A day in the life of me



As you may know my official title with the JET or Japan Exchange and Teaching Program is an ALT or Assistant Language Teacher.  I am one of nine ALTS’ employed by the Hachinohe Board of Education.  Each ALT in the city is assigned to several junior high and elementary schools. I have a base school, which is Hakusundai JHS and I visit 5 other schools (1 JHS and 4 ELS).   The base school is like my home school where I spend more time, attend special events and have my own desk.  I am treated as part of the staff and more like a guest at my other schools. 

During the school open house, each subject displays its work for the year.  This is the English room, the theme was Halloween. 

At the beginning of each trimester a teacher from each school meets with me and we plan my school visits for that trimester.  That means that everyday is different, I repeat schools throughout the trimester but not necessarily back to back.  Each week I receive schedules from the schools that inform me about which grades and lessons I will be teaching.  The schedule also includes the time I am expected to arrive and leave, who I will eat lunch with, and my bus schedule.

This is 7th grader`s writing about their family.

For my first visit at each school and class I did a power point presentation to introduce myself.  I also gave students time to ask questions or introduce themselves. Then they took a true/false quiz to test their listening comprehension of my self-introduction and I gave out stickers to top scoring students.  I am finally finished with my self-introduction lessons after doing them for a few months.  It took especially long at the JHS because there are 4-5 classes in each grade. 

At elementary schools I teach the 5^th and 6^th graders.  This year it has become mandatory in Japan for 5^th and 6^th graders to learn English through the adopted curriculum.  The difficulty is that many elementary school teachers aren’t very good at English themselves and are expected to teach it.  The goal is communication through fun activities. So instruction is not focused on reading or writing just listening and speaking. I am more utilized in elementary schools to work with the teacher to teach the lessons. It depends on the teacher but I have had a few opportunities to run the class but the goal is to team-teach.  An example of a lesson’s goal would be for students to use the phrases “I can play the piano.  Can you play the piano?”  They would also learn vocabulary to go with I can..

This is 9th grader`s writing about a famous person like Lady Gaga!

At Junior high schools I am less utilized for teaching because the teachers who teach English are specialized in English and can generally speak it well.   I tend to be more of a support pronouncing words, working with groups, helping with speaking and listening tests, etc.  Also emphasis is placed on passing a test at the end of JHS so students focus on rote memorization of dialogues, vocabulary and grammar rules.  The fun is taken out of using the language to communicate. 

A highlight of my day is eating lunch with the students.  Most schools I visit will assign me to eat with a class.  Students sit in rows during instruction but move their desks into table groups at lunchtime. They give me a desk at a table group and we awkwardly try to converse in English/Japanese. I decided early on that I would try to eat the Japanese school lunch.  Most of the time it is a tasty well-balanced meal that always includes a soup, rice/noodles a side and milk.  I find myself picking out meat from the soup pretty often and offering the whole small fish to a hungry boy at the table.   I enjoy lunch because it is the only time I find to spontaneously converse with the students. 

As an ALT I am also expected to teach a few special things throughout the year, like an adult conversation class or participate in community/school events.  For the most part I don’t have to do any planning or grading. I usually read over the lesson on the way to school, meet with the teacher for a quick planning discussion and then teach.  At the JHS I occasionally edit students writing.  The job is very low stress and relaxed compared to having my own classroom but it is also less challenging with lots of down time. 

This is the students` Japanese calligraphy.  I was able to sit in on a class and try it.  It is very difficult and takes lots of practice.

What do I do in this down time?  I usually take this time to study Japanese if I feel motivated, occasionally chat with a teacher, read a book (I just finished the Hunger Games book 1), write blog entries or search the Internet on my I phone.  I just try to look busy. 

Hopefully this gives you more of an idea of what my day to day is like in Japan.  Have a great week!