Thank you for joining the workshop with Kim Horne

Thank you, all, for joining the workshop with Kim Horne last Saturday.
We sure had a fabulous time together!

Kim has sent us this beautiful slide show from the session.
Enjoy!


Mari

Special Workshop with Kim Horne!

Dear friends, 

I am very pleased today to announce this very special ETJ Ishikawa Group workshop. 

Have you been to Kim Horne's workshop?

Kim is one of the most popular teacher trainers in Japan. 

Her sessions are full of great teaching ideas and a lot of fun! 

Take a look at this slide show to see what her presentation is like:

http://animoto.com/play/jCztFyfPi0x984R1JsE2ng  

Incredible, isn't it?

Great news is coming all the way from Gifu to Kanazawa to share her innovative ideas with us on SATURDAY, July 7!!! 

Here's the summary of the workshop:

ETJ Ishikawa Group Special Workshop with Kim Horne

Date: Saturday, July 7

Time: 2:00 - 4:30

Venue: Kinrosha Plaza in Kitayasue, Kanazawa (10-minute walk from JR Kanazawa Station) 

http://kinpura.com/map.html

Room: 404
Admission fee: 500 yen (for members and non-members)

Presenter: Kim Horne

Title: Brain Rules, Tools and Jewels

Summary: 

Discover the brain rules necessary to engage your students for effective learning. Experience activities that highlight the essential forces of movement, repetition and attention. Practice techniques to empower your students, keep them involved, boost their self-confidence and motivate them to do their best. 

Bio:

Kim is from the U.S., and has been crisscrossing cultures since infancy. She has experience in acting, radio and TV, and began teaching English to children & training teachers in Japan in 2000. She is active in JALT and ETJ and has presented dozens of workshops across Japan. She currently works at a private kindergarten in Gifu City where she gets lots of practice working and playing with happy brains. 

Besides her session, we will have our usual tea time where we can all mingle and chat. 

Please make a reservation by sending an e-mail to mari-@pop02.odn.ne.jp (Mari Nakamura)

And please help us spread the word by forwarding this e-mail to your teacher friends in Hokuriku! 

See you all soon!
Mari Nakamura

ETJ Ishikawa Group Coordinator

Thank you all for coming!

Hi, friends!

We had a great time at our 25th workshop, 'Empowering Young Readers with Fun and Simple Activities' this afternoon. 

At this workshop, we took a sort of 'Merry-Go-Round' format where two speakers presented at the same time in two separate corners of the room for a half of the audience. With this format, we had a cozy atmosphere that made easier for the audience members to interact with one another and to ask questions to the presenters than otherwise.

 

Ms. Aska Imanishi, the owner of Eigokan Aska, shared some of her favorite phonemic awareness and phonics activities, using flashcards and picture books. 

I also shared some phonics, reading fluency and reading comprehension activities using graded readers and flashcards. 

We also had a tea break where everybody had fun making new friends and a brief discussion time where everyone shared her/his own ideas on teaching reading and also asked questions to one another. 

Thank you so much to all of you who showed up, and we do hope that those who could not make it this time will be able to come to our next workshop with a special guest speaker, Kim Horne, on Saturday, July 7! The detailed announcement of this event will be made shortly. 

Mari 

Workshop "Reading Instruction for Children and Early-Teens"

Dear English teachers in Hokuriku! 

Come and join our 25th workshop focusing on READING INSTRUCTION FOR CHILDREN AND EARLY-TEENS!!

If you'd like to know how to make your phonics lessons more stimulating or what you can do to develop children's love of reading while making sure that they are actually building their reading skills, this is the workshop that you don't want to miss! 

All the participants at this workshop will get a FREE GIFT of a lovely reading book for children and early-teens. You will also be the first person to get the detailed info on our VERY SPECIAL WORKSHOP with a very special guest speaker in the summer of 2012! 

Now, take a look at the information below, and contact Mari Nakamura at mari-@pop02.odn.ne.jp to make a reservation!

(We'd appreciate if you could include your phone number in your e-mail message.) 

ETJ Ishikawa Group 25th Workshop

"Empowering Young Readers with Fun and Simple Activities!" 

Date: Sunday, March 18

Time: 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Venue: Kanazawa Kinrosha Plaza in Kitayasue, Kanazawa http://www.kinpura.com/map.html

(about a ten-minute walk from JR Kanazawa Station West Exit) 

Admission: 500 yen for both ETJ members and Non-ETJ members (Invite your friends to join the workshop together!) 

Presenters: Ms. Asuka Imanishi and Mari Nakamura 

Presentation 1 by Asuka Imanishi

Title: Fun Phonics! Enjoy Reading!

Summary: 

How can children build up their reading skills in a fun and motivating way? An effective word making game and step by step methods to be able to read will be introduced!
Bio:

Founded "Eigokan Aska" in Hakusan City in 2007 and has been teaching English mainly to young learners. Majored in English and Education at Kansai Gaidai University and have been teaching English for 10 years. Now trying to build up a 9-year school curriculum to develop English skills and baring out children's potential. http://eigokanaska.com/

Presentation 2 by Mari Nakamura

Title: Reading for Meaning, Reading for Pleasure! 

Summary:

What can we do to improve our young learners’ reading skills once they have acquired basic phonics skills? How can we make sure that our students are reading for meaning? In this interactive session, Mari will share some fun and simple activities that have proven to be popular among her students.

