learning situations in terms of trust amongst the participants, and 3) to explore ways in which teachers can make changes in their situations by focusing on the notion of trust.

Come to an "open microphone" end of the year JALT where anyone in the audience can share their favorite lesson ideas, a TESL research topic, or a report of their favorite presentation from JALT2008 in Tokyo.
Bohnenkai will occur afterwards at a nearby restaurant.

TBA (dinner to follow presentation)

Please join us for food, fun, and friendship at our annual Christmas party.

An online system has been developed to facilitate a university Extensive Reading programme that has been running for four years and currently involves two thousand students. For administrators and teachers, the system shows a record of what books students have borrowed, what they have read, whether and what they are enjoying reading, and the level of books they can read easily. For the readers, there are many potential benefits beyond an easy way to see how much they have read. An online system can involve the students in a reading community that transcends the walls of the classroom, in which they can see which books are the most popular and share their ideas about books. In the same way as online book retailers, the system can recommend books that readers are likely to enjoy, based on what they have read and what other students have read.

Please join us for an educational walk halfway around Lake Suwa! After meeting at 8:10 at the "Katakura Fureai Nagisa", we will walk appr. 8 km to the "Kamaguchi Suimon" while learning about life in the lake from Shinshu University graduate students. After lunch (please bring your own), you can enjoy a forum at the Shimohama Kumin Center in Okaya.You will be able to get back to the starting point by a free ride on the Swan Boat which leaves after the forum. Donations (optional, of course!) will be collected for the "Suwa Environmental Town-planning Seminar". Bring a lunch and something to write with.

Workshops include:
1. A realistic look at Foreign Language Activities conducted by homeroom teachers by Hiroshi Nishizawa (Nakajo Elementary School)
2. Brush up your English (Please join the group you wish.)
1) Classroom English for conducting classes in English
2) What to pay attention to in teaching the pronunciation of words in “English Note”
3) Roundtable: JTE’s free discussion with ALT’s,
3. How not to create “English haters”
4. English Activities in primary school and how to use the teaching materials
Notes: 1) There is plenty of free parking
2) If you are coming by train or bus, please contact Fred Carruth for information about how to get to the venue. Please email fredcarruth@hotmail.com
3) There are no restaurants or convenience stores in the immediate area of the venue, so please prepare accordingly.
4. Anyone interested in English activities in primary schools is welcome.
5. Please bring along the “English Note”, if possible.
Contact Tatsuto Tagami at e09a103@shinshu-u.ac.jp to R.S.V.P. by Tuesday, June 9.
Co-sponsored by Shinshu JALT and the Matsumoto Group for International Understanding

In this workshop, the presenter plans to facilitate a lively discussion of the pros and cons of controversial topics in our language classrooms. Are these topics useful for teaching language skills and critical thinking skills? How can teachers deal with administrations which might not approve of hot topics? Should teachers express their own opinions? Attendees will share their concerns, approaches, successes and failures with controversial topics. The presenter will also introduce materials from his new textbook Stimulating Conversation: Thinking Critically about Current Issues. Everyone will leave with a better understanding of integrating controversial topics into the language teaching context, and, if the attendees decide to introduce controversial topics into language classes, they will have more ideas on how to do it.
This event is co-sponsored by Intercom Press. There will be an end of the year party after the presentation.
Greg Goodmacher is very interested in creating teaching materials for global issues content-based EFL classes.  He is the author of Stimulating Conversation and two other textbooks.

This workshop, part I of a 2-part series of workshops, begins with a brief overview of the variety of mapping types and mapping tools in use in education today, followed by a hands-on workshop on the use of (1) Hunter's infostructure maps and (2) Cmap Tools.
Hunter's infostructure maps are the underlying structure of "Critical Thinking" (Greene & Hunter, Asahi Press 2002) and "Thinking in English" (Hunter, Cengage 2008). Prereading is available at http://www.core.kochi-tech.ac.jp/hunter/professional/anchoring2/index.html
Cmap Tools (http://cmap.ihmc.us) have taken solid hold in science education in many countries, primarily for use in representing learner's and instructor's perceptions of the nature of concepts, and have a number of other appealing applications for education. The tools themselves are free for download, and allow for free online storage and/or sharing. There is a growing online collection of maps at the Cmap website.
Participants who wish to bring their own laptops are encouraged to do so. Please be sure to have installed both PowerPoint and Cmap Tools (download Cmap Tools free from http://cmap.ihmc.us/download/ )
The workshops are announced in map form at this link.

This presentation offers some approaches for using iPods in the language classroom. The first half will describe teacher use of iPods. It will demonstrate the types of resources teachers can carry on their iPods to teach with. The second half will describe student use of iPod. Based on activity theory, this part will demonstrate how students can select items that are appropriate for their language development needs.