2021-2 Autumn Newsletter
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From the President, Autumn 2021
Welcome to Term 2 and the JLTAV Autumn Newsletter. I hope everyone had a great start to the new school year and a most relaxing Easter holiday break.
Due to the ongoing uncertainty around COVID-19 and changes to restrictions, we have moved our 2021 Annual Conference to an online format. The online conference was held from Saturday 1 May to Saturday 8 May. This enabled us to avoid screen fatigue and flexibility for teachers to attend sessions around their other commitments. Moving the conference to an online format also enabled our colleagues from interstate and further afield to participate. We have been able to put together an exciting program for the event including two keynote presentations, 40 breakout sessions and 42 presenters. Many thanks to our colleagues for their generosity in putting their presentations together and for sharing their wealth of knowledge with us.
In 2022, the JLTAV celebrates 50 years as a Single Language Association. We intend to return to a face-to-face conference in 2022 and organise different events throughout the year to celebrate this significant milestone for the Association.
We held our 2021 Annual General Meeting online on Friday 26 March and I extend a very warm welcome to our 2021 committee. Many thanks to our committee who generously give up their time to support the Association. The 2021 committee member details can be found on the JLTAV website under ‘About Us’. We also acknowledge and thank our regional contacts for disseminating information on JLTAV events: Jan Chalmer (Gippsland), Keiko Sanderink (North-East region) and Rudi Valent (Geelong), and to Dr Robyn Spence-Brown from Monash University for being our tertiary representative. Each year at the Year 12 Morning Robyn’s presentation on tertiary options for studying Japanese is always informative.
As an Association we are committed to supporting our colleagues and ensuring Japanese Language Education continues to flourish in Victoria. Throughout this year we intend to continue to organise a range of events, even if restrictions mean the format of the event may look a little different. We are planning to offer:
- Year 12 Morning
- Model UN in Japanese
- Junior Speech Competition
- Calligraphy competition
- A range of professional learning sessions for primary and secondary teachers in addition to our annual conference
As we continue our plans for these events we will share registration information via the JLTAV website, JLTAV membership email list, the Nihongo Victoria email group and the JLTAV and Japanese Language Teachers of Australia Facebook pages.
I would like to acknowledge our corporate members of the JLTAV for 2021. In these very challenging times we are pleased to be able to support our corporate members and include their advertisements in this newsletter.
Many thanks to the schools who supported our 2021 Events Poster Competition. We received a large number of entries which made it challenging to select an overall winner. We selected five winners and will use each poster in the resources we create for JLTAV events this year. Congratulations to the following students:
- Cassie Warren from Sunbury College
- Hanh Lu and Mifa Mai from Mount Waverley Secondary College
- Melissa Wu from Strathmore Secondary College
- Sumaidha Samiha from Dandenong High School
Please find here the winning artworks.
I wish everyone all the best for Term 2.
Nathan Lane
President, JLTAV Inc. (Reg. No. A0024691U)
2021-1 Summer Newsletter
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From the President, Summer 2021
Welcome to Term 1 and the JLTAV Summer Newsletter. I hope you have all had an enjoyable holiday break and are refreshed and energised to start the new school year.
Last year was an unprecedented year around the world, and unfortunately we were unable to run many of our usual student and teacher events. We hope if restrictions allow we will be able to offer teachers and students a range of events and activities throughout 2021. We will ensure these events are run in a COVID safe way and we will promote our events through the JLTAV website, Nihongo Victoria, the JLTAV and Japanese Language Teachers of Australia Facebook pages, as well as through the Department of Education and Training Languages Regional Project Officers.
Thank you to the students and schools who supported our 2020 calligraphy competition. We have included the results of the competition in this newsletter. Many thanks to Miho Leitch from Ebisu Design (https://www.ebisudesign.com/) for judging the competition and for providing her feedback which we have included in the report for the competition.
In 2021 we will again offer our JLTAV Events Poster Competition. Please encourage your students to submit an entry for this competition.
