MAY 2020

VOL. 9, NO. 2

AATJ
NEWSLETTER
Message from the President
全米日本語教育学会

会員の皆様

前回のニュースレターで自己紹介をさせていただいた直後から、新型コロナウィルス感染症の世界的大流行により、当時想像もしていなかった事態に陥り、私たちの生活も激変しました。北米でも日本でも緊急事態宣言が発令され、緊迫した状況が続く中、会員、そしてご家族の皆様が安全かつ健康な日々を過ごしていらっしゃることを切に願っております。

Junko Mori

このコロナ禍により、教育・研究の環境、そして当学会の活動も一

森純子

ましたが、ここで当学会としての2月下旬から今日に至るまでの取り変することになりました。事態に対応するのに精一杯の日々が続き組みを振り返り、その経緯をまとめておきたいと思います。

まず、３月１９日にボストンで開催が予定されておりましたAATJ年次春季大会については、２月下旬より会場提供元となるAAS（アジア研究学会）の動向、CDC（アメリカ疫病予防管理センター）の声明を随時追いながらの判断を強いられる形となりました。アジアからの参加者の方々の事情を鑑みての遠隔発表の受け入れの承認に始まり、そのためのテクノロジー援助のボランティアの募集、その後最終的に３月９日時点での学会のキャンセル、参加登録費返金手続きのお知らせ、
AATJ 2020 発表資料シェアポータル設置への移行と、当会からの連絡が二転三転し、会員の方々にご迷惑をおかけしたことをお詫び申し上げます。しかし、そのような緊急事態の中でも積極的に援助を申し出てくださった会員の方々が数多くいたこと、そしてポータルへの数多くの寄稿があった
ことは、当学会のネットワークの強力さ、研究発表の場としてのAATJ年次大会の重要性を改めて認識する機会となりました。この時期の混乱を乗り越えるに当たっての大会実行委員長のガヤ先生、
ナズキアン先生、そしてスーザン・シュミット事務局長の御奮闘に深謝いたします。さらに、本来なら、ボストンでの学会で表彰を授与することになっていたマグロイン花岡直美先生（ウィスコン
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シン大学マディソン校名誉教授）の長年にわたる日本語教育界での偉大な業績についてもここに記しておきたいと思います。また、今年３月に５年にわたる任期を終えられた原秀樹国際交流基金ロサンゼルス日本文化センター前所長に対し、氏の当学会への多大なる貢献に感謝の意を表する予定
でおりましたが、その機会も失われたため、この紙面を借りて、改めてお礼を申し上げます。
次に、学会キャンセルの決定とほぼ軌を一にして、北米教育機関が次々と遠隔授業化を発表していきました。学習者との密なインタラクションが核となる語学教育をいかに新たな学習環境の中で達成していくのか、様々な家庭環境・経済状況にある学習者たちのテクノロジーへのアクセスの差にどのように対処していくのか、前代未聞の状況下、不安を覚える学習者たちをいかにケアしていくのか…等々。様々な課題に短期間で解決策を見出していくことが教育者に求められる中、この局面において、AATJとしてできること・すべきことは何なのか？３月中旬より、渡辺前会長、ジョーダ
ン次期会長、札谷副会長、シュミット事務局長に、専門能力開発部門ディレクターの斎藤アボット
