PanSIG 2017 AIU

Ready to rock&roll

May 19-21 saw JALT PanSIG visit Akita International University, with members and non-members coming together from all over the country, and even a few from further abroad, to present, exchange and share ideas. It was my first time attending a PanSIG conference, and I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to present; a poster presentation on using the mobile app Aurasma.

The entire process was very new to me, writing a proposal for my presentation, getting it approved, preparing all of my materials (with multiple backup copies!), ironing out any technical difficulties with Aurasma and finally standing in front of a crowd of people showing the ins and outs of my poster display.

Augmented reality guru Parisa Mehran checking out my work!

The preparation stage was a good opportunity to take a step back and re-evaluate what exactly were my aims with using Aurasma, had I succeeded in attaining those goals and to reflect on ways to improve or do differently. It allowed me to view my project another perspective, the perspective of the audience. What questions would they have, what questions would I be asking if I were seeing some new tech for the first time and how I could translate it into my own teaching.

Leading up to the conference it was a mixture of first-time nerves and anticipating some sort of technical failure, but composed and collected knowing that I had put in the time and effort to create a poster display I was confident in showing to a group of language instructors. It was left in my hands to make the presentation a success.

An interactive poster with an interactive audience

One niggle that I did run into was that I had prepared my posters to be held up by magnets, being a modular poster with various segments it allowed me to have a more dynamic and interchangeable display, under the presumption from reading the PanSIG poster session web page that magnetic display boards would be available. You could imagine my disappointment when I reached the venue realised I had to pin all of my posters! I think it would be a benefit to future presenters if the advice on the official web page matched what was available on site on the day.

Contributions from attendees on the day

The day of the presentation was brilliant. There was a lot of interest and it was overwhelming at times with the number of people crowding around my display. I did come away thinking that I would have preferred the Saturday slot as there would have been even more people to get feedback from. Many conference attendees had to catch flights/trains to get back to their respective workplaces (Akita is not an easy place to get to and from!) for Monday morning, which meant that there was a significance turnout between the Saturday and Sunday poster sessions. Nevertheless, it was an amazing opportunity and my first experience presenting outside of local events.

Thank you to all those involved, especially the organisers for putting together a wonderful conference, Akita International University for a gorgeous venue and for the splendid hospitality, and all the presenters for an eye-opening weekend of professional development. A special mention to Jim for driving all the way there and back while I kipped in the front!

Postcard from...Hiroshima

Where are we now?!

Hi everyone.

I have been away for the weekend (June 25-6) in Hiroshima. I have never been here before, but have always wanted to visit. Attending the second JALT EBM of the year here was a very good excuse - but of course I was very busy most of the day times in meetings & talking to teachers from all over the country (and introducing our Damian to people - did you know he is the PR guy for Shinshu Chapter?)

On Saturday evening, we managed to find a pub that was going to show the third & final rugby test match between England & Australia. I really wanted to see England make it a 'whitewash'. I was not disappointed, and was smiling from ear to ear (Kilkennys helped) by bedtime.

Thousands of Cranes for Peace

On Sunday afternoon, meetings finished, we tore off to Miyajima and the amazing temple there. Wasn't sure what to expect, but would have been impressed regardless. Wonderful structure, incredibly peaceful, and a very calming sunset sitting on the sea wall. A ridiculously overpriced & snobby craft beer pub annoyed us, but a standing-up steak bar/restaurant was divine!

Monday morning was an all too brief look around the Peace Park - President Obama was here a few weeks ago - which was ground zero one innocent August morning in 1945. In a flash the world changed; impossible to imagine & overwhelming in scale. The A Dome is an iconic image/symbol which is being reinforced to stand testimony even if an earthquake hits the city. 

Where the world changed

I am very glad I finally managed to visit this clean, organised and happy city. I love the trams, and the vibrant city finally enjoying a successful baseball season too.

Sorry it took a while to post this postcard :)

Jim

Sharing a cool share

I love the way you can use this site symbaloo to collate & display a set of stuff - in this case all the Chapters of JALT - in one clickable image. A one-stop page for all your navigations. What do you think?

