A Message from 2001-2002 Chapter Co-Coordinators

As Co-Coordinators of our Ibaraki JALT chapter, Mary Lee Field and I wish to welcome you warmly to our chapter and know that you will enjoy meeting a very lively, dedicated group of professionals - both Japanese and foreign. We hold monthly meetings that are informative, upbeat and very social (not stuffy at all!). Our meetings usually involve a speaker -either featuring one of our local members sharing ideas and techniques or someone invited from outside our chapter. If time permits, we go out for a bite afterwards together. Meetings range from more formal presentations, workshops, or demonstrations to an annual chapter retreat and a Christmas end-of-year party. We have embarked upon several interesting projects too, such as the Global Ties project whereby we sponsored a teacher from Thailand (now President of ThaiTESOL) for a week. In this kind of project and in our meetings, we all learn, share and grow together.

We usually meet on the third Sunday afternoon of the month or an occasional Friday night. Attendance varies from ten to twenty on average, although we have approximately sixty members in our chapter. Meetings alternate between Omika, Mito, Tsuchiura or Tsukuba because our prefecture is so long and narrow.

If you would like to meet a great bunch of teachers coming from a variety of institutions and teaching styles, please join our chapter. Get involved with a lovely group of people. Do not hesitate to contact us. You are most welcome to join us.

Now, a little about us:

Mary Lee Field arrived in Japan a year ago and is now in her second year of teaching at Ibaraki University. Some years ago, she taught for a year at Shimane University in Matsue, and now she has the pleasure and privilege of teaching with one of her former students who is on the faculty at Ibadai. In the States, Mary Lee was active in the Michigan TESOL and International TESOL organizations, so naturally she turned to Ibaraki JALT for the same kind of professional and social connections. "Ibaraki JALT members made me feel at home in Japan right away," she says. That warm welcome, and the special mentoring that Joyce provided her as a new faculty member at Ibadai, encouraged her to become co-coordinator for the chapter. Mary Lee's research focus is on the teaching of ESL reading and the training of ESL reading teachers. She is also the current Book Review Editor for the TESOL Journal. In JALT, she is a member of the Foreign Language Literacy Special Interest Group.

Joyce Cunningham, now over five years in Japan, hails from McGill and Concordia Universities in Canada. She is co-coordinator of the English Language programme in the Department of Communication Studies at Ibaraki University in Mito. JALT is an important part of Joyce's life: she was programme chair of the Ibaraki chapter, JALT98 Conference programme chair at the annual conference and later, National Programme Chair for two years. For three years now, she has had the pleasure of working with fellow chapter member, Mariko Miyao, as Co-editor of the monthly column "A Chapter in your Life" appearing in JALT's monthly magazine: The Language Teacher. Apart from Mary Lee Field, Andy Barfield, Bob Betts, Kunihiko Kobayashi, and Mayumi Watanabe (the last 5 members on the JALT98 team, and all from the Ibaraki chapter), Marikosan is one of the nicest partners she has ever had the privilege of working with, says Joyce in deep appreciation.

Mary Lee and Joyce close with this joint message : "Ibaraki JALT gives us more than we could ever hope to give back. We love our chapter and admire the people in our group. We learn so much from each and every one of them. Please join us."