先生を加えての６人で、度重なるZoomミーティングを持ち、会員の皆さんをどのようにサポートしていくことができるかを模索しました。その結果が、AATJウェブサイト、及びFacebookページを利用してのリソースのシェア、３月末から５月初旬までの５回にわたるウェビナーの開催です。緊
急のお願いであったにも関わらず、快く講師役を引き受けてくださった先生方に深く感謝いたします。ウェビナーには多くの方々が参加してくださり、講師の方々から有益な情報を得るのみならず、チャットを通して参加者の方々の間でも活発な情報交換・意見交換がされているのを目の当たりにし、企画にあたった役員一同、このような場を提供することの意義を再認識しております。
(ウェビナーの録画、および関連資料もAATJウェブサイトhttps://www.aatj.org/teaching-resourcesの方でご覧いただけます。) 様々な緊急対応の取り組みが進む中で、アドボカシー部門ディレクター
の山下先生には、いつもにまして情報発信の要の役割を果たしていただきました。
また言うまでもなく、コロナ禍は私たちの学生・生徒たちにも大きな打撃を与えました。長年の夢だった日本留学を中断、または断念することを余儀なくし、National Japanese Exam, Japanese
National Honor Society, AP Japanese等、日本語学習者の努力の成果を認めるに役立つ行事の実施にも大きな影響を及ぼしました。我々教師には、このような厳しい状況下でも日本語・日本文化の学習に取り組み続けてくれている学習者たちを励まし、支援していくことが求められています。先日発表された国際交流基金ロサンゼルス日本文化センターとの協働企画「#みんなでがんばりマス
ク」は、このような学習者たちの学習成果と情熱の発信の場を提供し、仲間意識を高めることを目的としております。どうぞ、皆さん、後述の詳細をご覧の上、積極的に参加をご検討ください。
春学期の授業を終えたばかりの方々、まだこれから数週間授業の続く方々、状況は様々かと思いま
すが、夏休みを迎え、一息ついたところで、コロナ禍のもたらしたものが何なのか改めて振り返る
機会もあることかと思います。私個人としては、想定外の事態で浮かび上がる諸問題にどう対処して行くのか、日々判断に苦しみ、慣れない遠隔授業での苦労を強いられる日々でしたが、一方で、自分を取り巻く様々な人たちとの絆の大切さを再認識したこと、これまで知り合う機会のなかった
方々とテクノロジーを通じてつながりを作ることができたこと、教育者としての自分が最も大切にしていること・すべきことは何なのかを振り返ることができたこと、など得るものも多かったように思います。
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この大流行がいつ終息するのか、その先に待ち受ける「ニュー・ノーマル」というものがどのようなものなのか、現段階ではなかなか予測もつかず、来年度からの教育現場の状況に不安を感じていらっしゃる会員の方も多いかと思います。AATJでは、引き続き、この夏・秋と、各地の日本語プロ
グラムを取り巻く現状把握につとめ、会員の皆さんの声・ニーズを、アンケート調査等を通じて拾い上げつつ、会としてできること・すべきことは何かを考え実行していくつもりです。どうぞ、ご意見・ご提案をぜひお寄せください。
次号のニュースレターではより多くの明るい話題を提供できることを祈っています。
では、皆様、どうぞくれぐれもご自愛ください。
２０２０年５月３日

