So, What does everyone do in class?

[crustpunker]

Just on the topic of actual lessons I wanted to start a thread that people could talk about the things they actually DO in a lesson/How they prepare for a week of class etc...
Perhaps focusing on warm ups, texts that are used or modified and how, project ideas, games , things have worked out really well and things that have totally flopped.
I make all of my own lesson plans and as I posted here before, for my class the students DO NOT have a text. This is both very good and very bad as it requires me to come up with everything on my own. On the plus side I have total freedom to do anything I want. There is no regular homework and it is not required that I test the students either. Along with my class they take their "regular" English classes using the New Horizon text. I haven't even so much as cracked open the cover of one of 'em.
There is always a Japanese teacher in the lesson with me but usually they aren't English teachers and in some cases speak almost no English at all. They are there more just to help out with managing the class.
I have never been asked by the English head or Principals what I am doing or how lessons are progressing which again is both good and bad
Is anyone else is a similar situation to this?
Would love to hear if anyone has similar experiences
Cheers!

[junkdna]

i prepare by spacing out and NOT thinking about the lesson. because if i did, i would go insane.

[crustpunker]

THAT possibly may be THE single most best advice for someone in the Japanese school system. Seriously. I used to spend hours planning and bullet pointing the transistion times in my lesson plans. It drove me spare. Now I kind of throw my hands up and just kind of go with the flow. It is unrealistic to expect to be able to control a class of 35+ kids while speaking in a language that is not native to them. At the same time, if you conduct your classes in Japanese all the time well, it kind of defeats the purpose of having a native speaker at the school aye? Balance and common sense is the key I guess....

At the end of the day as long as you are showing up and trying the best you can to do something that might be useful/fun for the kids. I suppose you are doing a great job!
(I like to tell myself as I cry and rock myself to sleep every night)

[Paul]

(I cry and rock myself to sleep every night)

What happened? Did your dog die?

[Paul]

My problem is not what I do in class but what I do in the staff room when I am bored silly like I am today.

I can't surf the net for porn, I can't watch movies, av/or otherwise, I can't play games on the computer and I can only make around 20 or 30 forum posts per day and can only study about 10,000 kanji each day as well....so what am I to do?

Advice gladly accepted. Oh I did the spitballs on the ceiling thing too, and I am now too old to want to look down the shirt of the well endowed teacher that sits next to me too who actually looks kind of like this......

Seriously though I have fairly good communication with my well trained JTE's, we manage to discuss what we are going to do in class usually about 30 seconds to 15 seconds prior to walking into the classroom, we often, read that as 99% of the time, play things by ear and maybe once or twice a year do we actually "plan" an activity and those are generally, read that as 99% of the time too, as one of us going to Tsutaya to rent a movie to show the kids because they have been great..........(wating a few mminutes here to allow the loud guffaws and laughter to stop)..........over the course of the school year.

[Otaku]

These days, I'm usually the classic Human Tape Recorder, BUT I LOVE IT! I have 5 good years of experience before now and being a HTR frees up my time because I don't have to plan anything, so I usually kick back and build Englipedia....sssshhhhhh!

[junkdna]

HAWT!!! Look down her shirt and take some photos for the rest of us!

My problem is not what I do in class but what I do in the staff room when I am bored silly like I am today.

I can't surf the net for porn, I can't watch movies, av/or otherwise, I can't play games on the computer and I can only make around 20 or 30 forum posts per day and can only study about 10,000 kanji each day as well....so what am I to do?

Advice gladly accepted. Oh I did the spitballs on the ceiling thing too, and I am now too old to want to look down the shirt of the well endowed teacher that sits next to me too who actually looks kind of like this......

Seriously though I have fairly good communication with my well trained JTE's, we manage to discuss what we are going to do in class usually about 30 seconds to 15 seconds prior to walking into the classroom, we often, read that as 99% of the time, play things by ear and maybe once or twice a year do we actually "plan" an activity and those are generally, read that as 99% of the time too, as one of us going to Tsutaya to rent a movie to show the kids because they have been great..........(wating a few minutes here to allow the loud guffaws and laughter to stop)..........over the course of the school year.

[regardo]

junk, you perv!

[Paul]

HAWT!!! Look down her shirt and take some photos for the rest of us!

