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Senior High Schools and the ALT
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Essay by Angela Brenner about
being a Senior High School ALT
Team-teaching in a Senior
High School affords the JTE and the ALT many advantages. In most cases, the
ALT is based solely at that particular school. This is arguably preferable to the situation of the
many one-shots that frequent various Junior High Schools, since the Senior
High ALT has the time to establish an effective working/personal
relationship with both the school staff and its students.
In Senior High, the
ALT and JTE not only plan lessons together, but also have a fantastic
opportunity to learn from each other and maximize on their collaborative
strengths. They can essentially forge a good working relationship as, in
most instances, each class will have contact with the ALT at least once a
week.
Many Senior High
ALTs will agree that their role is quite demanding due to the pressure on
teachers and students alike to obtain good examination results. However,
despite this, working at a Senior High School can be very rewarding both
personally and professionally.
Below is an essay written
by Angela Brenner on the pitfalls and triumphs of being a Senior High
School ALT:
"I'm so proud
of you!" I said sobbing, while I hugged Matisha and Ronaldo. There
they stood wearing their graduation robes and a shocked concerned look. "Are
you OK?" they asked me. "Yeah, sorry. I just can't believe that
you are graduating. It seems like yesterday you were just freshmen."
And it was true, I had watched them grow from being children in so many
ways to adults with their own goals, talents and opinions. But, all my
students were not simply kids who sat in my class, they were more like
family. I knew their strengths and weaknesses and insecurities. I knew
their sense of humor and when they were having a bad day or were sick. I
used to confuse people who knew I was unmarried by talking about my
"kids." But, anyone who has ever been a teacher knows the most
important and rewarding thing is your relationship with your students, your
fellow teachers, and your superiors; it's what drives the whole thing. It's
that love and respect that keeps you coming back even after you have had a
day when you'd rather crawl under your desk and hide.
In Japan as an ALT and team
teacher those relationships are even more crucial for good teaching, a
sense of belonging, and the motivation to overcome all the new challenges
that come your way. ALT's and JTE's have to invest time to talk about
lessons, and classroom concerns as well as time to get to know each other
as people. Sometimes it's difficult to find the time either in school or
outside to have time to talk about your lesson plans, much less to just sit
and chat, but even the smallest investment will make life at your school
more comfortable and productive. Bringing in a package of snacks to share
with everyone, asking your fellow teachers how their vacation was, even
just smiling and saying good morning will make everyone more comfortable
and willing to work with each other.
Talking with your
JTE's about your lesson plan is absolutely necessary! You have to meet with
each other to insure that your goals and objectives match, so that each
person knows what they will do in the lesson and what students will do. It
may seem like a hassle, but class will go more smoothly and you both will
feel better teaching together and your students will learn more as well.
For ALT's, who
often have no teaching experience, it is also helpful to have your JTE's
help you trouble-shoot your lesson, helping you iron out potential problems
in understanding, directions, or activities that may just be flops. We all
know how stressful it is to have a lesson bomb! Where students are bored or
don't understand the assignment and therefore become frustrated and unruly.
Your JTE's can help you to create more successful lessons. Remember they
know the students much better than you because they see them everyday and
they have 200 students where you have maybe a few hundred or a thousand.
What if your JTE is
too busy to chat, or is reluctant to chat with you? (Often because they are
insecure about their own English skills.) It's true that they are adults
and there is nothing you can do to force them to talk with you. But, try
some alternatives and try to be flexible. Perhaps you need to spend some
extra time before or after school to meet with that teacher. Or maybe you
need to resort to showing up at lunchtime with your lesson plan and
handouts. Even if that means you give them the lesson plan the day before
your lesson, so they can simply read it and know what you expect from them
and the students in the lesson, it will help out during class.
