Busan-Gyeongnam Kotesol would like to extend a warm welcome and invite you to attend our November chapter meeting featuring:
Jeff Lebow- "Being ABLE to Teach Online."
Barbara Waldern/ Jeff Lebow- "The Evolution of the Expat Teacher Community in Busan."
We will conduct our annual business meeting and officer elections following the presentations. See below the main message for further details about the presentations and for the meeting agenda.
When: Saturday, November 15th. Presentations: 2~3:30. Annual Business Meeting 3:40~4:40. Everyone is welcome to join us for dinner at a local restaurant following the meeting (usually Ashley's Buffet).
Who: Free for everyone, including non-Kotesol members (although only paid members will be allowed to vote in the officer elections). We even provide drinks and snacks.
Special Notice about the Kotesol National Leadership Retreat
The national council is inviting any interested keen and active member (paid and in good standing) to attend the national retreat on Sunday December 14th in Seoul in order to assess and plan. Snacks and lunch will be provided, and transportation costs will be covered. Please inquire for more information and RSVP to bgkotesolpres@gmail.com.
Presentation #1: Being ABLE to Teach Online
Moving courses online has the potential to engage students, improve learning outcomes, and make an educator’s job more interesting. It also has the potential to frustrate learners, distract from course objectives, and make educators long for the days of chalk and erasers. This presentation will focus on strategies and tools that can help us successfully integrate online components into our teaching. These will include the following overlapping themes:
Archiving : providing access to teaching materials and students’ learning objects during and after a course
Broadening: expanding learning conversations and connections beyond the classroom
Listening: enabling teachers to more meaningfully tune in to what students are thinking and experiencing in their courses and addressing the age old challenge of having students pay better attention to what teachers are saying
Engaging: introducing additional opportunities for students to interact with each other, the teacher, and third parties who have some connection to course materials
In the spirit of embracing online teaching tools, this will be a mobile-friendly, openly shared, backchannel-supported presentation. Participants are encouraged to have their mobile devices charged so that (if desired) they can engage with the presenter and each other in online collaboration spaces.
Bio:
Jeff Lebow came to Busan in 1995, founded Pusanweb a couple years later, and since then has been spending ridiculous amounts of time building online communities and experimenting with educational technology. He is currently an associate professor and teacher trainer at Busan Universityof Foreign Studies. His CALL site is at LearningCall.net and personal blog at JeffLebow.net. He can be found regularly ‘Hanging out’ online at ELTLive, Koreabridge.net, and EdTechTalk.com . Archives of his KOTESOL-related media are at: http://koreabridge.net/kotesol/
Presentation #2: The Evaluation of the Expat English Teacher Community in Busan
Barbara Waldern and Jeff Lebow will talk about the evolution of the expat teacher community in Busan . In this short presentation of around 20 minutes, they will talk various aspects of changes to Busan. Jeff will talk about changes to the city, the population of English teachers from abroad, and the expat scene since 1995 through a look at media history. Barbara will talk about employment issues, support networks and professional development since 2007, a significant year of policy change and the year of a great influx of school teachers hired by the Ministry of Education. In preparation for this exchange, please see the forum on koreabridge.net and enter your thoughts.
Bio (Barbara Waldern):
I began teaching English to immigrants in Vancouver, Canada in the 80's. After graduating with a Masters in anthropology and working in education research, my certification in TEFL/TESOL was renewed in 2008. I have been teaching English in Korea since mid-2007 when I started working with children at academies in the Masan area of Gyeongnam-do. I have been teaching at the Busan University of Foreign Studies since March, 2009. I became Chapter President this year, and I was Chapter Vice-President from 2007 to 2009. My hobbies are physical recreation and writing.
Annual Business Meeting Agenda
1. Review and approve the agenda.
2. President's overview of the past year. (2 minutes)
3. Treasurer's report (2-3 minutes)
4. Chapter Constitution and By-Laws (15 minutes)
The Chapter having lost these documents and not having replaced them for several years, the current President has drafted them based on the National Constitution and By-Laws to which Chapters are subordinated. Beyond that, she has proposed in these drafts that the offices of Secretary and Membership Officer be established formally to join the President, Vice-President and Treasurer as elected Chapter officials. Furthermore, there is a clause to allow for amendments to be circulated to members at least 15 days prior to the annual business meeting.
5. Elections by paper ballot (10 minutes)
The President will hand over the chairing of the ABM to the Elections Officer.
6. Other business
7. Announcement of the results of the vote by the Elections Officer.
8. Closing of the ABM
