Hello All watching and reading.  Just 2 quick messages to chew on – one about this month’s meeting, and the other about last month’s:

1) July’s meeting will see Joseph Falout speak about motivation for teachers.  Here is the information:

Date, Place and Time: Saturday, July 21st – JOIN US, Kenshushitsu-7 (3rd Floor), 1000-1200.

Fee: Members and Students – Free; All other parties – 500 yen

Title: Motivating communities of practice for teachers

Speaker and Bio: Joe Falout, an assistant professor at Nihon University, researches, publishes, and presents internationally about teacher and learner motivation with regards to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts.

Summary: Even the most motivated teachers can at some point feel exhausted, isolated, and ineffective—the classic symptoms of burnout. Avoiding burnout and maintaining motivation is important for feeling professional satisfaction and lasting through a full career of teaching. In this workshop we will focus on personalizing ways that participants can regain and maintain their motivation through three principles — managing emotions, joining communities, and boosting efficacy. The presenter will provide a theoretical base from social psychology, and use anecdotes to illustrate particular points. Workshop participants will be asked to explore their own pathways toward increasing their sense of control, autonomy, and relatedness within their work environments and professional communities of practice.

2) And now, lets wind back the clock for the June Meeting, and Renaud Davies.  The June meeting was a very informative one.  Here is the chapter report by Recording Secretary, Stephen Shucart:

AKITA – June 2012 –Using Social Learning Technology in the Classroom: An Introduction – Renaud Davies. The presenter is theProgram Advisor for Akita JETs, and he explained some of the tech tools he uses in his classrooms and for training new JET ALTs.  Using Prezi, a free, non-linear alternative to PowerPoint and Keynote, he demonstrated an array of social networking and presentation tools to help enhance classroom instruction. Some of the social-networking tools he covered were ‘Glogster’, ‘Linoit’, ‘Wallwisher’, ‘Voicetread’ and ‘Speakpipe’. The second half of the presentation was a hands-on demonstration of how to hack a Wii  remote handset and IR laser pointer to make an interactive whiteboard. This presentation proved to be highly informative, even for the CALL specialists in the audience.

Click here for Photos of Renaud’s Presentation.  Scroll down for photos.

Peace