会長

森

純子

Dear Members of the American Association of Teachers of Japanese,

When I wrote my self-introduction for the previous issue, I never imagined how COVID-19 wasabout to change our lives completely. A state of emergency has been declared around the world,
including North America and Japan, and it appears the current state will continue for a while on bothsides of the Pacific. I sincerely hope all the members and their families are staying safe and well.
This pandemic has also drastically altered environments for education and research, as well as theactivities of this association. Rapidly evolving situations called for prompt decision-making in many
areas. In this column, I would like to reflect back on various developments since late February andreport on our deliberations.
First, in regard to the AATJ Annual Spring Conference (scheduled to be held in Boston on March19), we began in late February to closely monitor the statements from the Association of AsianStudies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine our approach. The
announcement of possible remote delivery of papers by international participants who could not
travel, was followed by the call for technology support volunteers, and eventually the March 9th
notification of conference cancellation, offer of refunds for registration fees, and establishment of amaterials sharing portal. We apologize for any inconvenience that these changing messages might
have caused to the members. In the meantime, we were truly impressed by how many members
immediately volunteered to offer assistance and how many presenters submitted their materials to theportal. These developments made us re-appreciate the strong network of our members and thesignificance of AATJ’s Annual Spring Conference as a site of dissemination of new knowledge. My
sincere gratitude goes to the conference co-directors, Geyer-sensei and Nazikian-sensei, and the
AATJ Executive Director, Susan Schmidt, who tirelessly worked to tackle this truly unexpected turnof events. Furthermore, I would like to recognize the following two individuals whom we planned tocelebrate at the Boston meeting. AATJ presented the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award for
Leadership in Japanese Language Education to Dr. Naomi Hanaoka McGloin (Professor Emerita,
University of Wisconsin-Madison); AATJ also expressed our gratitude towards Mr. Hideki Hara, who
served as Director of the Japan Foundation-Los Angeles for five years until this March, for his strong
support of Japanese language education and AATJ’s activities.
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Around the same time as the conference cancellation decision, educational institutions in North
America successively announced the suspension of in-person instruction and shifted to remotedelivery. How can we successfully convert language instruction, for which an interactive process isessential, to remote delivery? How can we accommodate students from diverse familial andeconomic backgrounds by addressing equity issues associated with access to technology? Howshould we care for our students experiencing a tremendous amount of anxiety under thisunprecedented circumstance? … The list of questions goes on. While each of us is faced with the
responsibility of identifying solutions to these various issues in an urgent manner, what can andshould AATJ do? Since mid-March, Watanabe-sensei (Immediate Past President), Jordan-sensei(President-Elect), Satsutani-sensei (Vice President), Susan Schmidt-san (Executive Director), SaitoAbbott-sensei (newly appointed Director of Professional Development), and I held weekly Zoom
meetings to explore ideas. The outcomes of these meetings resulted in the resources shared through
AATJ’s website and Facebook
page, as well as the hosting of fivewebinars from late March throughearly May. We sincerely appreciate
all the presenters in these webinars
who accepted our requests and put
together informative presentations
in a short time frame. We werevery pleased to see these webinars
were well-attended. The
participants’ engagement with thematerials presented was evident intheir lively chat exchanges, where
they not only asked questions to
the presenters, but also shared
information among themselves.
(Recordings and other materials from the series of AATJ webinars can be found on our website:
https://www.aatj.org/teaching-resources.) We also would like to acknowledge Yamashita-Iversonsensei’s (Advocacy Director) critical contribution in rapid dissemination of information in this area.
Needless to say, this pandemic has severely impacted our students’ lives. Those who were studying
abroad in Japan were asked to return to North America, and those who were planning to travel toJapan in the spring and summer were forced to give up their long-time dream. Activities such as the
National Japanese Exam, Japanese National Honor Society, and AP Japanese, which serve torecognize these students’ efforts and achievements, have also been impacted. As educators, we are
expected to cheer up and support these students who are continuing their study of Japanese language
and culture under the current unsettling conditions. The recently launched joint project with theJapan Foundation-Los Angeles, #みんなでがんばりマスク, is meant to provide space for Japanese
language learners to showcase their achievement and passion for learning and to create a sense ofcommunity with each other. Please refer to the following article on this project for details, andconsider submitting your students’ work.
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Some of you must have just completed your spring semester (like me), while others have a few more
weeks to go. When the school year is over, you may finally have a chance to take time to consider
what the pandemic has exposed in our daily lives. Tackling a never-ending list of emerging issues
and adjusting myself to the new teaching environment have exhausted me, but at the same time, I
also feel that these experiences have enabled me to gain opportunities to re-appreciate bonds withpeople who are shaping my life, to get to know new people through technology, and also to distillwhat I, as an educator, consider most essential for my teaching.
It is unpredictable at this point when this pandemic will be over and what the “new normal” will
look like. Many of you must be concerned with the future operation of your institutions andprograms. During the summer and fall, AATJ will continue to monitor the conditions of Japanese
programs in different regions, survey the members’ concerns and needs, and explore what theassociation can and should do. So, please share your ideas and suggestions.
I hope to be able to deliver some uplifting news in the next issue. Please stay safe and well.
Junko Mori, President (2020)

May 3, 2020

AATJ & Japan Foundation LA
invite you to participate in#みんなでがんばりマスク
A project connecting Japanese language learners around the US and beyond!
•••Students submit a photo, short video, or original drawing and a positive message
in Japanese that reflect the theme/s: Hope, Appreciation, Encouragement,
Community
Include #みんなでがんばりマスク somewhere in the post.
For details, examples, and submission instructions go to this link:
https://bit.ly/35QGTjl

And search #みんなでがんばりマスクon Instagram to check out all the great posts so far!

