Learning at the Teaching Skills Study Group
Since April, I have been learning at the online staff room for everyone, the "Teaching Skills Study Group."
This is a newly reopened version of the Akifumi Kobayashi Teaching Improvement Seminar, which ran from the 1st to the 4th term. I have been a member for every term, and it is a precious place of learning where I have also been involved in the management side since the 2nd term.
The person who coordinates our learning is Akifumi Kobayashi.
Originally a high school physics teacher, he is our reliable mentor who is involved in improving classes at schools nationwide, recognized for the achievements of the active learning methods he developed during his active teaching career.
Since April, it has been completely renewed and reborn as a place to promote more proactive learning for us teachers.
It is held for an hour and a half from 9:00 PM on the second and fourth Friday of every month.
The flow is as follows.
1. Slow Check-in (10 minutes)
Since it is a given that you cannot read the room or grasp the atmosphere online, the check-in, which is a form of icebreaker, becomes a very important communication tool.
・Everyone participating speaks.
・Each person talks about their current state of mind or situation.
Just doing this warms up the space.
2. Dialogue Time (Reflection on the time until today) (10 minutes)
We look back on the approximately two weeks from the last seminar until today and each fill out a Canva card.
Since you can see what others have written in real-time, it has also become a time to ask each other questions and dig deeper.
3. Today's Theme (30 minutes)
Themes are sometimes decided in advance by Mr. Kobayashi, but in most cases, they are brought up by the participants.
Since everyone is an active teacher, they are practicing with a sense of the issues in their respective workplaces.
Themes that all seminar students want to discuss are brought up.
So far, we have covered:
・Teacher's storytelling ability
・How to evaluate the proactivity of learning?
・What should be done when surrounding children cannot support a child who seems to really not understand?
・The effect of writing a proposal
・Social studies research class: Skills for proactive and persistent learning
・Questioning ability
・Class videos provided by seminar students
・How training sessions should be
・What does it mean to deepen?
・How to structure a Japanese language class
Seminar students ask each other questions about these themes.
It is a fun time where things gradually deepen through asking questions and engaging in dialogue.
4. Kobayashi's Talk on SuperVise (10 minutes)
Once our seminar students have finished their dialogue, we have our instructor, Mr. Kobayashi, provide supervision on the theme.
We have Mr. Kobayashi, who possesses a broad perspective and deep expertise, delve into this theme.
I am always impressed by how much knowledge and experience this person has!
5. After Dialogue (10 minutes) Learning from SuperVise (10 minutes)
The seminar students discuss what we learned from Mr. Kobayashi's supervision again among ourselves.
When you hear something or learn something, you output it. By doing this, it becomes easier to absorb and deepen your understanding.
6. Dialogue Time 'Things I want to try by next time' (10 minutes)
Based on today's learning, we write down things we want to try by the next session on a Canva card.
This will be used in the first Dialogue Time (reflection on today) of the next meeting.
7. A slightly deeper checkout (10 minutes)
If you check in, you have to check out properly, right?
Every participant takes a turn talking about what they learned today.
At this time, everyone always smiles.
'I'm glad I learned this,' 'That was fun.'
Those kinds of feelings really shine through.
+ After-school time: After-talk
The regular meeting ends at 10:30, and those who haven't finished talking stay behind to chat about various topics for about 30 minutes before heading home.
New projects sometimes even emerge from this after-school time, making it quite a meaningful period.
So, today I wrote about the seminar that I participate in, manage, and moderate.
For those of you in the same field who are interested, please take a look at the link below.
Also, the regular meeting on the second week of every month is open as a trial session for those who want to try it out or take a peek.
To start with, you can also reach out in the comment section of this note.
End
Thank you for reading until the end.
I also write about various other topics under the theme of Education x XX.
I would be happy if you read them.
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The article that has been read the most this week is here.