Due to the ongoing uncertainty around COVID-19 and changes to restrictions, we have made the difficult decision to move our 2021 Annual Conference to an online format. This will ensure all of our colleagues from across Victoria will have the opportunity to participate in this year’s event. As the event will be held online we will also be able to promote the conference to colleagues across Australia and invite them to participate.
We are planning to run our conference across several days in the week from May 1st to 8th (to be confirmed), both to avoid screen fatigue and to allow our colleagues to organise their participation around other commitments. We look forward to seeing our colleagues online at this year’s conference.
Our Annual General Meeting will be held online on Friday 26 March from 6.00 to 6.30pm . We encourage members to nominate themselves to join the JLTAV committee for 2021. One gains a lot of satisfaction from being involved in the Association and ensuring Japanese Language Education continues to flourish in Victoria. Please contact me at nlane@mackillopsh.vic.edu.au if you would like further information or you would like to join the committee in 2021.
In 2017 we launched the JLTAV Award, however, we are yet to award this to one of our member teachers. Details of the nomination process for this award are outlined in this newsletter. We extend our thanks to the MLTAV for allowing us to adapt and use their wording.
Sincere thanks to the Department of Education and Training (DET) for their great support and for providing a yearly grant to enable us to organise student events and professional learning for teachers. We look forward to the ongoing support from the DET in 2021.
In 2020 we saw a new format for the external examinations for Year 12 Japanese Second Language. To support teachers the JLTAV produced three practice exams. One was available for free to members in the resources in the Year 12 Morning shared Google Drive, and the other two are available for purchase. The examinations are still available for purchase. Please click on the information in this newsletter to place an order. We wish all our VCE students great success in their Japanese studies in 2021.
On behalf of the committee I thank you all for your support of the JLTAV. After a very challenging year across the world in 2020, we wish everyone all the very best for the start of the 2021 school year. Stay safe and take care.
Nathan Lane
President
JLTAV Inc. (Reg. No. A0024691U)
2020-4 Spring Newsletter
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From the President, Spring 2020
Welcome to Term 4 and the JLTAV Spring Newsletter. Our year continues to be a challenging time for students, parents, families and teachers. We sincerely hope our colleagues and friends in the Japanese teaching community in Victoria and further afield continue to keep safe and well.
Even though we returned to remote learning and teaching in Term 3, as an Association we were still able to support our members in a number of ways. This year the materials prepared for the Year 12 Morning were shared to members via Google Drive. The materials included:
- Videos explaining the oral and written exams for Japanese Second Language
- Good and bad mock oral example videos
- A practice exam with suggested answers
- Listening texts to accompany the practice exam
- A booklet outlining information about the oral and written exams
- A university presentation prepared by Dr Robyn Spence-Brown, the JLTAV Tertiary Liaison from Monash University
Many thanks to Julie Devine who prepared the resources for this event. Julie brings a wealth of knowledge and vast experience to the Year 12 Morning each year and we greatly appreciate Julie’s support.
To further support VCE teachers we have developed two additional practice exams and these are available for purchase by JLTAV and non-JLTAV members. Each exam package costs $100 (JLTAV member) and $170 (non-JLTAV member) and includes:
- A copy of the practice exam
- An answer key with suggested marks for each question
- Sample responses to the writing tasks
- Listening tracks
Click on the link below to place an order for the first practice exam:
Click on the link below to place an order for the second practice exam:
A file has been included on the JLTAV website and in this newsletter that maps the content across the three exams.
Please note that the VCE materials produced by the JLTAV have not been endorsed by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA).
As an Association we are committed to the wellbeing of our members during this challenging year. On Wednesday 9 September, Debbie West presented through Google Meet ‘Mindfulness with a Zen Focus’. This was a wonderful opportunity to relax and unwind at the start of the evening. Many thanks to Debbie for presenting this session and for sharing her wealth of knowledge. Many thanks also to Kenny Chan from Drawing With Us who kindly recorded a manga drawing class for Japanese teachers. This has been uploaded to the JLTAV YouTube channel and can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEZMQupnFKk
This video will be available until Monday 9 November.
