First Week Teaching

Hey everyone!

Sorry it's taken so long for me to post!  I've been super busy these past few weeks of school!  My first week teaching at my schools can be summed up in maybe three words: exhausting, surprising, and rewarding.

This week, I prepared a PowerPoint lesson to introduce myself to my new students. After the PowerPoint, I prepared a game for the students to play for them to earn stamps (which help them earn points on their next test) and American candy! My first two classes on August 24th were cancelled, so my first class was with my 3rd graders (3rd grade is equivalent to the American 12th grade). They were really shy at first, but they were very polite, eager, and understood me well enough to be able to play the game well! My JTE (Japanese Teacher of English, who helps assist me in the classrooms) is also really nice in my OC3 class (Oral Communication 3).  Some students seemed pretty interested in me as well, which made me happy.

My next classes were with OC1 first graders...who are significantly more difficult to teach than my OC3 class. If you have any preconceptions of how normal Japanese kids act in the classroom, please discard them now. Crumple those preconceptions into tiny balls, chuck those balls into the nearest fireplace, and watch them burn slowly. These kids are all over the place on the behavior spectrum. In any given class, there are always about 5-10 students who are blatantly sleeping. There are kids who read during class and even kids who turn around and talk to their neighbors blatantly during class. These kids can get quite disruptive and I've had to tell my classes to be quiet numerous times. >_< Some classes are dead silent and it's difficult to get anyone to participate and some classes are so loud that it's difficult to handle them! Depending on the JTE I teach with, classes can be super easy to teach or super difficult to teach.

My JTE for the first two OC1 classes doesn't speak English as well as the other JTEs, has a very soft voice, and doesn't seem to have much control over her more loud classes. Anyways, the first class was pretty quiet...I was worried that no one would participate. After a little bit of prodding, they completed all of my activities and soon, my first class was over. Even though my JTE was quiet, she had a lot of criticism for me. Which...seemed strange, considering how, in the orientations, they stressed how most JTEs were not willing to critique or help make your lesson better. In my case, she was critiquing me on things that she didn't do particularly well on herself, which was frustrating... =/ Nevertheless, I took her advice to heart and did my best to improve myself for the next classes. I was exhausted by the end of the day...it's difficult being a teacher...

I had to go to my visit school the next day. I only go to my visit school, which is a technical high school, on Tuesdays. Before you get any preconceptions of technical schools, they are pretty much the opposite of technical schools in the US. Before I came to Japan, when I thought of technical schools, I thought of schools like Troy or Whitney...schools that were really difficult to get into because they had such high academic prestige. In Japan, technical high schools are usually the easiest schools to get into because their entrance requirements are lower than other schools...so you can only imagine how willing the students are to learn English at these kinds of schools. I was even warned multiple times by several different teachers about how uncontrollable these classes are. They made references to zoos a lot...

How right they were... Those classes were near impossible to teach. The school is 98% boys, which is not good to begin with...since boys act really dumb in large numbers, for the most part. I couldn't use the same lesson as I used in my main school because the English level at my visit school was so low. More students blatantly slept and talked in class. They just really REALLY don't want to learn or put any effort into speaking English. I spent most of the day looking up simple games for the students to play to substitute for what I originally had planned to do. They really miss my predecessor and said some pretty rude things to me. I really don't like my visit school...but maybe if I play sports with them after school, I can bond with them and they won't be as big of jerks in the classroom as before. Maybe that's wishful thinking though...

The rest of the week went well. I had two more classes with my OC3 class, which I am so grateful for after teaching the classes at my visit school. My teacher told me that this week, I should get to know my students more instead of diving head-first into their curriculum, so I spent a lot of time getting them to talk about themselves. I feel like I learned so much about them and I think that will help me understand them better when I teach them this upcoming week. My JTE for that class told me that the students really want to learn English, but are really afraid of making mistakes. They want to speak perfectly. I can totally understand...I was the same way speaking Japanese (and still am, at times). It's difficult realizing that mistakes are normal and part of the language-learning process, so I hope that I can help them overcome that barrier in my small class.  Maybe they will realize that, even though I'm a native speaker, even I make lots of mistakes in English ^_^

The other OC1 classes went well too, for the most part. I had one new JTE for 3 classes and he is really fun to teach with. He's very enthusiastic and willing to help me when I need help. My second to last class was with the JTE that I taught with in my first OC1 class. The class, even though they were loud, were really willing to participate...but the JTE still had many critiques. I ended on a good note with the other JTE in the last class, but that 1st JTE...I'm not sure what I can do to make her happy =/ I'll keep doing my best and prove her wrong. Maybe she just doesn't understand what I want to do? I guess I'll try making the lessons simpler and easier for her to understand. I'll probably be forced to translate to Japanese sometimes too...but that can't be helped. I AM in Japan, of course...

On a side note, I've been helping one of my OC3 students with a speech for her speech contest! She is super shy and quiet, but super cute and really hard-working. I've been helping her with pronunciation! She had a little bit of trouble with some syllables, but she had the most trouble with the "th"-sound (like the "th" sound in "the"). Pronunciation and fluency was one of my most favorite classes in the TEFL program, so it's exciting being able to share my knowledge with a student who needs help! :) This may also be similar to my dream job of being a Speech Language Pathologist (speech therapy) or Audiologist! It brightens up my days whenever I get to help her out and I look forward to helping her in the future! :]

This weekend was a much needed rest after my first week of classes. It's so nice to just relax, get stuff done around the apartment, watch anime leisurely (hehe), and basically just do whatever I want for fun! I wish the weekends were longer...

Well, that's all for now.  Until next time, see ya!!  :]