I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say in this section of the site. Sometimes I go to conferences. Sometimes I present at conferences. I’m not very good at it, but I enjoy it nonetheless. Sometimes, when I’ve been scheduled to talk on a Sunday morning, and I’m looking at a group of teachers who have given up their weekend, often for no pay (and often paying for the conference out of their own pocket), I honestly can’t imagine a job which brings together a more dedicated group of people than teaching. I’m thankful to have had the chance to present at the following conferences. If you are interested in more specifics as to what I actually talked about, there are a number of posts in the drop down menu which get into more detail about a few of the presentations.
“It’s Not as Easy as It Reads: tasks for improving student accuracy and fluency in informal writing,” presentation at Task Based Learning in Asia Conference, Osaka Shoin Women’s University, Osaka, Japan, May 2012.
“Even a Native Speaker Stops Sometimes: helping learners adapt to structural differences in English,” presentation at CLESOL, IPC Tertiary Institute, Palmerston North, New Zealand, October 2012
“Your Voice: writing short fiction for your ELLs,” workshop at World Storytelling Conference, Kobe, Japan, December 2012.
“Using a Writers’ Workshop Method in the Reading Classroom”, workshop at MyShare event, Kyoto JALT, March 2013.
“Your voice: The craft of short fiction writing for language learners,” workshop at JALT PanSIG 2013 Conference, Nagoya, Japan, May 2013. (Best Of JALT Award, 2013)
“Short Videos: program and personal development tool,” workshop at JALT 2013, Kobe, Japan, October, 2013. Co-presented with Scott Grey & Scott Johnstone.
“Promoting reflection through student feedback,” long paper at JALT 2013, Kobe, Japan, October 2013. Co-presented with Michael Griffin and Anna Loseva.
“Students’ Stories of the Extensive Reading Experience,” a presentation for the Nara chapter of JALT, Nara, Japan, April 2014. (Best of JALT Award 2014)
“Short Poetry: helping language learners find their voice between the words on the paper,” 40 minute presentation at The Heart of the Matter Literature in Language Teaching Conference, Aichi Univerity, Japan, September 2014
“Learners as Researchers: experiments in autonomy,” short paper at JALT 2015, Shizuoka, Japan, October, 2015.
“Rooms within the heart: Tanka as a medium for cultural exchange,” short paper at A Festival of Ideas Literature in Language Teaching Conference, Kyoto, Japan, 2016. (a post which touches on much of what was presented can be found here.)
The Other Things Matter 