My first International JALT Conference

English Central with Charles Browne

I had the great privilege of attending the International JALT Conference in Shizuoka from November 20-23. Nothing could have prepared me for a hectic weekend filled to the brim with presentations, workshops, talking to publishers, networking, hands on learning, sharing ideas, socializing and this list goes on. It was such an amazing opportunity to be surrounded by fellow peers, soaking in the wealth of knowledge and experience available. The weekend changed my outlook on the kind of educator I aspire to be, and armed me with the tools in order to succeed.

I have never attended a conference of this scale before, over 1800 attendants over the course of 4 days, from all sorts of teaching backgrounds. There is so much to see and do, people to meet that there doesn’t seem to be enough time for everything. There were many presentations and workshops I missed out on due to clashes or being preoccupied with something else.  My mind didn’t even have to chance to wander as there was always something that required my full attention.

A huge crowd gathers for Paul Nation

The theme of the conference was: Focus on the Learner, perhaps something that can be, but never should, be overlooked. A lot of the presentations I attended had an emphasis on the importance of needs analysis; who are the stakeholders and what do they want? Are we truly fulfilling our role as a teacher if we fail to meet this single requirement?

With needs analysis also comes the task of identifying problems and solving them: what is not working, why not and how to go about fixing it. Not every problem has a simple solution and you have to be equipped with the suitable knowledge and tools. A major point to keep in mind when it comes to self evaluation and expanding your teaching skills, something I will be keeping at the forefront when it comes to lesson planning.

Publicity Officers' meeting

Another thing that often cropped up, which is something I find myself guilty of at times, is the

teacher taking a step back and doing nothing. Let students do the work and let them figure out for themselves. The less time the teacher spends talking the better. I’m sure all my students would agree! I have a tendency to offer assistance prematurely and it is something that I need to work and improve on.

It was fascinating to get a glimpse of educators from across the globe sharing their insights, ideas and experiences. There was so much to take in that I was furiously scribbling in my notebook the entire time. I came away from the whole experience with a better understanding of how to cater to my student’s needs, my own pitfalls and weaknesses plus a host of ideas and techniques to implement in my classroom.

Research  results on show at a Poster Session

But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, I had to share a hotel room with Jim after all! One of the main grumps was that Shizuoka did not lend itself to a good “after-event”. There was a lack of venues to continue the conference into the evening in a much more social manner, gathering ideas together over a couple of beverages and exchanging personal experiences. I guess you cannot have your cake and eat it too.

But in no way did that take anything away from my first International JALT conference. I feel as though I have come a long way since my first day on the job, but this conference has made me realize I still have a long way to go. I am looking forward to every single step of that journey. A massive thank you to all the organizers of the event, the staff involved and everyone who contributed to such a fantastic event.

A special mention to Jim for driving me all the way to and from Shizuoka, (even though I was a lousy navigator!), and introducing me to so many brilliant people. I cannot wait for the next one!

In-Conference Professional Development - PANSIG

Back-pedalling a couple of weeks to tell you about a very exciting afternoon I enjoyed (though working very hard) in Kobe at the recent JALT PANSIG Conference held there.

It has often struck me how many of 'my' (Cambridge) Speaking Examiners attend the various workshops & conferences I sometimes manage to get to - without being surprised; they are operating in our natural recruiting zone and showing an interest in professional development. Ideally then, make it an extra-worthwhile weekend for everyone and have something tangible to take home.

So what did we do? Prior to the Conference, announced that there would be an opportunity for teachers to attend a full speaking examiner training workshop, with a discount if attending the Conference already - or a discount to attend the rest of the day at the Conference if signing up for the training. Good deal either way!

We received very positive interest and had the session fully booked in no time at all; online pre-training meant we could start at speed with everyone on the same page...my job really a matter of fine-tuning interpretations of instructions and delivery of materials. You would have thought that reading out a few questions from a script would be easy. Usually, it would be, and you do not have to be an experienced teacher to be able to do that. However, add in the pressure of two (sometimes) three nervous/expectant/shy/chatty/non-native speakers hanging on your every word, plus the need to give each a 'fair' turn, plus manage the timing of the tasks, plus pay attention to responses and body language, plus remember what to do next? Not so easy. And with Conference providing us with a roomful of dummy candidates to actually practice on in real time, a lot of pressure. Speaking Examiners have to rise to the challenge and appreciate the necessity of delivering a standard test each & every time. For me, this impacts on the test-takers perception of the test more than anything else they do on test day. They will not remember the questions, but they will remember how they felt in the speaking test.