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Message from the Vice President[副会長からのご挨拶]
2020年1月から副会長として活動している札谷新吾です。就任早々、私たち日本語教師にとって最大ともいえる困難な状況に直面しています。突然遠隔授業となった全米ほぼすべての学校では、全くの手探り状態で毎日の授業に臨んでおられると思います。AATJとしても先生方のためにテーマを設定したウェビナーに定期的にご招待するとともにホームページやフェースブックにて様々な情報を共有しています。
AATJの春の学会の中止（AATJのポータルサイトにて学会発表として継続中）、今秋マカオにて開催予定だった日本語教育国際研究大会（ICJLE）も延期、それに伴い2022年のアメリカでの同大会の開催も白紙となりました。夏期講座を実施している大学は春学期に引き続き
遠隔授業継続、一部の大学では既に秋学期の遠隔授業化も決定されています。小中高校の秋の授業形態に関してはまだは不透明な部分が多いですが、AATJも全力を挙げて様々な形で先生方を応援していきます
ので、よろしくお願い申し上げます。
JAPANESE NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY やTEACHER AWARDなどは例年通り継続中です。AATJから先生方へ配信されるメールにてそShingo Satsutaniの詳細をお知らせいたします。
個人的には12人の学生を引率して京都へ花見研修は勿論中止。夏の5

札谷新吾

週間の京都プログラムも10人以上が既に登録してましたが中止。代わりに夏期講座を遠隔授業で行うことになっています。娘たちの小中学校は学校区から貸し出されているクロームブックを使っての遠隔授業が春学期終了まで続きます。娘が所属している全米フィ
ギュアスケート連盟もその公式シーズン開始を7月1日まで延期しています。
新型コロナウイルス感染防止措置による厳しい状況がしばらく続きますが、みんなで協力しながら乗り越えていきましょう。
地方の教師会に属していらっしゃらない先生方やAATJの傘下に入っていない教師会の先生方のお話も聞かせていただきたいのでsatsutan@cod.eduまでいつでもご連絡ください。

SHINGO SATSUTANI, Vice President of AATJ

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AATJ 2020 Spring Conference in Conjunction with AAS
Naomi Geyer and Fumiko Nazikian, 2019 Spring Conference Co-Directors

AATJ’s 2020 Spring Conference, scheduled to be held on March 19 in Boston, was officiallycancelled (along with the Association for Asian Studies conference held at the same venue on thesame weekend) just a few days before it was to have taken place. The cancellation, although it was
unavoidable in view of the worldwide crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, was a great
disappointment to all of us.
We are grateful to the AATJ officers, who worked tirelessly before and after the cancellation to
make plans and inform members of the changing situation, as well as to the members who submitted
paper and panel proposals, reviewed the submitted proposals, planned the program, and volunteered
their services as session chairs.
We also thank the many registered attendees who declined to be reimbursed for their conference
registration fees, instead contributing them to AATJ.
As a service to the conference presenters and attendees, AATJ members, and others who areinterested in the research that always highlights this event, a special Material Sharing Portal wasadded to the AATJ website, and all presenters were invited to submit their work for posting there,
available to all.
More than half of the 96 presentations scheduled for the conference have been posted. You can findthem online, along with the complete conference program, at:https://www.aatj.org/aatj-2020-spring-conference-materials-sharing
The presentations cover all of the topic areas that AATJ members specialize in – from language
pedagogy and linguistics to classroom technology and literature – in the form of recorded talks,PowerPoint slides, and written texts.
The website also includes a recording of the keynote address by Professor Naomi Hanaoka
McGloin, who was to have received AATJ’s Lifetime Achievement Award in person at theconference.
2021 Spring Conference
We do not yet know in what ways the COVID-19 epidemic will change the way that conferences areheld in the future, but we are hopeful that the 2021 conference (scheduled to be held on March 26,2021) can be held in a way that allows us to gather in person in Seattle. We will be issuing a Call for
Proposals in late summer, and will begin a planning process that allows for various options forpresenting and disseminating the outstanding work of the Japanese language education community.

