Oxford Teaching Workshop (Feb 6th in Sendai)
I’ll be presenting again as part of the Oxford Teaching Workshop 2011. It’ll be taking place in Sendai, at the Sun Plaza Hotel, on Sunday Feb 6th.
The lineup is as follows:
| Sunday, February 6, 2011 | |
| 10:00-10:30 | Registration |
| 10:30-11:20 | Reading in Class: Opening the Door to an English World Ben Shearon |
| 11:40-12:30 | The Ladder of Learning: A step-by-step approach to teaching young learners Kathleen Kampa and Charles Vilina |
| 12:30-13:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30-14:20 | Large or small, teach them all! Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto |
| 15:00 | Doors Close |
I’ll be talking mainly about using the Oxford Reading Tree and other story books in class. Hope to see some of you there!
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Social Skills Written Test
You’ve probably seen this already, it’s all over the English J-web, but just in case (thanks to goodandbadjapan):
Thai TESOL 2011
Well, this was my first time attending (and presenting!) at Thai TESOL. This year’s conference was in Chiang Mai, a beautiful historic city in the north of Thailand, and one that is often featured in top-10 lists of places to visit or live. It’s winter here, so the temperature is a freezing (for Thailand) 15-25 degrees Celcius.
I had a great slot for my presentation, first thing on the first day, but unfortunately my room was in a separate building, hidden away behind the hotel pool! I guess they had checked out my reputation as a presenter 😉
As I only had 30 minutes, I started on time with five people in the audience, and finished on time with about 30. Sadly most of them arrived after the half-way mark, so I am not sure how much they will have gotten out of the presentation.
My criticisms so far:
1. the venue is not appropriate, because we have two sites that require at least five minutes to walk between
2. there are only five minutes between presentations but presenters need at least ten to wrap up, pack their stuff away, and allow the next presenter to set up (I would recommend fifteen to allow for audience questions)
3. the plenaries have been vague, common-sensical, and dull
These three things aside, the location is fantastic, many of the attendees are friendly and interesting, and Thailand is a great place to spend a few days.
In terms of the value of the conference itself, I am going to withhold judgement for now.
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Focus
My life is pretty busy, and to make it worse I tend to get interested in new things and lose interest in things pretty frequently. Focus, or lack of focus, is a big problem for me.
As I mentioned in my report card post I got a lot done last year. While I am pretty happy about that, I also get the feeling a lot of it was quite shallow. Some of it was okay, but not exactly legacy work.
This year will be different. I am going to consciously do less work, but make it count for more. To do more meaningful work, and to say no to more things. I am going to focus.
Wish me luck!
Upcoming Conferences
There are a bunch of interesting conferences coming up, both in Japan and overseas. Here are just some of them that I will be attending and presenting at:
Thai TESOL in Chiang Mai (Jan 21-22)
Oxford Kids Tour in Sendai (Feb 6th)
Extensive Reading Seminar in Okayama (Feb 13th)
Oxford Kids Tour in Niigata (Mar 12th)
JALT Pan-Sig Conference in Matsumoto (May 21-22)
Hope to see some old friends and meet some new ones! If all goes to plan I will also be recording and uploading videos of all my presentations.
I’ll keep you posted.