We continue to update the JLTAV Facebook page and throughout this term we have shared interesting links focusing on wellbeing during this pandemic.
2020 JLTAV Calligraphy Competition – Important changes to the due date and submission of entries
We are pleased to advise that the due date for entries for the 2020 JLTAV Calligraphy Competition has been extended until Thursday 5 November given the onsite return date for students.
Details of this competition can be found on the JLTAV website at: https://www.jltav.org.au/events/calligraphy-competition-2020/
Given the current situation, we will also accept entries completed with a brush pen if a calligraphy brush is not available. Entries completed with a calligraphy brush will still be accepted.
Due to delays with the mail caused by the recent restrictions, we will accept scanned or photographed entries sent as PDF files only (photo files are too large to email). Please organise a separate file for each student and the file name saved with the name of the student and their school. For example, Monash SC Mary Smith.pdf. Please send the entries to jltavcommittee@gmail.com.
Entries will still be accepted by post. Please note that all mail will be collected on Thursday 5 November only and late entries will not be accepted. We suggest sending entries via Express Post or email as outlined above.
Shortly we will launch our membership forms for 2021. We are pleased to keep the membership fees the same in 2021. Even though we have been unable to run many of the events we would usually run during the year, we have been able to support members in 2020 through:
- Short instructional tutorials on the JLTAV YouTube channel for Classkick, Gimkit, Nearpod, PowerPoint, Seesaw and Google Classroom, to support colleagues during remote learning and teaching
- Year 12 Morning Google Drive folder of materials
- Two practice exams in addition to the practice exam created for the Year 12 Morning. A total of three practice exams have been created to support students studying Unit 3/4 Japanese Second Language and to prepare them for the new exam format for 2020.
- ‘Mindfulness with a Zen Focus’ professional learning session presented by Debbie West
- Manga drawing workshop presented by Kenny Chan from Drawing With Us
- Calligraphy Competition
- Organising online exchanges with schools in the Osaka Prefecture through the Osaka Convention and Tourism Bureau (OCTB)
- Posts on the JLTAV Facebook page before the return to face-to-face teaching in Term 4 sharing different teaching ideas and resources
We look forward to 2021 and being able to offer more events and activities for teachers and students.
I wish everyone a successful Term 4 and all the best with report writing and assessment as the year draws to an end. I wish all the students studying Unit 3/4 Japanese great success in their end of year exams. Take care and stay safe in this current environment.
Nathan Lane
President, JLTAV Inc. (Reg. No. A0024691U)
Invitation to Online Exchanges with Schools in Osaka Prefecture
Dear Sensei-gata
Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau (OCTB) is organising an online exchange program with schools in Osaka.
For more information, please refer to the documents below:
(The ‘Confirmation Form’ enables teachers from Victoria and Osaka to communicate and understand each other’s rules and to ensure the protection of all students involved.)
2020-3 Winter Newsletter
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From the President, Winter 2020
From the President
Welcome to Term 3 and the JLTAV Winter Newsletter. Term 2 was a disjointed term as we moved from face-to-face teaching and learning to an online environment, and then back to face-to-face classes. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges for everyone. We hope our colleagues and friends in the Japanese teaching community in Victoria and further afield continue to keep safe and well.
At the beginning of Term 2, we held our Annual General Meeting online. Many thanks to our members who attended the online AGM and a very warm welcome to the 2020 JLTAV Committee.