Bio: 

Mari Nakamura is the owner of English Square, an eikaiwa school for children and teenagers in Kanazawa. She has earned a master’s degree in TEYL(Teaching English to Young Learners) from Aston University in the UK, and has developed several ELT materials for children. Her current interest lies in reading instruction and brain science.

http://www.crossroad.jp/es/

Each presentation will be followed by a Q&A session where every one's input is appreciated! We will also have a tea break with snacks and a discussion time. 

Now, mark your calendar, and help us spread the word!

ETJ Ishikawa Coordinator

Mari Nakamura

Workshop on the Use of Visual Aids - THANK YOU!

Hi,

We had a great time sharing ideas on the use of visual aids in children's classes at our workshop today.

First, we learned how to use Chinese characters to reinforce prepositions; on, under, in, next to, from Mr. Shimizu at Esteem School of English.

It is an activity where children need to think hard to come up with Chinese characters they have learned in Japanese class.

The participants racked their brains to create Chinese characters, considering their students' ages and knowledge. It was a good challenge!!

We also learned how to use illustrations and photos for the practice of colors and clothing items from Ms. Yuriko Mizubuchi at Teddy Bear English School.

In this session, we have learned to pay a close attention to what skills and knowledge the students are mobilizing to accomplish each task. There were a lot of nods, smiles and laughter observed during this session.

Finally we had a group discussion on the same theme, and each participant shared her own unique ideas to use visual aids; including photos taken through Googleimage, cute items from one-coin shops, songs and gestures.

Overall it turned out to be a very fun, informative and active workshop. We thank all the participants for their enthusiasm and contributions.

Our next workshop will be held in March with the theme of teaching reading to children.

Hope to see you all there!
Mari

Workshop on the Use of Visual Aids

Dear members, 

Come and join our 24th workshop focusing on the use of visual aids in kids classes! This workshop is designed so that all the participants can communicate with one another in a relaxed atmosphere. (Curious? Come and see what we will do!) 

Also... ALL the participants will get a gift of a lovely reading book for children!

Now, take a look at the information below, and contact Mari Nakamura at mari-@pop02.odn.ne.jp to make a reservation! 

ETJ Ishikawa Group 24th Workshop

'How to Use Visual Aids in Children's Classes ~ Seeing is Believing!'

Date: Sunday, October 23
Time: 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm
Venue: Kanazawa Kinrosha Plaza in Kitayasue, Kanazawa http://www.kinpura.com/map.html

(about a 10 minute walk from JR Kanazawa Station West Exit)

Room: Room 303
Admission: 500 yen (for both ETJ members and Non-ETJ members) 

Presenters: Ms. Yuriko Mizubuchi and Mr. Yasuhiro Shimizu

Presentation 1 by Yuriko Mizubuchi

Title: Speak, Listen, Read and Write - All While Having Fun!

Summary:

Have you ever wondered how children build a good balance of speaking, writing, listening and reading skills through activities and how each activity should focus on their skills? In this presentation, the presenter will share some activities using cards and pictures that aim to develop children's four skills, and will also show how to implement them effectively. Join this session, and see the process of learning that gives children confidence and joy! 

Bio:

Yuriko Mizubuchi has been teaching English at her own private school, Teddy Bear English School. She teachers elementary school and junior high school students, and has an experience in teaching at public elementary schools. She is also a member of the Storytelling in English Group at a library. 

Presentation 2 by Yasuhiro Shimizu

TItle:'Water' is Next to 'Blue'

Summary:

When teaching 5th or 6th graders, we often face the challenge of how to integrate their intellectual curiosity and knowledge with what English they can use. At Minamikotatsuno Elementary School, where I taught for five years, the teachers often endeavored to plan English lessons overlapping with other subjects in order to arouse a substantial degree of interest in class.

In this workshop, I would like to share with you one of the most typical and successful lessons I became involved in at Minamikotatsuno Elementary School: explaining kanji characters to Japanese language learners by using prepositions. I would be very grateful if you could utilize this lesson in your class settings. 

Bio:

At his Esteem School of English, Yasuhiro Shimizu works with motivated students seeking 'real' tuition. To that end he endeavors to offer the ultimate in quality with every lesson on a one-to-one basis in tune with their subtle requirements. Yasuhiro Shimizu was also ardently engaged in English education in numerous elementary schools in Kanazawa City as an English Activity Assistant and an instructor for many years including Minamikotatsuno, an English education pilot school designated by the Ministry of Education. 

[Esteem School of English http://www.eikaiwaesteem.com/]

Each presentation will be followed by a Q&A session where every one's input is appreciated! We will also have a tea break with snacks and a discussion time. 

Now, mark your calendar, and help us spread the word!

Best wishes,
Mari Nakamura

ETJ Ishikawa Group Coordinator

Thanks for "Showing and Telling!"

We had our 23rd workshop this afternoon at Kanazawa Kinrosha Plaza, with two experienced English teachers, Carla Curry and Nagwa Fekri, as presenters.

Carla presented some of her classroom-piloted activities using 'hands,' ex. Hand Knots and Palm Reading. With her lead, all the participants got up from their chairs, and joined the activities.

Nagwa Fekri, originally from Egypt, used her mother language, Arabic, to show us what it is like to learn a foreign language in a 'once-a-week-for-one-hour' setting. This session was also action packed, and kept all the participants busy interacting with one another!

Followed by a tea break, we had a 'show and tell' session where each participant shared her activity ideas, ranging from oral communication activity, Scrabble, card games to picture book read-aloud.

It was a real fun workshop, and we are all looking forward to getting together again in October!

See you then!

Mari