Correspondance with My Successor Part 2

How time flies. Just two years ago I was writing up a job description for my predecessor in Ajimu. Now I'm doing the same thing here in Godo.

As with the last time, I'm not sure if this is of any interest to anyone but me and him, but I'm posting it just for the hell of it. And, as with last time, this is slighted edited for the internet.

I should probably start by saying a little bit about myself, because the expectations upon you and the school atmosphere is always heavily influenced by what the previous person was like.

I’m 27, and have been at this position for about a year and a half. Previously I was an ALT on the JET program for 3 years in a different part of Japan way down in Kyushu. I started this position in September 2004. Ordinarily the company contracts start in April of course, but this was a new position, so it was a special case. I am the first company ALT in this school. Previously the town contracted ALTs independently.

Off the record, just between the two of us, I’m one of those people who has stayed in Japan for too long. What qualifies as too long differs for everybody, but for me it’s been 5 years. In retrospect I think signing on for this last year was a mistake, and my motivation for this job has really just tapered off. I’ve spent most of this past year trying to get by with as little effort as possible.

I show up on time, I’m pretty easy going, I don’t complain when asked to do something, and I smile a lot when talking to students or Japanese Teachers of English (JTE’s). And all of that counts for a lot in Japan, and so it’s been pretty smooth sailing. But I don’t volunteer for much, I don’t help out with the lesson planning unless I’m specifically asked to, and I don’t stay longer than my required hours unless I’m asked to.

This is probably good news for you, in that the expectations should be pretty low, and it will be easy to please. If you want to be lazy, the groundwork has already been laid. If you want to go the extra mile, they will absolutely love you and think you are “Super ALT”. The only problem I can possibly see is that some JTE’s are a little protective of their lessons, and they are used to me not interfering, but if you want to get more involved just try things out and test the waters as you go.

Japanese level wise, I passed the 3rd level on the proficiency test a couple years ago. I’d like to think that I could get the 2nd with a few months of hard study, but since I’m on my way out of Japan I’ve lost motivation. I talk to pretty much all of the staff in Japanese, and sometimes even the JTEs. (English level is low, so some of the JTEs are more comfortable using Japanese).

Lesson Planning and Teaching
Communication has been somewhat of a headache for me because of two separate teachers’ rooms. If a teacher’s desk is in the same room as me, it’s easy to catch them between classes. But if they are in the other room, it can be a pain to find them when they are free.

Ideally I like to go over all the lesson plans a day in advance. This can be a bit of a headache since it is hard to catch the teachers in the opposite teachers’ room. And usually the only free time they have to talk is after school, when I’m getting ready to leave anyway. So, since lately all they’ve had me do is be the human tape recorder anyway, I’ve been a bit lax on communication, and will often only talk with a teacher 5 minutes before the class begins. I don’t recommend this; I’m just being honest. Ideally you want to plan things out at least a day ahead of time.

The first year I was here I was more involved in lesson planning than I am now. But coordinating stuff with the JTE can sometimes be a huge headache. Because of their limited English, many of them don’t want to do any pre-discussion. Instead they’ll tell me to present them with an idea in writing, and then they’ll think about it. So I’ll spend time preparing it, and invariably they’ll never like it. If it’s a speaking activity, they complain that there is no writing component. If it’s a writing activity, they’ll complain that there’s no speaking component. If the activity incorporates both, they’ll say it takes too much time or it is too complicated for the students. So, after spending all day sitting at my desk doing nothing, I have to stay late after school to negotiate and re-work the activity with them. Really they’re never happy with anything unless it’s something they thought of themselves. Much of the time is spent trying to read the mind of the JTE, since they never tell you clearly what they want.
And then, often after all that time preparing an activity, it will get cut because some student didn’t stand up right for the morning greeting, and the JTE will spend15 minutes lecturing the student. Or something stupid like that.

I’m being slightly unfair because the teachers I’m thinking about who gave me so much of a headache my first year were all transferred out by my second year, so you won’t have to deal with them. Nevertheless, when the JTEs stopped asking for activities during the second year, I was happy to stop suggesting them. Ever since then I’ve been nothing but a human tape recorder, but I was happy to be lazy, and they seemed happy to have me be lazy, and so it was a nice fit. I enjoyed the free time at my desk to get reading or studying done. Maybe you’ll have more luck at team teaching than I have.

Selective English
The one exception to this is the “Elective English Classes”, which have more or less been left up solely to me.

These classes are a bit dangerous, because you might be thinking to yourself, “Elective English classes? Classes were the students actually elect to study English? Great!”

In reality, these classes are students who needed something to fill up their elective hour, and thought English might be easier than math. They don’t want to study, and they know they don’t get graded on the Elective course, so you don’t have a lot of ways to make them study. The only way you can succeed in this class is to create an activity so exciting that they’ll actually want to do it instead of talk with their friends.