Unfortunately due to the current situation, the events we usually hold during Terms 2 and 3 have been postponed. We are still very much committed to the professional learning of our members. For a number of years we have run a successful YouTube channel. To support our colleagues during this time, some of our tech-savvy teachers put together short downloadable videos to help navigate some of our favourite online tools for teaching and learning Japanese. These tools include: Classkick, Gimkit, Nearpod, PowerPoint, Seesaw and Google Classroom. We very much appreciate the expertise, generosity and incredible talent of our colleagues who put these videos together: Jan Chalmer, Shingo Gibson-Suzuki, Irene Ong and Andrew Truong. The JLTAV YouTube channel is available for any languages teacher to access.
At the start of Term 3, we usually run the ‘Year 12 Morning’. This year a new Study Design for Units 3 and 4 languages has commenced. It is important for students studying Units 3 and 4 Japanese that they understand the new requirements for the oral and written exams. As a way to support both teachers and students, the committee decided to make the resources distributed at the Year 12 Morning available to our members for free via Google Drive. This includes a recording of the information that would usually be presented on the day of the event. During Term 3 we will inform teachers when the materials will be ready, how to access them, and for how long access will be available. In order to receive the link to these materials, please complete the form here:
https://forms.gle/FVCN9zctYsh4D8zM8
Please register your school once only. Materials will be made available to JLTAV members only.
To further support VCE teachers we have developed a second practice exam. This is available for purchase by JLTAV and non-JLTAV members. The exam package costs $100 (JLTAV member) and $170 (non-JLTAV member) and includes:
- A copy of the practice exam
- An answer key with suggested marks for each question
- Sample responses to the writing tasks
- A CD of the listening tracks
Please note that the practice exam materials produced by the JLTAV have not been endorsed by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA).
Click on the link below to place an order for this exam:
Thank you to the students at Santa Maria College Northcote for putting together a set of image-based hiragana mnemonic flashcards. The flashcards are available in two pdf files on the JLTAV website. In order to complete the set we are looking for mnemonics for the following hiragana characters: つ、ぬ、ね、る、れ、ろ、ゆ、ま、み、め. If you have students who could create mnemonics for these characters could you please let me know via email: nlane@mackillopsh.vic.edu.au. We hope this will be a useful resource for teachers and students.
Over the past few years we have held a highly successful immersion weekend. This is the perfect opportunity for non-native teachers of Japanese to focus on developing and extending their Japanese language skills in an immersive environment. We hope to organise this event later in the year. Given the uncertainty around when international borders will open and travel between Australia and Japan will resume, this weekend will be the perfect opportunity to feel like we are in Japan.
Towards the end of the term on Monday 14 September our second Model UN Conference in Japanese will be held at the Treasury Theatre in East Melbourne. Many thanks to Taryn Young from the Department of Education and Training, and Dr Sally Northfield from the UNAA Victoria for their support in organising this event.
It was difficult to choose a winning entry for the 2020 JLTAV Events Poster Competition so we chose three winning designs. Congratulations to the following students:
Chrysandra Ingles (Year 10) from Santa Maria College
Reegan Davis (Year 8) from Lilydale Heights College
Ashley Jackson (Year 9) from Kambrya College
These posters will be included on the front cover of the 2020 Year 12 Morning booklet and materials to promote the Primary Professional Learning Day and Immersion Weekend.
Our highly successful calligraphy competition will again be held during Term 3. Details of this competition will be launched shortly.
We welcome members to complete our professional learning survey (here). As an association we are committed to providing professional learning to our members. Your feedback is valuable in setting the direction for the events we organise in the future and we will take on board your suggestions.
Term 3 is the time when secondary students make decisions regarding their subject choices for the following year. As a way to support teachers during this time, links to advocacy resources have been included on the JLTAV website. We hope you find these resources useful.
The JLTAV Committee continue to work hard to organise events throughout the year and I thank them for all their hard work, generosity and commitment to the Association. Contact details of the 2020 committee have been included in this newsletter.
I wish everyone a successful Term 3 and thank you for your support of the JLTAV Inc. Take care and stay safe in this current environment.
Nathan Lane
President, JLTAV Inc. (Reg. No. A0024691U)
2020-2 Autumn Newsletter
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