http://c-english.com/blog Information for Miyagi JET Participants Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:04:02 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Not sure if I can say that about myself, but I will be finishing up here at the kencho on the 31st of March. It's been a very interesting four years. I have been privileged enough to work with some great people, both here at the kencho and in the wider ... http://c-english.com/blog/2008/03/21/end-of-an-era/ Okay, so technically we're in the middle of the second semester, but it's December, we have the winter holiday coming up, and it feels like the end of term :) Classes should be finishing up or finished, and there are only a couple of months of classes left before the end ... http://c-english.com/blog/2007/12/18/end-of-term/ So, the October Meetings last week went really well, thanks mainly to Aki's efforts putting them together, but also thanks to the presenters, who did a great job with their workshops. Personally I thought the atmosphere was really positive -thanks for making our jobs easier! It got really cold over the ... http://c-english.com/blog/2007/10/16/october-meetings-overcold/ There is a typhoon approaching Miyagi at the moment, so many schools are closed. Or rather, students don't have to come to school as it would be dangerous. Teachers on the other hand, are expected to come in, which begs the question: are teachers more expendable than students? Either way, a day ... http://c-english.com/blog/2007/09/07/typhoonschool-closures/ Potentially very big news for ALTs, the front page of the Asahi and Mainichi today were concerned with the announcement of new courses of study for Elementary Schools. In a nutshell, the following changes will be implemented in Spring 2011: the period of integrated study (sougouteki na gakushu) will be reduced by ... http://c-english.com/blog/2007/08/31/english-in-elementary-school/ For everyone starting out at a new school, you may want to check out this article by Andrew Clarke about self-introduction lessons: http://www.c-english.com/files/selfintroductions_ac.doc Good luck with your classes! http://c-english.com/blog/2007/08/29/first-classes/ I sent out a survey to ask for feedback and advice concerning the idea handbooks. I would like to thank the 29 people who took the time to reply to the survey. Some results: -97% of respondents have a copy of one or more handbooks. This is great, ... http://c-english.com/blog/2007/02/16/survey-results/ Lots of good feedback coming in about the Ideas Handbooks. Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill in the survey, and everyone else keep it coming! In a couple of weeks I will post the results here, along with comments. http://c-english.com/blog/2007/01/10/feedback/ This year, before making the Ideas Handbooks, I thought it might be a good idea to get some feedback on them and see what people think. Please click on the link below and fill in the short survey. It won't take more than a minute or two: survey Yes, this is my ... http://c-english.com/blog/2007/01/09/ideas-handbooks-survey/ We are currently conducting our annual investigation of SHS ALTs' working hours. If you are a prefectural SHS ALT, please follow the link below and fill in the survey. It shouldn't take more than a minute or two. Survey. http://c-english.com/blog/2007/01/05/shs-working-hours-survey/