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[gaijinalways]

Hi all,

I'm looking specifically for classes to do some cultural exchanges. Currently for this semester, I'm specifically looking for teachers with high beginner to low intermediate level uni classes. My idea is to have students exchange cultural information in groups, perhaps 3-4 students per group. With my classes running around 20 students or so, this would mean 5-6 groups per class. I hope to do at least one to two class exchanges this semester and possibly more next semester.

The current semester in Japan started recently, and will run until mid-July.

For the second semester in Japan, classes start in September and run until the second week of January, so I'm interested in uni classes on a similar schedule for that particular semester as well.

I hope to run up to 4 classes in that semester for this type of exchange. The second semester could be done with a different school as exchanges done with a school do not have to be done for both semesters (some of my student classes are for one year, some are not).


I am considering this format (though I'm flexible and open to other ideas);

Each group of students would send statements and related questions to the other group via a blog. This could run week by week, so for example;

Classes A and B are exchanging

week 1 all groups in class A post on their blogs a question with an answer for their own culture (each class would have its own blog, I think this is less confusing than separate threads on the same blog)

week 2 all groups in class B post their replies and a new question

week 3all groups in class A post their replies and a new question, etc

As you can see, the number of exchanges would be limited, but I think that is necessary as I hope to help students with answering the blog posts in class, but I'm not in a CALL room. Student groups in each class would be responsible for posting outside of class time, with the teacher giving guidance as to the kinds of things to post in reply. If time permits, you could actually help students with their blog drafts, but considering I have these student classes each for only 90 minutes per week, probably this would be limited to only giving the students brief guidance.

A strong reason to do this through a blog is that we as teachers can provide some guidance and verify if student groups are posting or not. In addition, the teacher can get involved in the exchanges if he wishes (I do this with my own intra-class blogs now).

If interested, please pm me. If you don't have pm privledges, please let me know on this thread and I will pm you with my email address.

Best,

GA