But this is easier said than done. And especially to perform this miracle on a weekly basis. So here is some back up advice: Listening activities usually aren’t a good idea, because if the kids don’t want to listen you can’t make them, and it’s a long 50 minutes if you have to yell over them the whole time. Games they can play by themselves in groups are a better idea. They still might not do it, but at least it’s less stress on your voice. Also it’s a good idea to have some sort of solitary writing activity as a back up in case things get out of hand. I always try and bring some sort of work sheet with me just in case the class can’t handle the game. Most of these elective classes are titled something like, “Conversational English”, but don’t be afraid to use written English as a back up if you need to.

The past year I’ve been doing a pen-pal exchange with a class in Israel, which I inherited from the previous ALT. It works good in either the 8th or 9th grade elective English classes, and the kids have reacted very well to that. I’ll forward you the necessary contact information if you’re interested in continuing that.

Also be aware that many of the JTEs practice the “sink or swim” approach when team teaching with the ALT. If the class gets out of your control, they’ll do very little to help.

Kihon Classes
Kihon is another area where the lesson planning is left up more or less to the ALT. Kihon is the word for the mentally handicapped/special needs kids.

This is a very small class, but the ability level between students can differ widely. My advice is to aim for the bottom level, and generally figure no activity is too easy for this class. I usually use lessons from the Altia Elementary school curriculum.

The kids like games they are familiar with, so I usually use the same 3 or 4 games every class. Gradually throughout the year I add new games to this original 3 or 4, and slowly increase the number of games I cycle through. Many of the games take a long time to introduce, but once the kids are familiar with them you can do most of them in 10 or 15 minutes, so you can do several games in a lesson.

There are also what is known as “Sodan” classes. I’m not really sure what this means, and how it is different than Kihon. I think “Sodan” kids are more challenged from a social or emotionally perspective.
At any rate, it really doesn’t matter because I almost never go to these classes. They’re written on my schedule, but almost every week the Sodan teacher will tell me they don’t have time for English this week. I’ve stopped even asking now, and just assume the class is cancelled every week.

The JTEs
As you’re probably aware, many Japanese schools will have various research programs or pilot programs. Godo town is currently doing a research program on the English curriculum. Apparently the point of the program is to try and coordinate English education between the Junior high and Elementary schools, but I haven’t seen a lot of coordinating going on. The whole thing seems like a lot of pointless meetings and a waste of everyone’s time and energy to me, but that’s just me.

At various times throughout the year, there will be a lot of visiting teachers and education professionals who will come to the school to watch your English lesson. It’s always intimidating to be teaching in front of a crowd of people taking notes, but the good news is that they’re not there to evaluate you. They’re evaluating the JTE. You’re just an assistant, a tape-recorder, window decorations as far as they’re concerned. And so far they’ve never asked me to come to a post-lesson evaluation meeting yet.

Presumably because of this program, the English department is going to be the same next year as it is this year. Ordinarily everyone gets transferred around at the end of March, but in this case you’ll be teaching with the same JTEs I’ve been working with over the past year. So here’s a head’s up on them.

Mr. H: For my money, Mr. H is the coolest JTE you could possibly ask for. He’s young, and he’s a good person to have fun with outside of school. Like all Japanese teachers, he’s busy as hell most of the time, but if you can catch him on a free night he’s a great person to go bowling with, or drinking, or whatever. I really appreciated his friendliness the first few months I was here especially.

As far as in class: he’s a little bit too buddy-buddy with a lot of the kids, and it interferes with his classroom control, but he knows this and he’s working on it. My only complaint is that he has the bad habit of sometimes saying: “We have a class in five minutes. Do you have any activities we can do?” My advice is to keep an activity in your desk drawer all ready to go with the photocopies already made and the cards already cut out, etc, so if Mr. H springs this on you, you can just reach into your desk drawer and grab it.

Ms. O: She’s her early 30s, has a young kid at home, and has a way of seeming to be perpetually stressed out. Occasionally she dumps some of her marking and grading off on me, which is fair enough I guess considering how little work I do otherwise. If you want to make a good impression, volunteer ahead of time for this and she will absolutely love you. She might also be a good person to suggest activities to if you want to get more involved in lesson planning. She strikes me as someone who would love for you to take some of the stress off of her.

The kids have long ago learned that if they don’t want to do what she says, she doesn’t have a lot of ways of forcing them to. As a result, they usually walk all over her, and this can create some stressful classes. The only time I intervened was when a student was doing her physical violence.

Ms. I: A bit older than the rest, and fairly typical of JTE’s of her generation. I.e., nothing creative, by the book grammar lessons and reading practice, etc. Really a very kind person once you get to know her though. Often she’s the only one who takes the trouble to make sure I know what’s going on if the regular schedule gets re-arranged for one reason or another.

Mr. M: Ah, yes. Mr. M….
Mr. M has been at this school a long time, and has a long history of not getting along with the various ALTs he has worked with. It’s rumored that he’s not a big fan of the ALT program, and doesn’t particularly like foreigners in general.

You won’t be friends with Mr. M. You’ll probably notice that he’s one of the chattiest people in the teacher’s lounge, but he suddenly turns silent and gives short answers when you try and talk with him.

However you can have a working professional relationship with him (for the most part). He’ll stay out of your way if you stay out of his. During the mid-year evaluation with the company, he gave me a very generous appraisal, much better than I’m sure I actually deserved.