Job satisfaction for me in examiner training comes with recruits managing to control the above calmly.

Which is at odds with the expectations of recruits, who want to know 'what the scores are' from the start! When we do eventually get to the assessment phase, recruits get excited to see the actual criteria, and then there's a good deal of head scratching as few have assessed with benchmarked criteria before - and very few with 'Can Do' in mind. Invariably recruits begin by noticing 'mistakes', 'errors', and 'can't do', and picking on accents they are not familiar with etc. It takes 'a few goes' looking at different samples of speaking for the group to come around - and it needs to be the group, in the same scoring ballpark, for the lesson to have sunk in. And this is where teachers can stretch their experienced legs and share/discuss/argue/negotiate around interpretation of the criteria v what they saw/heard - and explain all of that couched (only) in the terms written down in front of them. Bye bye 'funny accent' and 'can't do the present perfect simple' etc!

And then the satisfaction of 'nailing' scores when final marks are collected, and the reassurance that there is a lot more support hereon in for all our successful new SEs - in this case 14 people catching the train home glowing with a very real sense of achievement from their weekend to reflect on & put into practice. Well done the PANSIG Cadre!



Need to thanks a couple of people for pushing this unique initiative through - an idea I have had in mind for a couple of years, but needed implementers like Jon Dujmovich and Mark Brierley. Overall, I should thank the PANSIG organisers for seeing the win-win, Tim Pritchard for his 'can do' attitude, and the volunteers who were thrust into practice speaking tests. This event would not have happened without the support of Cambridge English Language Assessment in Japan, specifically Tomoe Aoyama.

Check out Luna's special offer at the JALT PANSIG Conference next month

We do not think this has been done/offered before - while attending a Conference be eligible to join an examiner...
Posted by Luna International: JP004 on Monday, April 20, 2015

A Conference from a different perspective - photographer

The weekend of May 18-9 I was asked to be the official photographer for JALT PANSIG Conference 2013, held at Nanzan University in Nagoya.

I was very excited to have been asked, and thank David Kluge for the leap of faith. I should also thank all the presenters etc who tried to ignore me scuttling in & out of rooms. I tried my hardest to be unobtrusive & uninvasive. I sincerely hope I managed that, and that the shots I did achieve captured the lovely feel of the Conference - very friendly, co-operative and calmly professional. My regret is that I did not spend any time in any presentations for long enough, but I did get a taste of a lot more than usual, and got to meet a lot of inspiring educators.

A lot of people worked very hard to put the Conference together, and a testament to their hard work was that you couldn't see any obvious signs of panic!

This slideshow highlights the people I portraited during the first day:



After a long day for presenters and audience alike, there was a short walk to a local Italian restaurant, which tried valiantly to refresh an hungry & thirsty crowd. It was a very confined space with everyone diving for the plates & topping off each others' drinks. Like everyone else, I was starving and keen to talk to friends - such as Theron Muller - and less worried about the actual photography.



This slideshow features some of the people I could catch on the second day:



Every Conference needs a volunteer team on the day to do all the running around, finding cables, carrying umbrellas & telling presenters when to stop...the "Green shirts" at PANSIG were very cheerful as well as efficiently organised. One of the perks of my job this weekend was to take their 'official' photos.



I have the feeling I took far too many pictures, but my encouragement to anyone doing this kind of assignment is keep looking & keep shooting. A theme will emerge although you probably will not realise until you get home and start looking through your raw shots. While shooting you have to keep checking thumbnails & adjusting your settings - try not to be too ambtious with zoom indoors (so be nosy & get closer - "ignore me" works wonders!). I prefer to avoid using my flash in intimate groups, so think about natural light from windows (awfully hard if presenters draw curtains & turn the lights off to show a slideshow...come back later near the end if you can). Lean on stuff as much as possible to get steady (I should have taken my monopod). Clutches of people in conversations in corridors are as much the conference experience as listening to presentations, and often the speaker will be more relaxed chatting with interested audience members when they have finished presenting & not in the flustered setting up stage. Don't be shy about asking co-presenters to pose for you as a team, and get Plenaries & other VIPs to give you a few seconds for a banker (try stepping outside for some greenery background & warmer lighting). Most importantly, keep track of where you have been! Your metadata will give you times shots taken, but you will not remember which rooms you were in/which presentation was which - certainly not after 2 days in 3 floors of rooms with 26 different Special Interest Groups! My solution was to scribble a timeline on my conference schedule & circle any speakers in it as I went. Another solution would be to snapshoot the door number before you go in. And talk to people; they will have no idea who you are or why you are aiming a camera at them all the time - especially outside the presentation rooms - so say hello & chat early. They will relax & ignore you (photographically!) as the event progresses allowing you to 'pry' and get better candids.

