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Questions for the Conference Discussion Panel
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2008 Panel Discussion "Making Connections: Where do we go from here
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Jun 4 2008, 6:16 PM EDT by
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Thread started: May 18 2008, 5:45 PM EDT
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Let's start getting some questions going for the conference discussion panellists.
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RE: Questions for the Conference Discussion Panel
By: ,
Jun 4 2008, 6:16 PM EDT
"Let's start getting some questions going for the conference discussion panellists." Do any of the organizations already use technology to communicate with their members and other outside organizations (besides email)? If so, what do they use, is it effective and would they like to continue to use the wiki after the conference?
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mickstout |
Japanese Teachers of English and Native English Speaking Teachers
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Nakasendo English Conference Home
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May 31 2008, 6:56 AM EDT by
leanderhughes |
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Thread started: Mar 12 2008, 6:09 PM EDT
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How can we encourage greater co-operation between Japanese Teachers of English and Native English Speaking Teachers?
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RE: Japanese Teachers of English and Native English Speaking Teachers
By: leanderhughes,
May 31 2008, 6:56 AM EDT
When I was a JET, I observed the same phenomena as KantoCanuck, and I believe, Mike, that you are right about why many of the JTEs were sleeping (in my case, a few JETs were also dozing off).
It's very hard to come up with general ways to help JETs and JTEs cooperate more with each other, and the same goes for providing support for primary school English teachers.
The only thing I can think of at the moment is volunteering to conduct workshops at JET or BOE seminars, and making sure those workshops provide information and skills that are both innovative and practically applicable - enough so to keep all parties awake and feeling like their getting something out of the experience. Might be tricky.
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mickstout |
Conference and workshops as professional development
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Nakasendo English Conference Home
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May 31 2008, 6:27 AM EDT by
leanderhughes |
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Thread started: Mar 12 2008, 6:04 PM EDT
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How can we encourage school administrators, Boards of Education, and the Ministry of Education to give teachers some kind of credit for attending conferences and professional development workshops?
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RE: Conference and workshops as professional development
By: leanderhughes,
May 31 2008, 6:27 AM EDT
You've hit on a key issue here.
BOEs across the nation are jumping on the outsourcing band-wagon.
They are well aware of the fact that contracted teachers are less likely to participate in such things as weekend conferences (that would definitely not be paid for by those teachers' employers).
However, with the extremely high turnover rate of foreign teachers, I think the BOEs believe that such professional development isn't worth it - the teachers they have now will be gone in a year or two anyway (especially if they are brokered teachers getting paid much less than direct hires to do the same job)!
So it's a vicious cycle spinning faster and faster with every year.
Before the problem can be solved, BOEs and MEXT will have to be convinced that there is a problem with this way of running their public English education system.
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Panel Discussion "Making Connections: Where do we go from here?"
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Discussion Forum
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May 18 2008, 5:41 PM EDT by
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Thread started: Apr 21 2008, 1:01 AM EDT
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At the upcoming conference, we have one hour available for the panel discussion. What are some good questions / topics that we can ask the panelists to address?
We expect that there will be around 6 panelists, so if allocate each speaker 5 minutes, that would allow 30 minutes for a Q & A session with the audience?
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Saved as a page
By: ,
May 18 2008, 5:41 PM EDT
This thread was saved as a page.
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Using technology to connect
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Nakasendo English Conference Home
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May 11 2008, 5:30 AM EDT by
leanderhughes |
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Thread started: Mar 13 2008, 9:25 PM EDT
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Web 2.0 technology, google docs, wikis, social networking for education websites, blogs and a host of other technologies make it easier for disconnected people to connect. However, some school servers block some of these applications, google docs for example. Using the internet to connect would be advantageous in many ways. In Japan, often colleagues sharing office space can't connect face-to-face. Most schools have internal networks but these networks are inaccessible to most foreign teachers. Long-term residents of Japan could safely be expected to overcome the difficulties they have using internal networks but short-term residents including JETs cannot. Is technology a viable way to connect?
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RE: Using technology to connect
By: leanderhughes,
May 11 2008, 5:30 AM EDT
Sure.
When you are working on a server that blocks certain pages that you want to access, you can try accessing those pages through circumventor sites like https://copwedding.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi .
Just go to the site and type in the url you wish to access, and -viola- it will take you there*.
*Not all cites are accessible through such circumventors. Also, you have to put up with slow page loading and bombardments of pop-ups. Still, I successfully used a circumventor to read my gmail when I was working at my previous job which had an internal network that blocked access to email accounts.
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Support for teachers teaching in primary schools
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Nakasendo English Conference Home
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Apr 14 2008, 10:02 AM EDT by
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Thread started: Apr 2 2008, 1:23 AM EDT
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English is being introduced into primary schools in Japan despite the fact that many Japanese primary school teachers are not proficient in English and have no training in ELT. Tim Murphey cowrote an article (Murphey, T., Asaoka, C., & Sekiguchi, M. (2004). Primary teachers co-learning English with their students. The Language Teacher, 28(2), 15-18.) that brings up a number of interesting questions and answers regarding this situation. How practical is it to expect primary teachers to willingly accept co-learning English with their students? What other ways can we as a community provide support for primary school teachers? What challenges do JETs face when teaching in primary schools?
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RE: Support for teachers teaching in primary schools
By: ,
Apr 14 2008, 10:02 AM EDT
Thanks tanabata27. I really don't know much about how English is being integrated into primary school curricula. I can empathise with the teachers who are frustrated by not being given a lesson plan or having it changed at the last minute. Who makes the lesson plans? I think you're right about communication, exchanges of opinion, and lesson observations - and yes, time is at a premium. Thanks again for your excellent contribution.
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