The first year I team taught with Mr. M, and that went largely without incident. He didn’t involve me in the lesson planning at all, but he would always tell me what we were doing before hand and go over the schedule with me if I asked.

The second year he designed the schedule, and all of his lessons suddenly had no ALT, with the exception of the Elective English class. In that class, he usually just sat in the back and didn’t interfere with what I was doing. Assuming this happens again, the classes you’ll teach with Mr. M will probably be limited.

The main concern is that Mr. M has an anger management problem. In my opinion he’s just over-stressed. Like all Japanese teachers, he’s worked too hard. Plus he’s taking graduate University classes on the weekends. He can often be seen in the hallways muttering in an angry way to himself. Often he explodes at the kids with little or not provocation. Occasionally he explodes at the ALT.

I had him explode at me once when he didn’t like the activity I was doing. And I mean full on explode; jumping out of his chair and yelling at me. Apparently he did the same thing two years ago when the previous ALT lost his place in the textbook. That ALT responded by threatening to throw Mr. M out the window. I just smiled and moved onto the next activity. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t throw my rhythm off a bit, but I did my best to just move on smoothly.

Since this only happened once in a year and a half, you may well make it through your contract without incident. If it does happen, however, you’re free to handle it however you like, but I tend to recommend my way over the previous ALT. Remember that if he explodes, he is the one who looks unprofessional, not you. If you handle it in a calm manner, you can keep your professionalism even if he doesn’t. Ultimately if he has a problem with ALTs, that’s his problem and you don’t need to take it personally and make it into your problem. (Also, give him detailed lesson plans before hand so that there are no surprises.)

One final thought on Mr. M:
I’ll say this in his favor, he is the only one of the bunch who has any classroom control. The kids do not fuck around in his class. The elective English class I taught with him was the only one where I didn’t have to shout over the kids the whole time. There was a tension in the room that I wish wasn’t there, but he had the kids under control.

Ms. M: Mainly she teaches Kihon. Occasionally they give her another English class to teach, but mainly she is just the Kihon teacher.
She’s one of those people who is very confidante and in control in her own classroom, but can be very shy in other situations. At first I interpreted this shyness as coldness, but if you initiate conversation you’ll find she’s actually very kind.

School lunch
I get my lunch in the stock room with all the other teachers. No one actively encourages me to eat with the students, but it’s always appreciated if I do. All of this is on the ALT’s own initiative however. No one will tell you where to eat lunch or with which class. The first year I made a chart of which classrooms I had visited for lunch and which ones I hadn’t and kept track of it that way. The second year I just went through the classrooms in order. If you’re feeling tired or don’t feel like dealing with the students, no one will say anything bad if you eat your lunch in the stock room with the rest of the teachers. Lately I’ve probably been doing this last option more than I should, but I’m a burnt out ALT. Don’t follow my example.

Cleaning Time
This can be difficult to figure out, and it always changes depending on which teachers are on rotation. Some teachers make a big deal about silent cleaning, and don’t want you around because you’ll excite the kids. Other teachers will encourage you to clean with the kids. Just feel it out. If you don’t feel welcome anywhere, you can always help clean up the teacher’s lounge. They usually need help with that.

Other stuff: Lunch break is very short, but if I’m not teaching anything 5th hour I usually go out and try and play with the kids. Also, usually the kids leave before me, so I try and go out and say good-bye to them as they leave.
After school Sports Clubs are another thing you can get involved in. Personally I didn’t do this too much. So, you could go either way. If you don’t care for it, just follow my example because they’re already used to the ALT not participating. If you want to get involved, I think they’ll love it.

Special Events: There are the usual sports Days and chorus festivals. You’ll probably familiar with this already in your previous ALT experiences.

This school has an exchange with a middle school in Salinas California. Every year they send a group of students to California for a couple weeks during summer vacation, and once every two years Salinas students come here at the end of March. The Salinas students were here last year, so they won’t be back until March 2007.

You won’t be invited on the Salinas exchange (which is good, because it is happening during your summer break), but you’ll probably be asked to help out with after school English lessons preparing the Japanese students to go. Usually this happens above and beyond your contracted hours, which is a bit of a pain, but I do so little work otherwise I felt I couldn’t complain.

When the Salinas students come to visit here, you’ll be asked to help out as well. My experience last year was that between the chaperones from Salinas and the Japanese staff here, they’ve got everything covered already, but they just want the ALT there just for the sake of having him there. Again, this is above and beyond contracted hours, but for the most part it’s a lot of fun and a good change of pace to host these American kids.

Elementary School: Because of the additional ALT in Godo, it sounds like things are going to be shuffled around a bit, and you might not be teaching at the same Elementary school that I did. So I’ll hold off for now on writing about it. Let me know when you get you’re elementary assignment. Depending on which elementary school they give you, you might need to ask John (the other Godo ALT) instead of me. But regardless, the elementary school should be a day and a half out of the week. The rest of the time is Junior High school. Elementary school is usually a bit more work, but I think you’ll find it’s a nice change of pace.

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