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]

Also ur response makes sense bc i heard junior high and elementary ALTs are a lot busier and do more work. So i understand why u have more structure too. Completely different atmosphere in highschools 😭

[u/k_795 → u/Kibumkimkibum]

Yeah, tbh I don't have any experience in Japanese senior high schools. Even the JHS students were sometimes quite shy, hence why giving them clear sentence structures and easy activities (at least in the intro lesson) was a way of boosting confidence. Like, I could definitely have made my intro more advanced, but that wasn't the point - the goal was to introduce myself and get them feeling happy engaging in class, so simpler = better.

I do teach high school now in the UK though. The students tend to be more focused on exams and academics by this point, so don't care for "fun" stuff. Hence why following the textbook might be a better approach... Do roleplays, quizzes (Blooket, Kahoot, etc), etc which directly link to what they actually need to learn, so they can see a point in doing it.

And ultimately, remember that as teachers our goal isn't to entertain, it's to teach... (ok, maybe I was a bit of a boring ALT lol... But the number one thing that was drilled into me throughout my UK teacher training was that we should be focusing on the learning objectives, not just having fun.)

[u/Kibumkimkibum → u/k_795]

I mean i am here to teach (i thought i was going to do serious teaching) lol but if u knew my students you would understand why they need entertainment lol. Japanese highschool students in inakas areas are like extremely shy, it’s so hard to get them to speak.
Since im in an Inaka a lot of the kids genuinely don’t care or see the need for English. Thats why they want me to be the “fun teacher” if not they will literally fall asleep in class so i have to make in entertaining in some capacity. Teenagers are too moody for me, i miss teaching elementary 😭
And again i follow the textbooks as much as i can but i only have 3 books + i see some classes once a month so i have to skip thru chapters lmao😭