About regional groups
There are regional ETJ groups in many areas of Japan. These groups are for teachers of kindergarten, elementary
school and junior high school students.
The groups generally have workshops about once every two months on Sundays, and the workshops normally last about
2 1/2 hours. There is likely to be one or more short presentations followed by opportunities for members to exchange
ideas. The emphasis is on grass-roots participation rather than listening to ideas presented by a well-known speaker.
Regional groups are also fully involved in occasional special events that are held in the area such as the ETJ Expos.
Starting a group
Some groups are run by committees and others are run by one or two teachers. Each group has at least one Coordinator
who makes final decisions within the group and is a member of the nationwide ETJ-Coordinators discussion group for
planning overall policies and getting and giving advice on running a group.
If you are interested in being a Coordinator or a Committee member of a new group, please send an e-mail to
David Paul.
It is not difficult to start a group. The biggest hurdle is the first meeting, but even this can be organised by just
one person (see suggestions for the first meeting below).
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Committee members
Most Coordinators build committees, and committee members often have special areas of responsibility such as checking
attendance, promoting meetings through the Internet, financial records, reporting on meetings etc...
It is not necessary to gather a committee before the first meeting. Committees will often emerge from the first one or
two meetings.
Local ETJ e-mail groups
Most regional groups set up a special Yahoo group for the committee so that it is not necessary to make time for
committee meetings. If you are not sure how to set up a yahoo group, please contact David Paul for help.
Many regional groups also have an e-mail group for members in the area who would like to receive information about
meetings by e-mail or have a chance to discuss local issues. ETJ members will only be put on local e-mail lists
after filling in a form requesting this.
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Suggestions for the first meeting
Reserve a room
Find a room in a location that is accessible for as many teachers as possible and which has a capacity of about 40
people, and reserve it on a Sunday morning or afternoon for a 2 ½ hour workshop.
Financial back-up
Contact David Paul by e-mail to get financial back up. Provided the cost of the room
is reasonable, the capacity is large enough, there is enough time to advertise the first meeting, and an entry fee of
¥500 is charged, David English House will cover any loss on the meeting.
Advertising the meeting You don't need to worry about
getting teachers to the first meeting. David English House will
send out a postcard mailing to teachers in the area and/or make
an announcement in the ETJ Newsletter. You can also announce the
meeting through ELT Calendar and on the ETJ general discussion
list.
Theme and format Decide on a theme for the meeting. General
themes seem to work best at first, such as "Effective activities
for children’s classes", "Successful games", "Using
songs effectively", "Phonics" etc...
Find one or two presenters to give 20-30 min presentations. It is best to avoid having long presentations. This is partly
because when you are trying to find presenters for future meetings it will be much easier to find teachers who are prepared
to speak for a short time, but who may be intimidated if they feel they will be expected to give a long presentation. Another
advantage of having shorter presentations is that it allows more time for all members to exchange ideas.
The presentations could be followed by an open discussion if the group is small, or by teachers working on ideas in pairs or
groups and then reporting their main suggestions to the other pairs/groups.
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Processing Information
Please hand out the membership application form (download here)
and information on ETJ (download here)
to non-members who attend the meeting.
After the meeting, please send copies of new members' application
forms to Rie Totomi at David English House so she can make them
members of ETJ.
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