JALT2014 Four Corners Tour in Kansai: The Teaching Power of Stories, by Bill Harley on Mon. Nov. 3, 6~9pm at YWCA Umeda

JALT2014 Four Corners Tour in Kansai: The Teaching Power of Stories

Date: Monday, November 3rd, 2014 Time: 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Speaker: Bill Harley, JALT2014 National Conference Plenary Speaker, Two-time Grammy-award winning musician, storyteller, and author

Co-sponsored in Kansai by Kobe, Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka JALT Chapters.

The Teaching Power of Stories: A teacher is someone who gives stories to others so they can make their own. Regardless of the subject taught, story is central to how people make sense of the world and build a community with others. In this workshop, participants will look at how stories work in people's lives, what stories define their own lives, and how to use story in an educational setting. Teachers will leave with new ideas for using story in the classroom and a deeper understanding of their work as teachers.

Bill Harley is the JALT2014 International Conference Plenary Speaker. He is a two-time Grammy-award winning musician, storyteller, and author. Please see BillHarley.com for more information.

Handouts (4 pages) for his presentation can be previewed & downloaded at: http://tinyurl.com/HarleyHandouts

And here's a poster promoting his various books & CDs, which you can buy online at Amazon.co.jp and get his autograph after this gig, if you want: https://www.dropbox.com/s/z2ulkc55hgw4kp9/bhflyer1.pdf?dl=0

Pre-registration recommended:
Seating is limited, so pre-registration is highly recommended. Reserve your spot by November 2nd via http://tinyurl.com/4CT-Kansai to receive a 500 yen reduction in the attendance fee.

Cost: JALT Members: 500 yen if pre-registered, 1000 yen if not
Non-members: 1000 yen if pre-registered, 1500 yen if not

Venue: Yamanishi Welfare Memorial Hall

(山西福祉記念会: Same bldg. as YWCA in Umeda)

11-12 Kamiyamachō, Kita-ku, Osaka-shi, 530-0026, tel. 06-6315-1868

Link to venue: http://www.yamanishi-fk.jp/access/

Please help spread the word for this special Kansai JALT Four Corners Tour event: 

Click on the poster below to download via Dropbox, and print out & post up at your schools. (Thanks in advance!)

Comments

[Webmaster]

What a great event, and the okonomiyaki party afterward was excellent too!

Here's Greg Rouault's report for the event:

The Teaching Power of Stories, by Bill Harley

As part of the Four Corners Tour, JALT2014 National Conference plenary speaker, Bill Harley, brought his stories and music to a chapter presentation co-sponsored by the Kansai area chapters (Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, and Kobe). Grammy award-winning Harley opened the session with a song reminding us that rhyme, rhythm, and repetition are ways that teachers can make their work memorable. Throughout the session, Harley blended findings from neuroscience and educational psychology with experiences from the classroom and his own personal stories. His message included the notion that a teacher is someone who gives a story to others so that people may then be an agent of their own shared memories. Harley showed how meaning is context-embedded and explained that the real purpose of stories is to get listeners to think about themselves. He also explained how stories exist even before they are coded into language. Participants were asked to identify stories that defined their own lives (e.g. an early childhood memory and where our name comes from) and all were reminded that since teaching is relational to tell our own stories to engage with students. Another of Bill’s songs closed out the session and those in attendance certainly left with greater depth of reflection into their own stories and how they might use the technique in upcoming classes.

Reported by Greg Rouault