Call for participation: Survey for ALTs and JTEs

Ms. Hiromi Takayama, a native of Oita, is working on a Ph.D at the University of Iowa. She's calling for participation in a research project. She'd like both ALTs and JTEs to complete an online survey about teacher efficacy and identity. 

To find out more about Hiromi and her research project, please see her LinkedIn, English Teachers in Japan (ETJ) group discussion post:

• Survey for ALTs and JTEs (c. Jan. 15, 2015 [JST])

Please allow me to thank you in advance for your consideration. The more responses she is able collect, the more valuable her research findings are likely to be.

New Year's resolution worksheets

Looking for a worksheet that you might adopt and adapt for collecting New Year's resolutions, or one simply to serve as inspiration for various sorts of resolutions–if not this year, then maybe next? Check this one out!

Image source: http://blogs.scholastic.com/files/resolution-1.pdf

You'll find a couple more if you read on.

Jan 2015 Meeting: Chuck Waterman and Using Activities based on Published Board Games in the EFL classroom

Pictures and information from PIGATE's 1st meeting of 2015 are below!!

Despite end of the term tests and other obligations, we welcomed 20 participants to the January meeting of PIGATE, again held at the English Lounge.

Ai Sakaida, a fourth year student in the Foreign Language Department at Kumamoto Gakuen, was the chief for the session and opened the session by introducing Chuck.

Joe Tomei

Hi everyone, my name is Joe Tomei, and I'll continue what I hope will be a huge category of introductions.

New Year's Resolutions

Tomomi mentioned that she'd like to share everyone's new year's resolutions in the newsletter....

[You're also more than welcome to share] yours in the comments [on this post]!

January 2014 PIGATE meeting

Hi, everyone! Happy New Year!

I hope to see you all soon. Here's our schedule upcoming for this weekend.

Thanks to Prof. Charles Waterman, we are expecting to have a wonderful time at PIGATE. He plans to do a presentation on language learning games for us. Can't wait to have this opportunity!

Date: Saturday, January 10 

Time: 13:30-17:00

Place: Kumamoto Gakuen University (KGU)
Building No.11, the first floor "English Lounge"

Reflections on the monthly meeting: Dec. 13, 2014

First of all, I'd like to congratulate Ms. Fukushima (right) on her role leading the meeting at KGU on December 13th, 2014. For a teacher in training, it took a lot of courage to do so in English, an additional language for her. I have no doubt that as she gains public speaking experience of that sort she will need to rely less and less upon prepared scripts.

Three other main speakers rounded out the schedule.