I loved this opportunity to get my tired 10D out of its bag. You can find the whole weekend of PANSIG right here http://www.flickr.com/photos/saint_george/sets/72157633731993876/  If anyone wants a picture without the copyright notice, please drop me a quick email with the jpeg number & I will happily oblige. Likewise, if you are in a photo and would rather not be, let me know & I will take it down.

Important last note - make sure the organisers have included a 'photo release' clause in the registration process.

A slideshow of super Luna smiles

We are delighted to share a whole host of happy faces from our classrooms this summer! Which class did you really want to join?!

Nanako's dad & KET Certificates

This is a slideshow of an event Jim organised with Shinshu JALT last Saturday evening. One of Luna's dads was a speaker...and he was also one of our ex-student's surgeons, which is why this promise to present was made about six years ago!




Among the audience was the current National JALT President - I think the first time that this has ever happened...so while he was here, Jim asked him to present Yanissa with her Cambridge ESOL Certificate for K.E.T. (she passed "with Merit") and we are all very proud of her achievement. Unfortunately, Hokuto & Tomoro had other plans and were unable to attend the short ceremony. We gave them their certificates last week, and as you can see they also look very pleased - well done boys!

Portfolios in the classroom - John Gunning speaks in Iida

On Feb 25th our local Chapter of the Japan Association of Language Teachers held a meeting in Iida, which apparently is the first time ever to hold a workshop there. I am gald we finally corrected that oversight!

I had invited a relatively new friend of mine to present for us (I am supposed to organise an event every month or so, as 'Programme Chair'), John Gunning. I met John last year, when he joined a training session I ran in Nagoya to become an examiner for us (Cambridge ESOL). I had previously seen him around at National JALT Conferences looking very busy (yet calm) and smart - Conference Manager must be a very stressful job to take on!

Anyway, John put his hand up when I was looking for speakers this year, and Iida seemed relatively convenient to Gifu (until we looked at train schedules late in the day!). John wanted to share his experiences using Portfolios in the classroom, with a college class he had taught recently. I was very interested in this topic, as I have been trying to figure out how we at Luna can better collate the work our students are doing (for them - I do try hard to do the sharing from the teacher's end here & elsewhere online such as Facebook, twitter as @oyajimbo, flickr...). I am concerned that after years of study and hardwork, they will have lost all the scraps of paper, pictures, projects they have worked so hard on in class and at home.

My focus has been finding a digital/online solution, and I am still inclined that way personally, but I know a lot of our students & parents are steadfastly analogue. I had not considered using portfolios for assessment, in any shape or form, but very much enjoyed John's approach - get the students to agree on marking rubrics and to then assess each others' work accordingly. Students built up a week-on-week folder of class work and out of class assignments, which was very easy to look over and see the development (or lack thereof) language and presentation. Seeing other students work (as ongoing assessment) served to motivate the less achieving class members with what he called a "Yabai!" moment (Japanese exclamation of alarm/socks need pulling up). It also meant John was not the final arbiter on performance.

Now at Luna we will not be adopting portfolios for assessment, but I think parents could very easily reverse engineer the process and assess us. And I think that is a very good idea indeed. So, now I have a use for all the old ring binders clogging up our 'storeroom'!

Thank you John for the inspiration! (Next time we'll have a beer together instead of making you catch a train around the moon!)

* Why not come to Shinshu JALT's next meeting? It will be held from 12:30 in Agata-no-Mori, Matsumoto, on March 25th.

Atsuko Katanaga, Akiko Seino and Mari Nakamura will be talking about their perceptions of the job we are doing teaching English. Each presenter will talk for approx an hour, and there will be Q/A. Presentations will be in Japanese, but I am sure they can handle Japanese questions too. The meeting is open to non-members (Y500).

