For the last 28 years, the Integrated English Program (under the auspices of Aoyama Gakuin University’s English Department) has held annual faculty development events for new and continuing teachers in early April. The program’s coordinators, senior teachers, and those newer to the program, share the responsibility of presenting on panels and giving workshops. It has been a way for teachers to share their expertise while gaining knowledge and inspiration from their peers.
This year’s IE Orientation for teachers will features talks by 15 speakers on topics related to issues in online teaching, drama in the classroom, and how to get the most out of discussion, reading, and writing activities.
This is the schedule for the 2021 academic year. Click on image to view PDF. Alternatively, you can download the English version of the schedule that has been prepared by our International Center.
This is the revised schedule for the 2020 academic year. The new date for the commencement of the academic year will be May 1st and it will conclude on August 13th. May 4th, 5th, and 6th will not be university holidays, so some teachers may opt to hold “real time” lessons on those days. [Click on image to view PDF.]
We hope that this posting finds you all safe and well. You have probably been wondering about the status of the IE Teachers’ Orientation (which had been scheduled for April 4th), and the start of AGU’s academic year (originally scheduled for Tuesday, April 7th).
Many of our adjunct lecturers teach at other schools and universities and may have already been notified about delays in the commencement of the academic year. Due to the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic, it has taken some time for AGU to decide whether or not to postpone it.
I’m pleased to announce that a decision has finally been made. First semester classes will start on April 21st. The term will last 13 weeks instead of the usual 15 weeks.
The plan is to have actual face-to-face classes from April 21st, but teachers should make content available to their students online and be prepared to hold classes online as well should that become necessary. Teachers who wish to conduct their classes online will be able to do so.
Our Joho Media Center has been working hard to try to decide on the best online tools for our needs. Yesterday it was announced that they concluded a contract with Cisco for the use, by all faculty and students, of Webex. It can be used over the Web and the WebEx Mobile app is available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. The plan is to somehow integrate the use of Webex with CoursePower, the LMS (Learner Management System) that the university has made available to us for years, but which few of us have ever touched.
Therefore, not only students, but teachers as well, will be learning new things in novel and, hopefully, wonderful ways.
Make the most of your time at AGU and try to develop an interest in something that requires–or can be enhanced by–the use of English. Even better, make the most of being where you are and explore ways of contributing to the Rugby World Cup in 2019, and Olympics in 2020. Amazing international events right at your doorstep!
by Brant Hardgrave (former teacher in the IE Program — taught for 9 years)
Welcome to the best program in Japan. I know you think everyone else has great English, is super cool, calm and better than you. Do not worry about it. This is just the outside image. Everyone is afraid of not being the best. Just remember that you have managed to get into one of the best universities in Japan and that Japan is a leading nation. Compare yourself to a farming woman from Mali, to a motor mechanic in Yemen, to an unemployed girl in Bolivia. You are one of the luckiest people in the world. Now enjoy your university life.
by Rachael Barat (former teacher in the program now teaching at a university in Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
If you follow the program, listen to the feedback of your professors, and write and rewrite over and over again it is really possible to learn to write English well, especially given the strong background in English that most of the students in the English Department have. I believe that it is indeed possible to learn how to write well using the methods outlined in the IE program.
by Mariko Yokokawa (former Writing instructor in the IE Program)