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AP Japanese Exam 2020
Ann Jordan, President-Elect

Veteran AP Japanese teachers Koji Otani and Dan
Carolin presented “Preparing for the AP Japanese
Exam 2020”, the final installment for this school year
in AATJ’s webinar series supporting Japaneseteachers as they address the challenges of teaching
during a pandemic. The purpose of the session was
to make sure that teachers clearly understood thedetails of the exam delivery this year and to provide
tips and teaching strategies for the few weeks
remaining until the May 19 exam date.
The regular exam, which normally consists of freeresponse speaking and writing, and multiple choicereading and listening sections, has been reduced tojust the two free response speaking sections, Cultural
Perspective Presentation and Conversation. Students
will take the exam at home on smartphones ortablets.
For those who attended the webinar, please note thefollowing corrections: 1) The conversation task forJapanese and Chinese for 2020, as in the past
years, can be a conversation with a peer or withan adult and therefore, could be either informal
or formal. 2) The make-up exam will be June 5th,
not June 2nd. Members were notified via email
bulletin and AATJ social media shortly after thewebinar, and the correction has been made to thevideo and powerpoint available on the AATJ website.
Just two short months ago we shared that the
feedback and data generated by last May’s AATJ
survey of AP Japanese teachers had resulted in theCollege Board making a few improvements to techrelated teacher preparation procedures and exam day
problems that that were much more serious last year
than usual. The most exciting news was that after the
regular exam ended this year, the College Board wasplanning to pilot an online test delivery

VOL. 9, NO. 2

Japanese National Honor
Society Update
AATJ office staff members are working remotelyfrom home, but we are continuing to process yourapplications for Japanese National Honor Society(JNHS) recognition for your students. Many
members have let us know that even though theirstudents are not able to attend classes in person thisspring, they are excited to participate in JNHS and toreceive the certificates and honor cords.
You can continue to mail your applications andpayments to the AATJ office; however, applications
by email will reach us faster. We can arrange for
credit card payment of the induction fees.
It is taking longer than in past years to process theapplications, and we appreciate your patience. We’ll
do our best to send the packages to you in a timely
manner.
We will continue to process applications as long as
we receive them; the May 1 deadline of past years
has been extended.
Many teachers are not able to receive mail at theirschools. If your home address is a better one at thistime, please be sure to provide it and indicate that itis the best one to use.
Information and application forms are available
online at https://www.aatj.org/jnhs . Please email
Maiko Bacha, at jnhs@aatj.org, with any questions.
Thank you!

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platform (instead of the outdated CDs), and AATJ had just begun the process of assisting withrecruitment of participant schools. We announced this good news on AATJ’s Facebook page on
March 2, and then just one week later, a link about school closures and remote learning appeared. It
was the first of the now many, many COVID-19 related posts.
For now, we need to push the pause button on the work that was started to improve the exam
delivery for AP Japanese. However, I am confident that once things settle down, these efforts will
resume and we will benefit from the things that we learn from this year’s most unusual AP exam.

