"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery." --Mark Van Doren Oh man was I bad at it when I first started. I didn't even know what I was supposed to be doing! Sure, my predecessor(s) left me examples of what they did, but without the connection to the textbooks to see which grammar point they were using or a play-by-play of how it was supposed to go, I was totally lost. And it didn't exactly help when my JTEs gave me the half smile and head turn when I asked what I should prepare for class. It took a lot (A LOT) of trial and error before I finally found my groove in teaching English in Japan. Since the motto for the JET Programme is Every Situation Is Different, I couldn't really ask others for help. Plus, each school didn't use the same textbook.
In the end, I ended up using a lot of ideas from Busy Teacher (busyteacher.org) . Once I figured out what the English translation of the grammar point was from the text book, I Googled ideas around that grammar point. I usually ended up creating a worksheet that allowed them to do partner conversation/create your own story/write a letter to _______/create a sentence about the picture/etc. that included using the grammar point(s) for that week. With the 1st year students I was able to be more creative since their grammar points were not as abstract. We did a lot of different varieties of Go Fish where instead of asking for a color, for example, they would ask "Do you have a man who has long hair?" or "Do you have a book that is open?" for the grammar point who vs. that/which. I felt sorry for the students whenever I wasn't there because all they would get is a lecture from the teacher about the new grammar for the week. BORING! So, every time I showed up, the students got excited because they knew they would be working with something that challenged them creatively and mentally instead of just sitting and taking notes. But other teachers who were not as lucky as I was were used as human tape recorders. They would be given a list of words to say to the class so that they would be able to hear the correct pronunciation of the word and then repeat it back to the teacher. If you are an ALT who is teaching currently, what is your job in your schools? Are you a human repeater? Or do you have the freedom to create your own activities?
2 Comments
Hannah
1/10/2016 02:22:05 am
Hi, my name is Hannah and I'm a 17 year old Canadian and I'm really fascinated with Japan and I want to teach English in a high school there, but I'm having a difficult time figuring out how I'm going to do that. So when I came across your blog/YouTube, I was so happy. Can you please help me understand what it is I need to do to teach there, or any suggestions? Itwould really mean a lot. Thank you!
Reply
Melanie
1/11/2016 09:49:06 am
Well, I applied to the JET Programme and got to go teach in Japan through that. I know there are other programs out there, but the JET Programme is the one that pays for your airfare there and back, gets you a place to live, and pays you well. You do have to get a Bachelor's degree, in order to be accepted. I suggest that you focus on getting a degree in teaching English so that you would be more marketable to the program.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Myself
Video blogger and now a blogger as well. My life in Japan has changed me for the better. However, it wasn't easy... Archives
September 2016
Categories
All
|