We would like to thank all the teachers for attending our IIEEC Fukuoka Study Group Meeting on February 3rd. We were very glad to see you the enthusiastic teachers again. Although some teachers could not attend the SG this time because of the flu etc., the attendants seemed to have a great time.
The topic for this meeting was “New Lesson.” We showed how to introduce it effectively as well as activities for getting students to learn it well. Also, we reviewed the Basics of the MAT METHOD and introduced fun and active New Lesson Ideas.
Here are some of the things we did at our meeting:
1. For the Warm-up song, we sang the “Rock, Paper, Scissors” as a warm-up song. It is the English version of “Gu, choki, pa de nani tsukurou?” which is often sung at Japanese kindergartens. It was fun to change the noun using actions.
2. After welcoming the participants, the teachers introduced themselves and shared with us about what they were doing in their classes.
3. Practice Key 1
We always review the steps of the MAT METHOD at every meeting. This is so that a new member can understand how to teach with MAT and the reasons why it is effective. In addition, teachers who come regularly can be reminded of the important teaching points of MAT. These teachers are always impressed and tell us they make “new discoveries” at each meeting. 
This time we introduced how to teach the 3rd person with the “can” verb. Teachers enjoyed the activity, “Tap, Tap Game,” which we introduced as a review game.
4. It’s Your Turn
5. Song 2: Spring Song (Making a Green Tree game)
This activity with green and yellow leaves is suitable for spring lessons. We make two groups and get into circles. As they sing, they pass a paper bag with the leaves in it. They put the leaf on the tree when they sing “It is spring time”. The team which gets the most green leaves on the tree wins.
6. Practice Key 2
As most of the teachers were not new members, we proceeded to the next step after the review of the basics.
First, we showed them how to do TELL. We asked the teachers some questions about TELL. It is important to do TELL in every lesson. We use a picture or a picture book to show students so that they can say something about the picture. It is important to give them speaking opportunity and to think in English by themselves.
After TELL, a trainer showed a mini trial lesson and the teachers understood what to prepare and how to do trial lessons well.
Also, we showed them a lot of Learning Activities which can be used in classes right way and provide lots of fun and learning for the students.
This Study Group is a learning opportunity for teachers and gives teachers a chance to participate and experience being a teacher as well as a student. It is not a passive meeting of only lectures.
Following the introduction of the theme, we always have the participants experience what we demonstrate by dividing them into two or three small groups where they practice it as a teacher or a student. All of them practiced well.
At each meeting we cover various themes and show special techniques for introducing the language and how to teach it so that students will learn it. Also, the MAT techniques can be adapted to any lesson, so even though there may be sentence patterns that may not fit the level of your class, we think that it is necessary to learn it early.