Well this poses a unique problem for me that seems right up my alley. Since I have been bored silly today I just might try it but I am going to have to do it in such a way that she doesnt think that I am some strange, hentai, otaku, sexually repressed, gaijin.

Then again she probably already knows all of that already so what the hell.

Maybe I need to call Tom Cruise....(Roll theme song of Mission Impossible.......)

[Paul]

junk, you perv!

Ehm....clearing flem from my throat here...........damn just when things, meaning the conversation here, were getting interesting a female teacher had to show up.

Damn women always screwing things up for us guys.

[Paul]

Well I took the teacher in question out for a few drinks last night and I finally got a picture from my cell phone, she took off her white make up and suddenly she started to look like a "gaijin"......

[Shamisen]

Crustpunker..

Your situation seems really unusual.
how come you have your own class?
As for me, Im the assistant to 4 teachers. We use the textbook in EVERY lesson. I think someone told them that have to do this because they seem pretty obsessed by the idea - even the laid back teacher who would rather go on a field trip naming things in english than sit in the class.

Anyway, my teachers (i think of them as little pets which have to be taken care of ) tend to follow the teachers manual pretty closely as for lesson formats. Model read, New words flashcards, kids repeating, reading, grammar. There is always "activity time" after this where we run around class interviewing each other or whatever.

The really chilled out teacher sometimes runs through the text in 5 mins, and spends the rest of the lesson doing a group oriented activity. He has stuff planned a day ahead and slips lesson plans onto my desk with a copy of the worksheets. He rocks

I dont really do much except show up for most lessons.

Other teachers are either shocked that we have a lesson today, and we just make it up as we go, or come to me 1 hour before and say " i need you to make a game for the next class, oh and for the 3rd graders after that too"

Ill sometimes look ahead a few pages, and find an activity that fits and suggest it. If they havent planned something aleready then its all my show for 20 mins of the lesson. Teachers will interrupt me often though with a point to make or a fake question which allows me to emphasise some point of culture. Ill interrupt them too with my own 2 cents.

Thesedays we give them blanked out comic strips (dragonballz or Calvin and hobbes)and tell them to write a story.

Yesterday 1st graders rand around asking each other "Whens your birthday" and "what do you want for a present" to practice months and days of the month.

We usually warm up with CROSSFIRE quiz or ROWS AND COLUMNS. (all stand and the one to answer the question chooses if his row or column can sit down) But I think they are bored of it already. we need a new one.

Maybe we need a specific thread for "IN CLASS ACTIVITIES" or "WHAT did you do in class today?"

[Paul]

Your situation seems really unusual. how come you have your own class?

Crust works in a private school that is why she has her own classes. Different standards and rules actually.

That being said don't HS JET's also teach classes on their own as well?

Also I do know a few private JHS ALT's that teach elective classes on their own or fill in for teachers on their own.....Me!

[Otaku]

We usually warm up with CROSSFIRE quiz or ROWS AND COLUMNS. (all stand and the one to answer the question chooses if his row or column can sit down) But I think they are bored of it already. we need a new one.

If you need a new warmup, CLICK HERE

My kid's favorite warmup is a game I call Janken Taikai. It's basically 3 rounds of Janken. First round, all the students play Janken against you. Whoever WINS, stands up and you proceed with a barrage of EASY questions, gradually becoming harder and harder. I make a point of using easy-to-hard questions to give the students a base confidence and then build upon. Once there are two students left standing, have them both sit down. I do this so no one student is left standing by themselves. It's .

Round two: everyone who ties...

Round three: everyone who loses...


My students love this game...I think because it inserts the 'chance' factor into it, rather than choosing a line/row (which a lot of times you'll get groans) or asking volunteers (which there are hardly any of).

[crustpunker]

Crustpunker..

Your situation seems really unusual.
how come you have your own class?
As for me, Im the assistant to 4 teachers. We use the textbook in EVERY lesson. I think someone told them that have to do this because they seem pretty obsessed by the idea - even the laid back teacher who would rather go on a field trip naming things in english than sit in the class.

