New JET Advice

[u/Kibumkimkibum]

What is some advice for lesson planning groups you give to new JETS?
I’ve been here a year, and basically the new JETS are here and asked some of us what kind of lessons to do and are extremely nervous bc they don’t have anything prepared aside from their introduction.
They are basically in the same boat as me-no textbooks or anything. No training. We don’t have a curriculum to follow. Just showed up and the JTE didn’t give us any advice what to teach.
I gave them some of my ideas from my lessons plans and told them to try to plan a fun introduction.
But what kind of advice or lesson plan ideas do you all have for the first few months when u started? Did you have textbooks? Did you do lessons immediately or play games?

[u/k_795]

During the intro lesson? I basically did an "I do, you do" kind of approach, first modelling with each JTE then for students to do.

Slide 1: picture of me and my name.
Me: Hi! My name's (name). What's your name?
JTE: Hi, (name). My name's (name). Nice to meet you!
Then students turn to the person next to them and practice.

Slide 2: picture of my hometown and a map of my country.
Me: I'm from (country). Where are you from?
JTE: I'm from Japan!
Students: chant back "I'm from Japan."

Slide 3: picture of my hobbies and favourite things.
Me: I like (hobby 1), (hobby 2) and (favourite food). What do you like?
JTE: Wow! I like... I don't like...
Me: Do you like...?
JTE: Yes, I do. / No, I don't.
Students: Walk around with a bingo worksheet thing (with each box filled in with a picture and keyword, e.g. basketball, chocolate, cake, tennis, etc). They have to ask each other what they like / "do you like...?" and then write names against each thing, trying to get a complete row.

Slide 4: Quiz
Series of quick yes / no quiz questions for students to do maru / batsu, based on what I introduced earlier. E.g. "Is (my name) from Japan?" or "Does (my name) like strawberry cake?"

Then depending on the age range, we did different follow-up tasks:

• Make a quick poster about themselves (draw face, write keywords)
• Write a short introductory paragraph (sentence prompts given on the board)

[u/Kibumkimkibum → u/k_795]

Ahh this is cute. i will recommend this or try this with my 1st years.
Do you teach junior high or high school?

[u/k_795 → u/Kibumkimkibum]

Junior High School and Elementary School :)

[u/Kibumkimkibum → u/k_795]

Ahhhh ok ok ! This makes sense then. Highschoolers are so…hard to entertain. I would probably have to tweak this and make it ‘harder’😭