Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Just Came in! Closer to the official

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the National Council of Japanese Language Teachers, I would like to extend our sincere congratulations on your selection as the winner of the 2008 NCJLT Teacher Award for the College Level. It is our honor to present this prestigious national award to you for your outstanding achievements and contributions to our profession.

The NCJLT Board would like to invite you to the 2008 NCJLT Teacher Awards Ceremony, which will take place during the NCJLT Awards Luncheon in the Northern Hemisphere A2,A3 & A4 at the Dolphin Hotel in Orlando, FL on Saturday, November 22, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. This luncheon will be held in conjunction with the 2008 ACTFL Convention.

We do not have the detailed schedule of the luncheon at this time, but the Awards Ceremony will be after lunch, and you will have about one minute to make an acceptance speech if you so wish. During and after the ceremony, we will take pictures of you for our newsletter and website. I would like to ask you to pose with all the prize sponsors right after the ceremony as well. I would appreciate it very much if you could let us know at your earliest convenience whether or not you will be able to join us for this special occasion. If you can come, please arrive at the aforementioned venue of the luncheon a little before 11:30 a.m. so that I will have a chance to congratulate you in person.

You will be provided with our complementary lunch ticket and registration for the 2008 ACTFL Convention. If you have already paid for them, you will receive reimbursements from the ACTFL office within 8 weeks after the convention is over. For general information on this convention, please go to http://www.actfl.org/

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me by email or phone I look forward to hearing from you, and again, congratulations!

Sincerely,


Miko Foard
Teacher Award Director
NCJLT

Email: miko.foard@asu.edu

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Virtual meeting with students in Hiroshima!

JAPAN 1100 Honor Seminar students virtually met Japanese students in Hiroshima first time this semester for self introduction. Each student in Japan introduced themselves in Japanese English and my student did so in American English. Several students brought their family pictures to show them and one student brought a saxophone to play! A student from 2201 introduced herself in 100% Japanese and it was impressive. A student from 1101 tried some as well. There will be 5 more global classroom experience on family and marriage in two cultures. Exciting! Exciting! Exciting! After 3rd test, some 20 students are still keeping up with GTS at 9am 1101 class while only dozen seem to try surviving at 11am 1101. Night class is doing a bit better as expected and as shown in average chapter test score of 80%. Morning class (9am and 11am) average score is 75% as usual though 11am-only class score is slightly higher (78%). In Spring semester, morning is consolidated into one 11am class while night class remains two tracks (Mon/Wed and Tue/Thu). Summer study abroad application is about to be ready and GTS students are encouraged to apply/register at earliest convenience with their Spring semester registration to secure the spot. December and March trips to Japan are also recruiting students now.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Workshop after Workshop, Test after Test!

Illinois Association of Teachers of Japanese had its Annual Fall Workshop at Elk Grove High School where some 20 teachers gathered. Teachers were mostly from Chicagoland area but teachers showed up from South Bend in Indiana and Urbana as well. GTS mainly talked about what is gong on about K-16 Japanese education in our area but also assisted the presentation about new development of AP Japanese test for high schoolers. In the officer election (which will be held every two years), GTS was elected as a President (though GTS rather wanted to work behind the curtain!! and did insist that way). Vice-President is from Walter Payton Magnet HS in Chicago CPS, Secretary is from Streamwood HS, and Treasurer is from Andrew Jackson Language Academy in Chicago CPS. GTS likes to be "KUROMAKU (黒幕)" as most GTS lovely students know but GTS can be front in local while being Kuromaku in national level. Ahhh, global classroom (JAPAN 1100) paper from Hiroshima came in, so I have to put them into English by Thursday(10/16). Huh? 2201 Test and Waubonsee Chinese 101 Test is on Monday(10/13) and 1101 Test is on Wednesday (10/15). Ooops! I almost forgot. I am one of organizers of Annual Professional Conference for ICTFL (organization for all foreign language teachers of our state) beginning on Thursday (10/16) through Saturday (10/18). Free time? What, in the world, are you talking about?
Hey! I love MY JOB and MY STUDENTS and MY COLLEAGUES. Just in case you wonder GTS family contribution, I would say Japanese people should never talk about it. GTS is now telling you that a little EMA's sister/brother is coming in May 2009! So GTS will be bankrupted and 'energy-rupted' Life Goes On. mmmmmm.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Over 20 gathered in JCC Dinner!

Last Friday was the first friday of the month on which current and former GTS students gathered for monthly cinema and/or dinner at Kyoto Sushi. It was a quite big group this month with those who are/were in GTS class since 6 years ago. I hope the group next month (11/7/08) be as lively as this group! I had a chance to meet with Prof. Kazumi Hatasa, one of the authors of New NAKAMA textbook, and got the useful link for students in JAPAN 1101. (See the Link lists of this blog!) In the same meeting, I also met Prof. Mayumi Oka from Univ. of Michigan, main author of "Tobira" textbook being used for current JAPAN 2251. GTS has to prepare for the fall professional conference for "Illinois Association of Teachers of Japanese (IATJ)" coming up this weekend and another conference for "Illinois Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ICTFL) next weekend. oooops! Global classroom project of GTS Honor Seminar (under JAPAN 1100) begins soon (10/16/08) so the schedule will become crazy!! But it is exciting for 19 GTS seminar students to vitually meet through webcam conference classroom with 18 students of Hiroshima Jogakuin University!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

GTS as a Winner of National Teacher Award!

National Council of Japanese Language Teachers (NCJLT) has announced that GTS is the recipient of "Japanese Teacher of the Year 2008 of the U.S. Colleges and Universities!" The Award Ceremony will be held in Florida in November during the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) national conference. This is the great news for COD and GTS' students. GTS students can be proud of themselves regardless of their suffering from GTS academic educational "bully" and asked to be responsible for keeping up with their eagerness to learn Japanese. It is the most important to continue the Japanese learning and acquiring endeavor regardless of actual skills of what everyone can do in Japanese. The academic grade is NOT everything but just a tiny part of the life so move forward to the FUTURE. Well, GTS probably should behave better as every Japanese teacher in the U.S. can at least recognize his name. One day, all GTS students can say "I am SHINGO's student. You don't know Shingo? Too bad!" This is just a passing point yet one reaching point 15-year teaching at COD and in 20-year American life! (I should be more humble as a Japanese! Hahaha!)