Yes, that is right.. I work in a private school which tend to do things a bit differrent. On the one hand it is good to be able to do anything you want at any time (which includes watching movies for a week once every 3 months or so if I need a break or cannot think of anything else to do) But as much freedom as I have there is a lot of work that goes into organizing my schedule and just being prepared to teach withmaterials/handouts/warm ups etc all ready to go. It is also sometimes a tricky thing to have the curriculum flow in a semi-cohesive manner. Basically I have a "core" text book (that I have chosen) and use that as a foundation and branch off from it. In the event that I have no time or no ideas I can then use said textbook for a last resort "as is" kind of lesson (although this almost never happens)

I suppose I am lucky in that I have NEVER in nearly 2 years time had a single teacher ask to see my lesson plans, ask me to change my approach or criticize what I am doing in class. As much as I would like to think this is because I have mad teaching skillz, It is most likely do to the fact that the higher ups are happy as long as I show up on time, the kids seem to be having a modicum of fun in a (mostly) English environment, and learning a few nuggets of practical conversational English and vernacular language. From a distance it probably looks like a sweet job but I tell ye...there are days when the pressure just piles up and I have no idea what the hell to do next. Thank God for This website in those moments! It has really helped me out of bind or two!!!
4 realz dog...

[crustpunker]

We usually warm up with CROSSFIRE quiz or ROWS AND COLUMNS. (all stand and the one to answer the question chooses if his row or column can sit down) But I think they are bored of it already. we need a new one.

If you need a new warmup, CLICK HERE

My kid's favorite warmup is a game I call Janken Taikai. It's basically 3 rounds of Janken. First round, all the students play Janken against you. Whoever WINS, stands up and you proceed with a barrage of EASY questions, gradually becoming harder and harder. I make a point of using easy-to-hard questions to give the students a base confidence and then build upon. Once there are two students left standing, have them both sit down. I do this so no one student is left standing by themselves. It's .

Round two: everyone who ties...

Round three: everyone who loses...


My students love this game...I think because it inserts the 'chance' factor into it, rather than choosing a line/row (which a lot of times you'll get groans) or asking volunteers (which there are hardly any of).

Otaku,
That sounds like a good game to try out tomorrow! The kids will have just finished a week of tests so that seem like a really good way to ease back into things! Thanks for the idea!
Cheers!

[crustpunker]

Your situation seems really unusual. how come you have your own class?

Crust works in a private school that is why she has her own classes.

Hehe!!!
Actually, I am a guy (but I have a girls name...)

[gsuiris]

crustpunker - your jobs sounds a bit like my old job except I was teaching little kids (ages 3-12), and the parents would tell me what to teach. As in - you need to sing and dance more. Apparently teaching vocab and then having the kids color and tell me about their pictures (all pictures used the vocab I was teaching plus some review). One of the best - teach my kid how to write from A-Z only. There went my phonics lessons and attempts to teach the kid how to spell.

I had about 35-40 classes a week (average of 40 minutes per class), and the classes were year-round, even in the summer and spring breaks (I had 2 weeks off in the winter and one in the summer for obon). No text so I pieced things together (with some of those books I listed before) or did vocab-based stuff. I was the only teacher too, so all planning and teaching was done on my own (and all planning on my own time after work because there wasn't time at work).

Good money but after two years of bull I had to quit before I went insane. I was having mini-panic attacks every week. I didn't get sick days (you know what isn't fun - trying to plan lessons where you can't speak because your voice is totally gone - also going to work with high fevers isn't great). Seriously, if it hadn't been for the money I wouldn't have lasted 6 months.

Sorry for the rant..... but I think this is one reason why so many teachers change jobs frequently. Companies take advantage of us because they know they can get someone else to replace us pretty quickly (although finding a replacement for that job was a nightmare because the manager put so many restrictions on who he would hire).

[crustpunker]

crustpunker - your jobs sounds a bit like my old job except I was teaching little kids (ages 3-12), and the parents would tell me what to teach. As in - you need to sing and dance more. Apparently teaching vocab and then having the kids color and tell me about their pictures (all pictures used the vocab I was teaching plus some review). One of the best - teach my kid how to write from A-Z only. There went my phonics lessons and attempts to teach the kid how to spell.

I had about 35-40 classes a week (average of 40 minutes per class), and the classes were year-round, even in the summer and spring breaks (I had 2 weeks off in the winter and one in the summer for obon). No text so I pieced things together (with some of those books I listed before) or did vocab-based stuff. I was the only teacher too, so all planning and teaching was done on my own (and all planning on my own time after work because there wasn't time at work).

