The University of Tsukuba: Please allow me to introduce myself.

Hello everyone,

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Michael Stout. You can call me Michael. 

Please watch my self introduction presentation. While you watch the presentation please write 5 quiz questions. After you watch the presentation ask your partner the quiz questions. 

Next, let's make some class rules together. Games have rules. Sports have rules. Classes need rules too. 

Please click the link to see some class rules written by some of my previous students. 

Now please write five rules for yourselves (the students), and five rules for me (the professor). 

Finally, please introduce yourself to me. Please leave a comment below. Please tell me 5 things about yourself. To learn how to leave a comment, please click the link: コメント投稿法

That's all for today. See you next week!

基礎英語1A Writing: Introduction to the course

Photo by Hakan Dahlstrom

Hello everyone. Today you will learn about the 1st year writing course. You will do almost all of your writing on a computer and you will use some websites too. Here's what will do today:

1. Get to know your classmates and teacher
2. Create a new Google account. Please clink the link.
3. Subscribe to this blog (～のブログを定期的に購読する). 
4. Learn about our stamp card for independent learning.
5. Sign up for Quizlet. Please click the link.
6. Use Quizlet for vocabulary study
7. Sign up for Twitter. Please click the link.
8. Post a "tweet"
9. Make some class rules
10. Make a comment on this blog (コメント投稿法.)

Please look at the image below. This is a stamp card from one of my students last year. It is an example of a great stamp card. She fill the whole card with stamps! You can too!

Enjoy!

Shibaura Institute of Technology 英語総合IA Global Issues 2012 Lesson 1: Introduction to the course and class rules

Downloaded from Flickr

Welcome to 英語総合IA. Today you will learn about the course and together we will make some class rules. 


First, please look at the course outline below.

英語総合1A Global Issues Course Outline

View more documents from mickstout

Please click the link to see some posts from previous classes


We will learn a lot of new vocabulary in this class. We will study vocabulary using an online tool called Quizlet. Please click the link to learn how to sign up for and use Quizlet


OK, now let's make some class rules together. Click the link to see some rules made by other SIT students: Classrules 2011.


Finally, please post a comment. Please tell me why you chose this course. Click the link to learn how to post a comment - コメント投稿法.

Thanks for joining this class. See you next week!

. 

Class Rules 2011

Well, another academic year has begun. Every year I negotiate the class rules with some of my classes. This year some of the rules are very interesting.

Some of my favourite rules for the students are:

• We should make eye contact with each other
• We shouldn't be shy
• We should love Michael
• We must always maintain a passionate attitude
• We should laugh at the teacher's jokes
• We should take pride in the things we do

I was especially impressed that the students seemed to understand my explanation about eye contact and why it was important. I was also very happy to know that they wanted to take pride in the things they do. I think that is very important. Finally, I hope it is easy for them to laugh at my jokes.

Some of my favourite rules for me are:

• Our teacher must love us.
• Our teacher must get in shape
• Our teacher shouldn't lose weight
• Our teacher should tell a joke every lesson
• Our teacher should change his alarm sound
• Our teacher must finish this class 3 minutes early
• Our teacher should try to make explanations interesting

Many of the rules for me made me laugh. There was much laughter in all these first classes. I hope that there is always a lot of laughter in our classes. I think laughter is important.

I hope you'll leave a comment or a question.

Cheers!!

Class rules made by Toyo Gakuen University and Shibaura Institute of Technology students 2010

As usual, at the beginning of each semester, we make rules for our classes. In the box below you can see some rules made by students at Toyo Gakuen University and Shibaura Institute of Technology in the spring and autumn semesters this year.

Some of my favourites are:

• We should keep a smile on our faces.
• If we forget our textbook we should make a copy of our friend's textbook.
• Our teacher must help us get 100% on the test.
• Mr. Stout must give us a fair grade.
• The teacher must remember to bring whiteboard markers to class.

