Two Teachers Talking™

We take apart the student discussion on the turns university education has taken this year (E123: Meet Generation C, 4/20) and confirm the value of listening to our students. We also talk a bit about the state of the profession and how we ourselves are coping with the new world we find ourselves teaching in.

In another very special episode, we talk with students and alumni from Osaka University about how the COVID-19 crisis is affecting their education, their future, and their lives. Their discussion is full of insight, surprise, and hope. If you’re teaching in Japan, you need to hear what they have to say. They distinguish themselves as very special representatives of their generation. This is a good one. Don’t miss it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Big, special thanks to (alphabetical order):

Miyu Kataoka

Moku Seiyou

Rene Tai

Atsuhiro Tsuruguchi

Yuto Yamaoka

Email for remote learning. As we all gear up for teaching in this new environment, we can predict that email, particularly email from students, is going to be a bigger part of the workday. In a special episode, we talk about what we have learned about handling student email and offer some tips on avoiding mistakes and speeding up workflows. More at https://twoteacherstalking.org

A very special episode of Two Teachers Talking, so special it’s dropping early. First we recap last month’s interview with Alison Kitzman. Then, we move on to discuss the COVID-19 virus and how it will change our teaching, our students, and our world. A hard discussion in hard times. Let’s all try to get through this together. Be safe.

Mentioned:

Charles’ Covid-19 information site for ex-pats in Japan https://japancovid19.carrd.co

Otter - audio recording of meeting, discussion, with auto-transcription, etc. https://otter.ai/?s=welcome

Zoom - video conferencing (like Skype+) https://zoom.us

Canvas - build larger scale online classes https://www.instructure.com/canvas/

Blackboard - create lectures, classes for distribution https://www.blackboard.com

Moodle - full LMS https://moodle.org “Getting started is easy,” they say. See Two Teachers Talking, Episode 80, November 1, 2016.

PARLAY - Teacher creates prompt and materials, students read, share reactions and thoughts, interact with other students and teacher. https://parlayideas.com/how-it-works/

Google Classroom https://edu.google.com/products/classroom/?modal_active=none Looked really good - but school needs to enroll in Gsuite…security, privacy, etc. I gave up.

Microsoft Teams https://teams.microsoft.com/start

Charles is MIA this month, but Tony interviews Prof. Alison Kitzman to explore how needs analysis can help our teaching, and more, help with course and curriculum design. In a future episode Tony and Charles will compare notes.

An interview with Chris Ruddenklau. Chris, colleague and old Japan hand, shares his teaching experiences in Thailand, Laos, and Japan. He is the coordinator of the JALT Teachers Helping Teachers (THT) Laos Program and plays an active role in the annual Laos TESOL conference. Just two teachers talking. Of course, afterwards, Charles shares his observation and analysis. Good stuff.

JALT THT SIG

Japanese Association for Language Teachers, Teachers Helping Teachers Special Interest Group http://thtjalt.bravesites.com

Teachers Helping Teachers (THT) Laos http://thtjalt.bravesites.com/laos

If you want to get in touch with Chris, just send an email to the show ([email protected]) and we’ll hook you up.

Raise high the bars, teachers. That’s the current mantra. But how high is too high? How do you know? What are the consequences? What do you do if you've screwed up?

Mentioned: Episode 60, Two Teachers Talking, March 2015.

And Happy New Year! (And thanks to Mick, Keith, et al, for the outro riffs.)

As 2019 slithers down into its ignominious place in history, we consider ourselves lucky, in that, at least from a teaching perspective, it’s been an unremarkable year. We sift through the memories, panning for nuggets of wisdom to help us in the new year. Don’t expect much.

Nevertheless, please accept our wishes for a wonderful holiday season and a new year better than the last. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Solstice, 今年も色々お世話になりました.

Near-universally reviled and loathed, do speech contests make any sense? Tony and Charles disagree on almost everything except that, in their current manifestation, speech contests are awful. But listen in to hear all the shades of speech contest gray.

Visit our website for links to things mentioned. https://twoteacherstalking.org

ボクです！¡Soy yo! C'est moi! To ja! Это я! 나야! Tôi đây! 是我！ມັນແມ່ນຂ້ອຍ! So, really…how does the language we use affect…everything? Tony and Charles dive off the deep end. Luckily, they have some help from Maria Minohara, student at Osaka University, who shares her insights on bilingualism, personality, persona, and society. (And apologies to Maria and listeners for the poor recording quality of the interview.)

Mentioned:

Ivana Paz, "How the Language I Speak Changes My Personality"

https://humanparts.medium.com/how-the-language-i-speak-changes-my-personality-73a1c19a49a7

François Grosjean, "Change of Language, Change of Personality?"

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/life-bilingual/201111/change-language-change-personality

François Grosjean and Aneta Pavlenko, "Psychology Today blog, Life as a bilingual"

http://www.francoisgrosjean.ch/blog_en.html

Nairán Ramírez-Esparza, Samuel D. Goslinga, Verónica Benet-Martínezb, JeVrey P. Potterc, James W. Pennebakera, "Do bilinguals have two personalities? A special case of cultural frame switching."

http://www.utpsyc.org/Nairan/research/bilingual.pdf

Nairán Ramírez-Esparza and Adrián García-Sierra, "The Bilingual Brain: Language, Culture, and Identity"

https://labclab.psychology.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1167/2015/04/Language3.pdf