**URGENT: Test writers, regional and head judges for both the junior and senior divisions are urgently needed. If interested, please write to hec@hajet.org
The easiest and most fundamental way in which you can involve yourself in HEC is by involving your students! Identify which of your first year junior or senior high school students show an interest in you or in English and set aside a bit of time to encourage this interest. You can spend as much or as little time working with your student(s) as you or the student(s) want. This could mean spending a couple lunch breaks with them, or setting up a regular weekly eikaiwa lesson after school. If you decide to enter a student in HEC, you are not obliged to attend the HEC Summer Camp—but of course you are welcome to attend!
Below you can find promotional posters for HEC:
HEC Poster 2011 – JHS & SHS
If you aren’t entering a student but would like to be involved—or would simply like to involve yourself more—there are a number of other ways. Directly related to the HEC test, test writers and judges are needed. After the test, there are also a number of volunteer roles available at the HEC Summer Camp. Please read further for more information about each role.
If you are interested in being either a test writer or a judge for this year’s HEC, we are now recruiting! As a test writer, you will have the opportunity to be creative. The problems on the test are not meant to be cut and dry standard grammar questions. During the HEC test, we want students to be able to show their creativity and to express themselves. This means that wacky pictures and interesting texts are encouraged. In your usual capacity as an ALT, you probably don’t get to write tests, but if you have ever had any ideas for tests but were unable to see them come to fruition, this is your opportunity. If, on the other hand, writing a whole test seems daunting, fear not, you will not be reinventing the wheel. There are tests from past years to offer guidance.
As a judge, you will have the opportunity to see talent from around the island! Although you don’t meet the students face-to-face, judging can be a way of encouraging students as well. In many situations at school, a student’s response on a test may be marked as incorrect because it did not match that of the answer key. This can be very disheartening to an ALT without the ability to change this but the native speaking perspective to know that what the student did write is perfectly correct. As an HEC judge, however, you will have the chance to show students that their unique and open-ended answers are correct!
If you are considering applying to be a test writer or a judge, please keep in mind that you can neither write or judge for a division or region in which you are entering a student. This means that if you write a junior high school test, you may only enter a student in the senior high school division. Likewise, if you are a regional junior high school judge, you cannot enter a junior high school student in that region. You may, however, request to be a judge for a different region, or simply judge only the senior high school division for that region.
If you have any questions or are interested in becoming a test writer, a regional judge or a head judge, please write to hec@hajet.org.
“HEC Camp has been the most intense and rewarding experience in my work as an ALT. As volunteers we give so much, but what we receive is tenfold. The reward of watching every student enjoying English, developing new skills and growing in confidence is unbelievable.”
– Bryony Dunlop. HEC Coordinator 2008
HEC Volunteer Positions
HEC Coordinator
The coordinator is responsible for contacting Sapporo Study Abroad Center to arrange the home-stay, managing the budget, raising funds, releasing information, collecting entry fees and forms, and coordinating the test and judging. Position will be opened for spring 2011. The coordinator is not able to enter students in either division.
Regional Judges
Positions available: 8
Regional judges evaluate all video entries for their region and determine which students will go through to the final round. Regional judges may enter students, but not within the region they are judging.
Head Judges
Positions available: 2 for the senior high school division, 2 for the junior high school division. Head judges select the overall winners and rank the top-placed entrants. Head judges may enter students, but not into the division they are judging. We prefer—but don’t require—that judges have experience teaching the division of students they are judging.
Test Writers
Positions available: 1 for junior division, 1 for senior division. Writers are responsible for finding source material (i.e. pictures, cartoon strips, text passages) and writing test questions according to the established format. Test writers may enter their own students, but not into the division of the test script they are writing.
HEC Regional Representatives
HEC is looking for motivated individuals that would like to help support HEC in their region. This would include contacting ALTs and encouraging them to enter students. If regional representatives would like to, HEC would appreciate their aid in raising funds.
Summer Camp Positions
Camp Coordinator
Positions available: 2
Camp coordinators are responsible for organizing the camp’s location and schedule, sending out information, choosing volunteers, and managing the budget. The role of camp coordinator is separate to that of HEC coordinator. Coordinators for 2010-11 have already been selected. Camp coordinators for the 2011-12 year will be selected in the summer of 2010. If you are interested in this role, it is highly recommended that you volunteer in some capacity at the previous year’s HEC Camp.
Camp Volunteers
Positions include camp coordinator, group leaders, kitchen staff, first-aid, junior leader program coordinators, crazy olympic coordinators, disco DJ, playwriting coordinators, letter-writing coordinator, drivers.
Kitchen staff
The head chef is responsible for designing a menu, budgeting appropriately, buying food, and preparing food at camp.
Group leaders
Students are divided into groups of approximately seven. Each group is assigned two leaders. Leaders are responsible for informing their group of the day’s events, looking after their welfare and reporting any problems within the group to the camp coordinator.
Other positions such as crazy Olympics, playwriting, disco DJ, letter-writing and junior leader program coordinators are responsible for organizing their activities, explaining proceedings to campers and volunteers, and ensuring the activity runs smoothly. Staff volunteers work together to ensure the health and safety of students and to encourage them to use English during the duration of the camp. ALTs help coordinate activities to ensure students are at ease and enjoying their time at camp. If there is a surplus of offers for camp volunteers, priority is usually given to those whose students have entered the competition or are attending camp. No previous experience is necessary for any of the above jobs, but is preferred in the case of first-aid.
HEC Camp positions will become available in May, but if you have any questions or ideas concerning the camp, please write to heccamp@hajet.org. If you have any other questions or would like to apply for any other position, please write to hec@hajet.org.