Professional Development News: Support for Online Teaching
The global pandemic crisis hit our community in several ways, but the most dramatic may havebeen the quick pivot by schools and colleges to remote instruction in mid-March of this year. Oftenwith only a few days’ notice, teachers had to retool their curricula and move their classes online.
While some Japanese language teachers have had experience with remote instruction and tools forsynchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning, for many the learning curve was a steep one.
But our community responded with generosity and a wealth of support. Within days of theannouncements of school closings, teachers had founded a Facebook group – COVID-19. They also
set up a Zoom webinar on a Friday night, at which Ayako Anderson (who had had long experienceteaching online) described the use of common tools and techniques for keeping students engaged.
Almost 500 people attended the webinar!
AATJ’s professional development team, under the leadership of the Professional Development
Director, also swung into action, scheduling a series of webinars on remote teaching for Japanese
language educators. As of the beginning of May, five webinars have been held:- Flying by the Seat of Your Pants: Crisis Teaching Without Sacrificing Proficiency (March 28)- Pivoting to Remote Assessment (April 11)- Remote Teaching for Younger Students (April 18)- Social Emotional Learning in the Classroom (April 25)- Preparing for the 2020 AP Exam (May 2)
Links to recordings, slides, and other resource materials from these webinars, which featured
presentations from experts and experienced AATJ mentors, can all be found online athttps://www.aatj.org/teaching-resources. Links to other resources from ACTFL, AATJ affiliates, andother sources are also available on that page.
AATJ will continue to plan a program of online workshops and webinars to meet the changing
needs of our community in the coming months, as we prepare for the fall school term.
Please check the website for updates: https://www.aatj.org/teaching-resources.

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Language Advocacy Day 2020
Kazumi Yamashita-Iverson, AATJ Advocacy Director

Language Advocacy Day 2020 was held on February 6th and 7th in Washington D.C. The Joint
National Committee for Languages and the National Council for Languages and International
Studies (JNCL-NCLIS) organized this great event once again. AATJ was one of the sponsors for the
event this year and we contributed a sticky notepad and pens for all participants, which was a great
promotion for our organization.
171 participants from 43 states participated in the event this year, the largest number ever, withAATJ being represented by Junko Mori (AATJ President), Kazumi Yamashita-Iverson (AATJ
Advocacy Director), and Nichole Tsuruta (Fairfax County Public Schools). All participants visitedtheir state’s Senators and House Representatives to promote language and international education.
The following are our main requests this year:
1. Join the newly created America’s Languages Caucus inCongress
2. Sign on to the Dear Colleague Letter supporting FY21 funding
for the new K-12 language grant program, the World Language
Advancement and Readiness Program
3. Become a co-sponsor on the World Language Teacher Student
Debt Reduction Act
4. Become a co-sponsor on the Biliteracy Education Seal andTeaching (BEST) Act
For detailed information, please go to: https://www.languagepolicy.org/resources
Advocating for language education is an ongoing effort. Whenever you have a chance to contact
your state and regional representatives, please do so to promote our field.

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2020 Annual Fall Conference at ACTFL
Yasuo Uotate and Takayuki Masai, Fall Conference Co-Directors

The AATJ Fall Conference will be held during the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages (ACTFL) Annual Convention and World Languages Expo, Friday, November 20,
through Sunday, November 22, 2020 in San Antonio, Texas. The goal of the ACTFL Annual
Convention and World Languages Expo is to provide a comprehensive professional development
experience that will have an impact on language educators at all levels of teaching and in turnenable their students to succeed in their language learning process. The ACTFL Annual Convention
and World Languages Expo is where language educators from around the world come to meet! This
global event brings together more than 7,000 language educators from all languages, levels, andassignments.
Online registration and housing is now open.
Registration:
Early-Bird Registration
Advance Registration
Onsiteby Wednesday, August 19, 2020
by Wednesday, October 28, 2020
after Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Early bird(by 8/19/20)

Advance(by 10/28/20)

Late/Onsite(after 10/28/20)

FULL CONVENTION REGISTRATION
Member

$270

$285

$395

Non-Member

$380

$395

$495

One day member

$240

$255

$355

One day non-member

$335

$350

$450

DAILY REGISTRATIONTo register for the ACTFL Convention, please go to the website (https://www.actfl.org/conventionexpo/registration)
IF YOU ARE A CURRENT AATJ MEMBER, BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN AND USE“CONVENTION PARTNER ORGANIZATION REGISTRATION” UNDER OPTION 2 IN
ORDER TO REGISTER AT THE LOWER MEMBER RATE.

