Highlights of the Conference
- Kim and Sinbad
- Aug 26, 2019
- 4 min read
Last week, I went to 3 days of Professional Development in Yokohama for teachers at private schools throughout Japan. When you pre-register, you choose the subject area of the workshops you will attend. So naturally, I represented my school's English Department. Although the confererence was spread out over 3 days, the time commitment was relatively easy. Monday and Wednesday were half days and Tuesday was the only full day. I am so happy that I went this year. Here are some of the highlights over the three days.
1. the participants: When you go to any sort of business seminar or conference, you always wonder how the seating will be, if there will be any group activities and whether or not there will be anyone you know. Well, as I expected, I didn't know anyone. I recognized a few familiar faces from an English teachers' workshop I went to a few months ago. I sat at a large table for 6 by myself and was later joined by two pairs. Two of the teachers worked for a school in Saitama prefecture and the other two worked for a school in Nagoya. The two men were from the US, one woman was from Finland and one woman was Japanese. I was really lucky that they sat at my table because we all hit it off very well. It's interesting to share work experiences and learn about how other schools do certain things and what types of challenges they have. Throughout the conference, we had the opportunity to collaborate, discuss and mingle with other English teachers. When you are surrounded with teachers who share a passion for what they do and who are supportive and encouraging, it makes for a great atmosphere and positive learning environment. Personally I think teachers make the best audience because we understand what we expect from our students as far as participation goes. Therefore, whenever the presenters ask for volunteers or we have to do something like dance or sing or role play, we all do it.
2. the presenters:
The first presenter was an extremely energetic principal from the Kansai area. He kicked off his presentation with several communication games which were great.
a.) Two Truths and a Lie: We formed pairs and we had to introduce ourselves to our partner by saying 2 things about ourselves that were true and 1 thing that was not true. Could you guess the item that was not true? It was a lot harder than I thought because the partners I had were pretty convincing liars! Here's what I said. Can you guess my lie?
~ I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.
~ I came to Japan over 30 years ago.
~ I live with my Mom who moved in with me a few years ago and my dog, Sinbad.
Well, I must have been a convincing liar because they didn't think I had a dog. And here I thought it was so obvious! As most of you probably know, the lie was the first statement. I was born in El Paso, Texas and raised in Los Angeles.
b.) Ma-Ma-Moon: This game was using only the words "Ma-Ma-Moon" to describe something and then, tell a story. So we had to tell the story of Cinderella only using gestures and Ma-Ma-Moon to communicate to our partner who had to guess what item was being described or what story was being told. I thought it was a pretty easy game because it's kind of like what we have to do all the time when we are trying to communicate something with limited vocabulary. Also, if you live in a foreign country, you become a pro at gestures!
c.) Who am I?: The presenter showed a celebrity, political figure or athlete on the screen and we had 2 minutes to try and get our partner to guess who it was. We weren't allowed to use Japanese
Following the games, the presenter shared some personal and some professional stories. He told us how he became involved in coaching the debate club and we did a few exercises in debate.
a.) In groups of 3, one person had a chocolate bar. the other 2 people had to give points as to why they should be given the chocolate bar. The person who had the chocolate bar could determine the winner.
b.) The presenter called for 4 volunteers and gave them each a celebrity role to play: Queen Elizabeth, Barack Obama, Lady Gaga and Ronaldo Messi. These 4 celebrities were on an overloaded cruise ship. Each celebrity had to give reasons why we should save them. After each 4 stated their case, we, the audience ahd to vote on who we'd throw overboard.
On Day 2, we had a team of teachers presenting a Science lesson to demonstrate how English can be integrated into the lesson. Having taught grade 4,5 & 6 Science when I worked at an immersion school, this lesson was right on point as to how to incorporate language functions into your lessons to introduce the target vocabulary and to help students use the target vocabulary during our lessons.
to be continued...I can barely keep my eyes open tonight!
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