Thanks to all the teachers who attended the 19th Orientation and Annual Faculty Development Symposium on University English Teaching, which was one of the most successful in terms of content and material. We are very grateful for the contributions of our presenters and panelists: Rachael Barat, Deborah Bollinger, James Broadbridge, Jeff Bruce, Paul Howl, Kazuko Namba, Ruby Ogawa, Andrew Reimann, Todd Rucynski, Nicole Takeda, and Will T. Zhanje. Among the highlights was the presentation of a new DVD, “Approaches to Teaching Reading” filmed, directed and edited by Todd Rucynski, written and edited by Joseph and Greg, and funded with a grant from the university Faculty Development Committee, with on camera contributions by Arno Fuhlendorf, Kazuko Namba, Rieko Okuno, and Yoshiho Satake, among others. Copies of this DVD are available for all teachers in the program.
1) Databases on the AGU library’s portal
Joseph made a short video on how to use the databases accessible from the library’s website and he uploaded it to YouTube. This will be useful for teacher professional development and for Academic Writing teachers who can demonstrate it to their students. We would like to encourage students in Core classes to use the databases to access news articles for their media exchanges, as well.
2) Academic Calendar
Also on the website is a downloadable PDF of AGU’s 2012 calendar.
3) IE Core and Writing booklets
These will be available from the bookstore this week. Teacher copies should be in your mail boxes later this week. The only change in the version this year is in IE Writing 3.
4) Resources for IE Core
Deborah Bollinger contributed various materials related to her presentation on using interviews as an optional task in Oral English or IE 3 courses. She made many files related to that task available on a page at the IE Website. Nicole Takeda presented on a website she created which offers materials related to IE 2 Core IE 3 Core, Oral English 2, and Academic Writing. Although some of the materials are related to her own classes, many of these excellent resources will be of general interest, including guidelines for blog writing and presentations.
Photo courtesy of Brant Hardgrave
5) IE Writing 3
As mentioned in the Orientation, in the student IE Core and Writing booklets, there are new exercises on summarizing and paraphrasing, pages 125-131.
6) Academic Skills
New lectures have been prepared on Linguistics (Grice’s Maxims) by Eric McCready and (Multiculturalism in Canada) Bob Courchéne. Some of these materials can be downloaded from the IE website.
7) Software Applications for the iPad
Among the resources mentioned by the presenters were the apps “Teacher Pal” and “Easy Grade Pro” for classroom management and attendance; “iGrade,” an app for the iPhone; “Flashcard Deluxe,” an app for making flashcards which can be played on mobile devices; and “Quizlet,” a site for creating flashcards and offering free downloadable flashcards for learning vocabulary, Japanese, paintings, or almost anything. Flashcard Deluxe is designed to use quizzes and flashcard sets created on Quizlet.
8) Drama Resources
Among the materials presented was a website for transcripts and scripts of popular films and TV shows (Drew’s Script-o-rama) and, for those planning a fieldtrip to see “The Wizard of Oz” (May 17th-20th), more information is available on the website of the Tokyo International Players.
9) Handing in reports
Yuuri Mano, the secretary at the English Department office in room B-520 on the Sagamihara Campus, noted that some teachers allow students to turn in homework at the English Dept. Office. She would like to remind you that, If you decide to do so, she wants to know about it in advance; that is, before you direct students to the office. Specify whether you would like Mano-san to receive the students’ assignments in person or if you want her to place a box or envelope near the door. This will avoid possible trouble which may affect the students’ grades.
Thanks again,
Gregory Strong & Joseph Dias