PAN-SIG press release

プレス・リリース

2011年3月22日
（NPO）全国語学教育学会（JALT）信州支部

第10 回全国語学教育学会　分野別研究部会（Pan-SIG）2011年　年次大会 　4月3日（日）　記者会見のお知らせ

　JALT信州支部では2011年5月21日から22日の2日間、長野県松本市信州大学で開催される第10 回全国語学教育学会分野別研究部会（以下Pan-SIG）2011年年次大会（後援：長野県教育委員会、松本市教育委員会、信州大学人文学部、JALT研究部会、協賛：JALT信州支部）に先駆け記者発表を行います。同日開催イベント「オックスフォード児童英語教師向けワークショップ2011松本」と合わせ、ぜひご参加ください。

Pan-SIG 2011年　年次大会　記者会見

■日時： 201１１年４月３日（日）　13:00～13:30

■出席：信州大学　教育学部　准教授　酒井英樹　
        JALT信州支部　会長　マーク・ブライアリー(信州大学　全学教育機構　准教授)
　　　　JALT信州支部　広報　ジ     ム・ジョージ（ルナインターナショナル代表）
　　　　JALT信州支部　広報　林　英美（メルク英語教室　主宰）
　　　
■内容： Pan-SIGの概要と開催趣旨、小学校英語活動の現状について、東北関東大震災募金協力について

■会場： ルナインターナショナル（〒390-0806 松本市女鳥羽 2-3-5 久星ビル）
       　TEL ０２６３－３４－４４８１
       　松本バスターミナルより松本電鉄美ヶ原温泉行きバス乗車、桜町バス停下車、徒歩約5分

■大会の詳しいご案内はこちらをご参照ください。→　http://pansig.org/2011/

■お申し込み方法：お名前、ご所属、電話番号、FAX番号、E-mailアドレス、を記載頂き、jalt@shinshu-u.ac.jpまでお申し込み下さい。

◆◇お問い合わせ先◇◆
（NPO）全国語学教育学会（JALT）信州支部
会長　マーク・ブライアリー（日本語可）　電話：090-4464-6391
広報　林　英美　電話：090-7265-6599
E-mail: jalt@shinshu-u.ac.jp

同時開催　オックスフォード児童英語教師向けワークショップ

■日時： 2010年4月3日（月） 10：30-13：00(10:00より開場いたします。)

■内容：第1部（10:30-11:20）ケビン・チャーチリー
      「Oxford Reading Treeを使った効果的な読み聞かせの秘訣とテクニック」

      第2部（11:50-12:40）バーバラ・ホスキンズ・サカモト

      「生徒一人一人をきめ細かく指導するためのアクティビティとは？」

                       

■会場： ルナインターナショナル（同上）
■ワークショップの詳細、事前登録はこちら→http://www.oupjapan.co.jp/kidsclub/otws2011/index_jp.shtml

PAN-SIG abstracts as word clouds - Part One

Exploring academic writing fluency at college level

Teaching in cultures averse to uncertainty

Testing - A boon or a bane on the path to fluency?

Dance for young learners - A fun way to teach

The path to fluency: First steps in ER

Flüssiges Sprechen üben. Datenanalyse nach einem Jahr.

SuperTots author - Aleda Krause

Yes, another Sunday when the Luna team
is busy learning and working!

The occasion today was a co-hosted event featuring one of Japan's best known authors & teacher-trainers, Aleda Krause. The focus of Aleda's three-hour workshop today was on teaching young learners and even younger learners.

As the author of the "SuperTots" and "SuperKids" series of children's books, Aleda has the materials to back up the theory - both of which she generously shared with an appreciative audience of teachers from far & near. She presented her ideas about developing children's learning from listening to speaking, and on the problems & possibilities of teaching pre-teens. All very useful for us then, with the age group of students we see everyday in Luna!

You can look forward to Tana, Jon & Jim adding some new classroom activities to their armoury as a result! Everyone is invited to attend our next event, on May 25th, by the way, when we host Potato Pals author Patrick Jackson and master reader Kevin Churchley...details to be announced soon. Thank you Aleda, for coming to our school today!