2015/04/26

Title: Having a Successful Year A Saitama / Gunma My Share Collaboration

Speakers: Tyson Rode, Sylvain Bergeron, Renée Sawazaki, Florence Ito, Matt Shannon, and John Larson

Gunma attendees enjoyed four presentations during the second-half of the Gunma-Saitama Dual My Share. Tyson Rode, Matt Shannon, and Florence Ito made the long trip from Saitama to join Gunma speakers Sylvain Bergeron, Renée Sawazaki, and John Larson. All speakers presented under the shared topic: Having a Successful Year.

Rode started things off with an interactive lecture on L2 reading and literacy. If students can read, they can learn anything about everything and everything about anything. Among the helpful hints Rode shared was a long list of web-based reading resources such as starfall.com, raz-kids.com, ESLgamesplus.com, and readtheory.org.

Gunma Chapter members Bergeron and Sawazaki followed with some practical EFL applications for peace and ethics education. According to UNESCO, time and money spent on ethical education is far outweighed by that used for numeracy and literacy training, despite being essential for developing healthy relationships both at home and cross-culturally. The free, online manual full of lesson plans and ideas can be found at ethicseducationforchildren.org.

After a break, Shannon and Ito - long-time team-teaching partners - taught a demonstration class that highlighted active listening. Use of phrases such as “You said…” and “Tell me more…” allows students to make rebuttals, extensions, and more complex discussions. Some lucky participants also received magic staplers.

Larson wrapped things up with a brief demonstration of his Recycled News activity and how he has polished and enriched it over 10 years of kaizen.

After the meeting, attendees and presenters broke nan together at a local curry restaurant.