Curriculum Planning of sorts…
Last week I was at the mid-year conference for JET participants. This is an annual 3-day gab-fest where we get a keynote lecture from some eminent person about some aspect of teaching, there are some workshops by guest presenters, and there are other workshops and seminars conducted by JETs.
It’s a good thing, I think, as most JETs have little or no previous teaching experience or qualifications. So it’s a good opportunity to learn some basic theory and get some practical tips to take back to school.
One girl I was talking with made the point that CLAIR (the governing body for the JET Program) should think about perhaps doing, say, a week-long basic teaching skills course when we first arrive in Tokyo. Not a bad idea, but I don’t think anyone’s going to be holding their breath for that one!
I gave a presentation with one of the JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English) I work with, Fukudome-Sensei, on making what we referred to as an “Assessment Framework” for the entire term, before the term has started.
When I have time to format our notes, I’ll post a link to where you can get a copy if you’re interested in that kind of thing. It’s basically where testing meets curriculum planning. How to take the textbook and make an outline for what you’re going to test, when, and how in a fairly broad-brushstrokes kind of way.
Please leave a comment if you’d be interested in that. If no one comments, I know that I don’t need to spend any of my time preparing and formatting it. If you let me know you’re interested, I’m more than happy to share it with you! 
March 13th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Yes, very interested! Please keep me up-dated!
I’m in need of EVERYTHING for my slightly switched-off teenage undergrads at Nihon University, Japan.
Cheers
Cary
April 21st, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Yaaz’m, Definitely interested in your Assessment Format thingy.
Please keep me updated!
Cheers,
Cary