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Housing: For details regarding hotel reservations, please go to (https://www.actfl.org/conventionexpo/housing).
Official Hotels:
Grand Hyatt San Antonio -ACTFL Headquarters hotel San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter$225 sgl/dbl or $250 trpl/quad$220 sgl/dbl $240 trpl or $260 quad
Hilton Palacio Del Rio$222 sgl/dbl or $247 trpl/quad

San Antonio Marriott Riverwalk$220 sgl/dbl $240 trpl or $260 quad

La Quinta Inn & Suites San Antonia Riverwalk$199sgl/dbl/trpl/quadWestin Riverwalk San Antonio$215 sgl/dbl or $235 trpl/quadFor best availability and immediate confirmation, make your reservation online. Requests received
via fax or mail may take longer to process. All hotel requests are processed on an availability basis.
Please note that Orchid.Events is ACTFL’s official housing company. Also, please note that no one
will contact you directly via phone/email to book your hotel room(s) or offer you a “special
discounted conference rate.” There are multiple scamming companies that call and/or email
exhibitors claiming to represent ACTFL housing. To be clear, these companies are in no way
affiliated with ACTFL. Please disregard any calls or emails you may receive.
Scholarship Opportunities:
To apply, please go to (https://www.actfl.org/convention-expo/convention-scholarships).
ACTFL First Time Attendee Scholarship ProgramThis scholarship program offers ACTFL members who have never attended an ACTFL Annual
Convention and World Languages Expo the opportunity to apply for a $250 scholarship. Thisscholarship is to provide some assistance with the expenses associated with attending theconvention.
New Teacher Scholarship Program
Rolando Hernandez Scholarship Fund
The Rolando Hernandez/ACTFL Scholarship Fund was created in 2013 with support from four
major publishing houses (Cengage, Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Wiley) to honor the legacy ofRolando Hernandez who dedicated more than three decades to the service and passion for teaching
languages. A $250 scholarship will be awarded to four (4) world language teachers to provide
assistance with the expenses associated with attending the convention. Scholarship applicants mustbe ACTFL members, be registered as a first-time attendee of the ACTFL Annual Convention, and bewithin the first three years of their teaching career.

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Robert J. Ludwig Scholarship Program
Robert Ludwig, former ACTFL President in 1989, left a bequest to ACTFL to create the Robert J.
Ludwig Scholarship Program, which annually awards three (3) world language teachers with a $250
scholarship that is to provide assistance with the expenses associated with attending the convention.
Scholarship applicants must be ACTFL members, first-time attendees of the ACTFL Annual
Convention, and within the first three years of their teaching career.
Stephen L. Levy New Teacher Scholarships
Beginning with the 2017 ACTFL Annual Convention and World Languages Expo, ACTFL willaward two scholarships of $250 each to new teachers to attend the convention. These awards are
given in honor of Stephen L. Levy, leader, author, and world language advocate who served thelanguage profession for over 50 years.
2020 AATJ Meetings/Reception/Luncheon
Friday, 11/20, from 12:45 -1:30pm
AATJ Affiliate Council Meeting: The AATJ Affiliate Council Meeting will be held from
12:45-1:30PM on Fri, 11/20. Any AATJ member is welcome to attend. Lunch will not be served;
please bring your own lunch.
Saturday, 11/21, from 12:15-1:15pm
AATJ Teacher Award Luncheon: The AATJ Teacher Award Luncheon will be held from12:15-1:15PM on Sat, 11/21. This is a great opportunity to network with Japanese educators,
supporters, and guests from the local community. Luncheon tickets are $45 each, and the last day
to purchase tickets is November 15. Please purchase a luncheon ticket when you register forthe conference. AATJ will not sell tickets at our booth, and ACTFL will not have tickets for sale onsite. If you have already registered but did not request a luncheon ticket, you can still purchase one
until November 15. Please go back online to your account on the ACTFL website and add theluncheon to your registration, or contact ACTFL.
Saturday, 11/21, from 6:30-7:30PM
AATJ General Meeting
AATJ Sponsored Sessions
Presentation Sessions: This year, AATJ plans to sponsor two concurrent sessions including 4
research-oriented paper presentations, 5 practice-oriented paper presentations, and 26 45-minutesession presentations. The complete schedule will be posted at https://www.aatj.org/conferences-fallin June.

