Grant Osterman
Family English School International Co., Ltd.
Dr. Osterman has been teaching in Japan since 1993. Originally from a small Midwestern town in the United States, he earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in education from the University of Maryland. After a short hiatus, he completed his doctorate degree from Northcentral University in educational leadership. Over his career, he has taught at elementary schools, junior high schools, universities, and is an administrator at a private school in Okinawa. He joined JALT in 1995 and has served in many roles for the Okinawa chapter. Currently, he is the Okinawa Chapter membership chair, the Teaching Younger Learners Special Interest Group coordinator, and the SIG Representative Liaison for JALT. He is very active in JALT functions and enjoys monthly professional development trips to Tokyo when the virus is not so bad.
Sessions
Teaching Younger Learners Forum
Collaboration between students and teachers in the classroom is an important part of allowing younger learners to take control of their learning. The autonomy that we allow as teachers helps our students personalize their educational experience and frees up time for more one-on-one attention. This type of classroom also helps students with motivation and thereby eliminating much of the classroom control problems we face. With a student-centered classroom, teachers have more time to work individually with students in a more meaningful way. Good collaboration in the classroom also creates an environment that is surrounded by mutual achievements. In this presentation, the focus will be on teachers working together with students in a collaborative fashion to achieve a student-centered classroom. The presenters will provide useful ideas to help free the bonds of a teacher-centered classroom and provide a guide to a more student autonomous pedagogy. This will be done by giving examples and referencing research into student autonomy, intrinsic motivation, classroom control, and personalized student assessment.
Friday Night PanSIG Kick Off Social
All you can eat and drink social.
JALT's Got Talent Showcase and Networking Social
*Doors open at 1900 if you want to come and practice your talent! All you can eat and drink social for all attendees. Please come and share your talent and hobbies with us. We hope to have a series of special presentations to break the ice and then open up breakout rooms to continue networking and socializing. This will also be a great way to welcome new members to our organization and show them that we too are human! So please come, laugh, and enjoy the evening with your PanSIG family.
Opening
Welcome to PanSIG2021!
JALT Transformative Mentoring & Coaching
This session is for one-on-one mentoring and coaching. Relational mentoring (Ragins and Verbos, 2007) is characterized by reciprocity and mutual learning, where both participants influence one another, that are inherent in growth-producing relationships. Coaching is a comprehensive client-centered service that may involve many aspects of a client’s life, both personal and professional. Note: You must have previously signed up and received an orientation as a mentor/mentee or coach/coachee in order to participate in this session.
SIG Coordinators Meeting
Please come so we can catchup on what is going on and have a short meeting where we will discuss issues related to SIGs. Also, we can talk about how the conference went.
JALT's Got Talent
Please come here and start practicing and get an early start if you want.