In some classes at Toyo Gakuen University, we were in a Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) room, and I asked the students to look at the cartoon I posted on this blog on the 13th of September, and then write some rules for the class by leaving a comment. Click the link to see the cartoon and the students' rules in the comment section. In other classes, I printed the cartoon and showed it to the students. I asked them to write some rules. I made it a race actually. After that we went over the rules correcting grammar, and making some changes to the rules. This was part of the negotiation process (折衝［交渉］過程［プロセス］). In the pictures you will see that some rules are crossed out. That's because sometimes singing and dancing are OK in my classes. I did make a mistake. I crossed out the wrong rule in one of the photos. Can you guess which one?

Class Rules

By mickstout | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Hi everyone. Please look at the cartoon. This class needs some rules. Make a list of rules for the students and the teacher. You can post them as a comment below.
You can see some examples written by other students. Click this link: Class Rules
I'll post the rules you make next week.
Enjoy!!

Shibaura Institute of Technology Class Rules for the 2nd Semester of 2009

Today was the first day of classes for students in my 英語総合1B (Global Issues 2) and my Writing 1B courses. As usual, we made some rules. The students in 英語総合1B made the rules in the picture below.



The students in Writing 1B made the rules in the picture below.



The students made some rules for me too. You can see them in the pictures below.

My favourite rules for me are:

• Michael mustn't use violence on students
• Michael must love his students

You can see the class rules made by students in previous classes too.

A note for teachers:
My "Class Rules" posts have been the most popular with you. I'd like to know what you think of these class rules. Please leave a comment. Also, thanks to Michelle Henry and Larry Ferlazzo for all the referrals.

Shibaura Institute of Technology Students make more rules

Yesterday was the first days of classes for the 英語総合１A (Global Issues) and Writing 1A courses at Shibaura Institute of technology. We made some class rules together. You can see them below.

Class rules for students made by 英語総合１A (Global Issues) students:

My favourite rules from the 英語総合１A (Global Issues) class are:

• Students should speak English Loudly
• Students should enjoy the class

Now here are the rules for me.

My favourite rule for me is:

• The teacher should make the tests easier.

This is an example of a negotiated rule.  Originally, this rule was, "The teacher must make easy tests." I promised to make the tests easier by preparing the students well.

Now here are class rules made by Writing 1A students. First, rules for students:

 

My favourute rule is:

• Students should try to like Michael

Next are the rules for me.

 

I like all these rules. The Writing 1A class thought of many rules for me. My favourites are:

• Michael must not forget to smile
  
• Michael must be funny and make us laugh.

There are many examples of negotiated rules here. For example, the first rule for me originally was, "Michael must remember the names of all the students in this class." I said,  "無理!" That's impossible. So the students softened the rule. 

This task was based on a task designed by my colleague Dave Rear at Shibaura Institute of Technology. Thanks Dave!
What do you think of the class rules? Please leave a comment.

Back to School - Shibaura Institute of Technology

Yesterday was the first lesson for the 英語 L and S (English Listening and Speaking) class. Together we made some class rules. You can see the rules for the students in the picture below.

My favourite "rule" is "We should not say, 'May I go to the toilet'. We should say, 'Excuse me, I'm going to the toilet'". Before the class made these rules we did another task about "Classroom language". The task was designed by a colleague. It was an ordering task. For example:
toilet I may go to the? ➾ May I go to the toilet?
I said, "May I go to the toilet?" is for children. Excuse me, I'm going to the toilet is for adults". So, I was very impressed when I heard a student suggest this rule.

You can see the rules for me in the picture below.

"Students must not use their mobile phones in class" is a common rule in Japan. I used my mobile phone to take the photos of the rules on the blackboard. I was very impressed that this rule was made for me.

Last year the L & S class made some rules too. You can see those rules here: http://mrstoutsblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/back-to-school-shibaura-institute-of.html

What do you think of these rules? Please leave me a comment.

Back to School - Shibaura Institute of Technology

Today we started a new Listening and Speaking class at Shibaura Institute of Technology. The students made some rules. The rules for the students are in the picture below.


The students made some rules for me too. The rules for me are in the picture below.


I hope everyone can obey the rules.