* Special thanks to Junko Tokuda-sensei, 2021-2022 Fall Conference Co-director, who has been
helping us prepare for the 2020 ACTFL conference, including this article.
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AATJ Teacher Awards
The AATJ Teacher Awards recognize outstanding teachers who demonstrate excellence in teaching,advocacy, and leadership in Japanese education both locally and regionally.
2020 NOMINATIONS ARE NOW OPEN
Awards are given annually in two categories:• K-12 Level Teacher Award• Community College/College and University Level Teacher Award
ELIGIBILITY:
Candidates must have a minimum of three years’ teaching experience at the level for which they arenominated, and also must hold a current membership in AATJ. Nominators may be anyone familiar
with the nominee's teaching (e.g., a colleague, administrator, parent, or student). Nominators who
are teachers of Japanese (language, literature, culture etc.) must be current members of AATJ. No
AATJ board member is eligible for nomination for these awards.
NOMINATION PROCESS:The nominator completes a Nomination Form, assembles the required supporting documents, andsubmits all documents electronically to aatj@aatj.org by the deadline.
NOMINATION DEADLINE:
June 30, 2020.
NOMINATION MUST INCLUDE:
1. A completed Nomination Form;
2. The candidate's CV (not to exceed 3 pages), which includes professional development activities
and leadership efforts;
3. The nominator's letter and two additional letters of recommendation, signed and scanned.
SELECTION PROCESS:
A selection committee of 3-5 members, which may include AATJ Board members, examines thedossiers submitted and chooses the recipients. Finalists may be contacted for a telephone interview.
The committee is interested in knowing the particular way in which a candidate demonstrated his or
her abilities to best enhance the quality of teaching in large or small classes and/or as a guide forstudents in their independent projects.
The committee is concerned with the candidate’s rigor as a teacher and wants to know that thecandidate has been doing not simply a good job but a distinguished one and that his or her
dedication and contributions to the students, to the school, or to the college and university have been
an inspiration to students and colleagues.

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The committee also wishes to know if the candidate has been instrumental and has shown leadershipin the promotion of the study of Japanese (language, literature, culture, etc.) by keeping current with
developments in the field beyond her(his) classroom such as:
K-12 Level: beyond her (his) own program (e.g., entire school, community, and regional level)
College and University Level: beyond her (his) own institution (e.g., community, state, and national
level).
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE RECIPIENTS: Recipients are notified on September 15.
For complete details, please see the AATJ website: https://www.aatj.org/prodev-awards

SEATJ Conference Report
The Southeastern Association of Teachers of Japanese(SEATJ) is pleased to announce that the 2020 SEATJ
Teacher of the Year Award was awarded to Yoshimi
Yamagata Aoyagi (Chapel Hill High School/East Chapel
Hill High School) and Yoko Kano (University of North
Carolina Wilmington), at the 35th SEATJ Conference at the
University of Memphis on February 22, 2020.

SEATJ also recognized the outgoing officer Yasuko Takata Rallings (Wake Forest University) andthe conference keynote speaker Jae Dibello Takeuchi (Clemson University).

Job Opening Announcements
Beginning with this issue, the AATJ Newsletter will not contain printed job opening
announcements. Job openings continue to be posted online; new K-12 openings as well as college
positions have been posted recently.
Please see the latest notices at https://www.aatj.org/jobs.

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American Association ofTeachers of Japanese, Inc.
Campus Box 366
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0366
https://m.facebook.com/AATJ2012/@AATJ14
If you have any news to share on our Social Media,
please email Kazumi Yamashita-Iverson at:
kyamashita@waterbury.k12.ct.us

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