Co-ordinator
Adam Murray
Co-ordinator Role
As the title implies, the SIG Co-ordinator is responsible for coordinating all the activities of the SIG. The SIG Co-ordinator is the main contact person for the SIG and acts as a liaison between the JALT Central Office (JCO), the other officers, and the members. The SIG Co-ordinator also represents the members and officers of the SIG at the Executive Board Meeting (EBM) and is responsible for preparing, organizing, and chairing the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held each year at the conference.
Adam Murray
Adam Murray is currently teaching at Miyazaki International College. He has co-authored a classroom-use textbook and is working on the development of listening materials. Adam has a strong interest in MOOCs and Professional/Personal Learning Networks.
Programmes
Greg Goodmacher
Programmes Role
The main task of the Programmes Chair is to organise the SIG forum at the autumn JALT National Conference. However recently, the number of joint events with JALT chapters is seeing a pleasant rise and the MW-SIG also is involved with the annual Pan-SIG Conference. Beyond these events, the role of the Programmes Chair may also include promoting a featured speaker at the JALT National Conference.
Greg Goodmacher
Writing teaching materials from scratch and adapting teaching materials are the two most fulfilling aspects of my teaching career. I have written five published textbooks and have contributed to several others. Most of my materials are global or social issues content-based. See my profile for more information.
Publications
James Essex
Publications
James is the SIG's Publication Chair, overseeing the production of our publication, Between the Keys, which is published two or three times a year. At the moment, James is a one-man-band, overseeing the procurement and editing of all material. He welcomes volunteers to take on a variety of roles including proofreading, editing specific columns such as 'Book Reviews', 'Events' and our 'Featured Guest' column on the SIG homepage. Interested people can contact James through the 'submit an article' link to the left.
James Essex
James currently teaches in universities around Kanto. Prior to that, he taught the youth teams at the Japanese Olympic Committee, and soldiers at the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force, as well as stints in junior high schools and a conversation school.
He is currently a PhD candidate exploring attitudes toward Asian accents of English in the language classroom, and slowly developing materials as a result of his research thus far. He has also written a reading textbook on British culture (yes, it does have one!) which is currently in its piloting stage.
When not doing these things, James likes travelling, cooking, rugby and taking long walks.
Membership
Travis Holtzclaw
Role
The Membership Chair keeps our membership lists up to date, and is the main person in charge of coordinating SIG events (such as the Pan-SIG conference).
Travis Holtzclaw
Travis works at Meiho Jr. & Sr. High School in Tokyo where he teaches conversation and the 21st century course of the Global Studies Program, which includes training critical thinking skills through a problem-based learning approach. His main goal is to "professionalize" the English conversation teaching field through conversation analysis-based materials and activities. He has been developing and implementing a program which trains students to co-construct open-ended conversations in real time, and firmly believes that Japanese students can master daily conversation by the end of junior high.
Treasurer
Scott Peterson
Co-Treasurer
Marcus Grandon
Role
The Treasurer keeps all financial records and collect and disburse all funds of the Materials Writers SIG. He presents an account of the financial status of the organization at the Materials Writers SIG Annual Meeting and submits regular financial reports to the National SIG Treasurer Liaison. The Treasurer prepares the financial documents for an internal audit to take place after the books have been closed at the end of each calendar year.
Scott Petersen
I am happy to serve as the treasurer of the Material Writers SIG. After these several years, I have finally gotten a handle on the job (sort of). I came to Japan in 1977 and lived in Matsuyama for two years. Then, I returned to the US to obtain an MA in ESL from the University of Hawaii. I returned to Matsuyama in 1981 and worked for a few more years. I moved to Nagoya in 1984, where I worked for the best Catholic University in the city. After that I moved to a junior college and am still at the same institution although it eventually upgraded to a university. In the 90’s, I travelled to Tokyo every week to attend the graduate school at Temple University, where I was granted an EdD in Curriculum, Instruction and Technology in Education in 1998.
Marcus Grandon
I began teaching in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1990, where I still reside and make my living by teaching at local universities. I also work as a producer of multimedia content, and write grassroots materials for the Japanese context. I have a B.Sc. in Business administration, an M.A. in Humanities, and a post-grad certificate in Online Instruction. Currently, my research focuses on the student use of video-based materials in university classrooms.
Member-at-Large
Nate French
Member-at-Large
Jim Smiley
Nate teaches conversation and content-based classes part-time at Showa Women's University, Tokyo University of Science, and Nihon University. He is interested in creating conversational and content-based materials in which students improve their language skills and participate in activities which give students numerous opportunities to express things in their own words.
Jim Smiley
Jim is a lecturer at Tohoku Bunka Gakuen University up in Sendai. He is the author of English Care, Therapy Care and Nursing Care, a series of coursebooks for students in health-related English classes. Also, he has authored Frames and Taking Issue which are general textbooks for communication classes. His latest book, co-authored with Jon Catanzariti, Conversation Master, teaches conversation using techniques developed in conversation analysis. See his website for more information.
Publications Layout Editor
Role
Between the Keys is produced in a PDF version and an online version. The PDF layout is a highly technical and specialised job done by an expert in publications layout. Currently, this job is done by our treasurer, Scott Petersen.
Co-Layout Editor
Jeanette Dennisson
Jeanette Dennisson is an associate professor at Tokyo Medical and Dental University. She is currently involved in developing new curricula and materials for Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) courses in undergraduate basic health science program.
