experiential Module

Reflections on Directing a Japanese Summer Intensive Program

Because of the pandemic, many staff members life were also hectic, it was important to accommodate the scheduling of the meeting and among other things for the staff. There were needs of them such as getting a regular doctor’s appointment is difficult and could not come to the meeting, taking care of a family members, dealing with a personal issue etc. Thus, all the meetings were recorded, and the recordings were shared right after the meetings with very detailed agenda. I made all the documents are accessible for the staff member through Google Drive this year so that if it is needed next year for review, the new staff member will be also able to access it and review what we did this year. For more detailed job responsibility, please check the blog as a director from here.

Being Connected - Ochakai(Tea party) social time

During the pandemic time, it was extremely important to keep it mind that how we make sure the community mind set going among the students as well as for the staff. Ochakai is one of the best thing that I provided the opportunities to the students to feel welcomed to the program, safe place to talk and ask anything such as a question related to Japanese language and culture or college application process or future career setting etc. More than 30 students(out of 39) participated in a "Chill chat time with Sensei(teachers) and Senpai(senior or elder)" optional session to become a member of the community of Japanese Program.

Experiential Module Reflective Essay

Yoshiko Himata Paris

FLT895 - Dr. Lanier, Dr. Sommer

Monday, July 19th, 2021

EM reflective essay

The EM project was a Practicum (for conference presentation) on Ecology and Vitality of Language Programs, advocating for Japanese FLT. Journaling in three major moments (preparation period of initial thoughts, during the program and after the end of summer program) was one of the main deliveries for the project. The focus was about the teacher/staff training and how can I improve the retention on teacher’s positions. I took a log on a daily basis to not to miss any events that I dealt with on each day and notes about my program as I went through the daily schedule.

The Summer intensive Japanese language program was held online in 2021 again due to the worldwide pandemic situation and it was challenging to make the program exciting as well as meaningful and beneficial to the students.

After having a FLT817 Program administration and development course at MSU, my point of view changed in terms of training of the staff members, and I understood the importance of the training to improve the retention rate and quality of the staff member’s performance quality. The program will not be successful if and when the staff cannot perform well due to the lack of understanding of my expectation and also the expectation of them.

This year, the things I changed was:

· Changed the frequently of meetings to give staff enough preparation time. Had more weekly meetings instead of having meetings everyday right before the program like we used to do when it is in-person program.

· In addition to sharing the meeting agenda of each staff meeting, I recorded the meeting itself, uploaded to YouTube to share with the staff to accommodate the staff who was not able to participate due to their health or family reasons.

· Add the content of training purposes to bring the regulations when it was an in-person program to bring an attention of original regulation by the department of education so that the staff can understand the reason why I decided each program content or/and regulation for online program.

· Hold an individual meeting by each Japanese proficiency levels of classes so build a relationship between the teacher and the RA

· Having an Ochakai (Tea party types of casual gathering) with the staff member to have catch-up time after the program is done to connect and have a personal time to catch up.

· Kept the LINE application on the mobile phone to easily chat group for casual texting to remind the meeting schedules, reminding the assignments that I asked the staff to do etc.

For the future references, even though the program might go back to an in-person program, I recommend the program director to have a consistent meeting so that it is not overwhelming to the staff members to prepare for the program, but he/she can control the work speed and the delivery for the program. Keeping the meeting agenda and recording and sharing it was definitely the plus especially because of the pandemic, the staff had a hard time to arrange the schedule sometime for doctor’s appointment and other personal related issues. Instead of having a stress that all the staff members cannot meet at once, having a recording helped all of us to keep up with the schedule which helped a lot as I had always someone who could not come to the meeting. Teamwork is one of the most important keys to run the program smoothly and successfully. I always focused on bringing the opportunities for the students to make a community of Japanese language and culture through the program but not so much for the staff members. However, the staff is the most important key element to the program to be zestfully. The language is taking place between the human being and the reality (Liddicoat and Scarino, 2013) and having a focus on staff’s reality was also very important to respect and take in so that I could reduce their stress as well.

Lastly, having an evaluation is necessity for the program to be improved. The overviews of the use-driven & participatory evaluation process (Norris & Watanabe, 2007, p. 3), made me think that planning for the next cycle of evaluation is also very important. I have been using the survey with Google Form format last five years. The template was provided by the Department of Education, and I arranged a little to fit the Japanese program. Although the student’s body is different every year, I am hopeful to improve the program by using this feedback next year.

Having EM project definitely helped me to understand what necessity is to improve the teacher position retention and elevate teacher/staff training’s quality because I took it in serious consideration. There is always room to grow so I will not stop moving forward and challenge myself to bring a better result for the program.

References

Liddicoat, A. J., & Scarino, A. (2013). Intercultural language teaching and learning. Malden, MA: Wiley. Access via MSU Library: http://catalog.lib.msu.edu/record=b10220870~S39a.

Norris, J. M. (2016). Language program evaluation. Modern Language Journal, 100(Supplement), 168–189