Good money but after two years of bull I had to quit before I went insane. I was having mini-panic attacks every week. I didn't get sick days (you know what isn't fun - trying to plan lessons where you can't speak because your voice is totally gone - also going to work with high fevers isn't great). Seriously, if it hadn't been for the money I wouldn't have lasted 6 months.

Sorry for the rant..... but I think this is one reason why so many teachers change jobs frequently. Companies take advantage of us because they know they can get someone else to replace us pretty quickly (although finding a replacement for that job was a nightmare because the manager put so many restrictions on who he would hire).

Man, that does sound rather tough!! I love the part about the parents telling you what to teach as well. Although, from a certain point of view I guess what they maybe wanted was an environment that was more about having their kids get used to English and gaijin in general? Still it is possibly THE single most frustrating thing to hear that kind of trite after you have worked hard and prepared something that will actually help the kids improve their language ability aye?

So you were working for a company that contracted you to work at a set location? Or were you sent out to various places/schools etc?

While I agree with the line about "Companies take advantage of us because they know they can get someone else to replace us pretty quickly" Times are changing...I believe that it is getting harder to entice foreigners to come over to Japan as it is no longer the golden ticket it used to be by any means. This kind of thinking will prove to be a major oversight in the future and I really think that it is in the best intrest of places that depend on foreigners to provide a real incentive for them to stay. In my experience here, a common practice is that once you are seen as someone who DOES in fact do a good job and can be trusted with responsibility, the powers that be assume that you are able (and willing) to take on more work year after year until you are left with nothing but a constant cycle of work work work work. I think that it really is hard to discern for a lot of Japanese which teachers work hard to do what they do and which kind of show up and just do their thang...In the end I don't supose they care either which is also unfortunate. But until there is a real incentive to keep good teachers happy and until all your hard work actually gets noticed and is appreciated, I fear that this cycle of changeover will ever continue..

[gsuiris]

My company was strange to say the least. There were two employees - me and my boss. I taught some lessons in my house (so my house was free! but it was an old style house and thus always too hot or too cold). I taught some in a department store. The most I taught in preschools/kindergardens/whatever you want to call them. I went to 4 different schools a week. The elementary school kids came to the preschool for their lessons.

Even when your good work is noticed though, they don't always reward you with what they should. A good job and a pat on the back is nice, but not when you are in such a bad situation that you feel physically ill every day. It's hard for the people who really care and want to teach their kids something.

[Paul]

Your situation seems really unusual. how come you have your own class?

Crust works in a private school that is why she has her own classes.

Hehe!!!
Actually, I am a guy (but I have a girls name...)

Damn sorry about that,

[regardo]

nice facepalm, dude

[crustpunker]

YES!!!!!! facepalm.
Love it!

No worries at all!
In fact, once I got a job here in Japan BECAUSE the person who hired me needed/wanted a female teacher. Thinking I was a girl (based on my name on the application) they went ahead and hired me and as you can imagine, were quite surprised when they found out I was in fact a dude.
I still got the job though.

[crustpunker]

I am seriously considering my next exhibition to be a series of "facepalms"
nice big black and white prints in frames.
I am not even joking. The trick is snapping facepalms that are not "posed" but rather taken in the natural state of facepalming....
Sweet! A new project!!!!

[Shamisen]

We have been watching E.T. for the last 2 weeks fun times! The whole class laughs hysterically when Elliot notices ET is alive and pretends to be crying so as to cover up the sound of ET.
Then when brother Michael jumps for joy at the news... and hits his head on the ceiling.. oMg.

Teachers and I vaguely mask this as a "listening" activity by choosing an odd line every 10 minutes to fill in the blanks.
Really depends on the sound quality and speed of the sentences. I found that the seemingly easy sentences I chose, were really challenging. For example - I used "I'm so sorry" as one of them. "___ ____ _______ ."
But when I did it with them, pretending I was also a student, I realized that you cant hear the "I'm" at all... I'm just so used to hearing " 'so sorry" as "I'm so sorry" that my brain didn't register the fact that there's no sound there. At least Elliot moved his mouth a little!

Watching movies is good for Culture Points (they can see that kids in the USA each have their own rooms - even the baby etc etc)
but watch out for A) the quality of the screen and sound
B) Things that seem perfectly obvious and clear to a Native Speaker, that really aren't.

I want to start a new topic about this actually. Movies with Subtitles on/off/English /Japanese