ALT's who are lucky
enough to stay at the same school everyday have chances that traveling
ALT's do not have. Firstly, we have the time to get to know our fellow
teachers, and our students who we see, usually quite often. We also usually
get to have more say in what students do and learn. We usually are left to
create the lesson plan, activities, and often how student learning is
evaluated. We work with our JTE's to create year-long goals for what students
will learn and what our shared goals are for students. We can decide what
form the lessons will take. Will the lesson focus on listening and
speaking, or reading and writing? The JTE's can decide how best to use the
expertise of their ALT, as a source of native and natural spoken English or
as an editor of written English. If your JTE's are unsure how best to use
you, take the initiative and try to offer some help. The first time your
help may be politely refused, but your JTE's will remember your enthusiasm
and willingness to help and appreciate it. They may later decide to take
you up on your offer or ask for your help another time, knowing you are
ready and willing to assist them.
As an ALT who stays
at the same school you have a huge chance to make a difference in your
school outside the classroom as well as in it. Start an English Club or
create a special project for your present club members, like a play or a
movie, publish a book or newspaper, or create a service-learning project.
Do language and culture activities with your English Club that you cannot
do in class because of time constraints and the sheer number of students.
Create bulletin boards that explain your home country culture: holidays,
pop culture, slang. Create an English newsletter for students and teachers
using simple English. Start a pen-pal exchange using the internet.
(www.epals.com is an excellent site) Start an English cafe where students
can come have lunch together and speak English. Create an English room
where students can relax, read English magazines, and chat with you. Create
writing contests and display the work at the yearly Culture Festival. Or
set up a display of your home country at the Culture Festival complete with
games and food and whatever else you think will be fun. Join in on the
teacher's play or activities at the Culture Festival. Join in on club
activities after school. Join other classes and help teachers who are not
English teachers. Volunteer to help with English workshops, exchanges, and
to go local elementary students. Usually people just don't think to ask the
ALT if they would like to join in or tell you what to do with all that free
time you have sitting at your desk. Take the time to make a difference at
your school and in your community. Sharing your talents and everyone
getting to know you is the best way to share your culture, English, and
feel like your job is fulfilling.
And how can you
make the biggest difference in your classroom? Plan, plan, plan! Just like
the first rule of real estate is "Location, location, location."
Planning is the first rule of good teaching. Good classes and teaching are
no more of an accident than a great NBA basketball game. It takes hard
work, a lot of thought, and creativity to make a stellar lesson. When you
first arrive, or it is the start of a brand new school year, sit down and
make a list of goals for your students and classes. If you haven't a clue
at all, sit down with the textbook and see what things the textbook thinks
is important for students to know. Sit down with our JTE and talk about
what the emphasis of your lessons should be: listening, speaking, reading,
writing. Ask them what their goals are for the class. Ask them questions
about the textbook: How closely do you need to follow the textbook? How
much creativity you can have working with and around the textbook? Which
units are most important for students to learn and really know well? --From
these lists and conversations, you should come up with goals and objectives
that are the basis of all your lessons, no matter their content or topic.
In planning
individual lessons, take these guidelines as the basis for your decision of
topic and content. Should you include a writing activity, listening and
speaking activity, a reading activity? Should the lesson be interactive, or
more teacher-centered? Once you have made all of these decisions you can
start choosing individual activities that will suit your needs. For
example, I teach first year Oral Communication B. For me the focus of my
class is listening and speaking using everyday useful English, such as
asking directions or ordering food in a restaurant. Because the focus of my
class is communication in English my JTE's and I want students to speak and
listen to English as much as possible. Therefore in developing lessons,
every class needs an activity where students are talking with each other in
English, sharing needed information, or gathering it. Since students tend
to be shy speaking to the whole class and that also means only one student
at a time had a chance to speak English, smaller group activities work
better, or activities which involved students going from classmate to
classmate to collect needed information. It also works well because then my
lessons are interactive, high interest, and keep students moving so we have
fewer or no discipline problems. Keeping all of these elements in mind,
then all I have to do is find fun and meaningful games and language
activities to use in my lesson and determine what vocabulary was the most
important to practice and focus on.
Planning is also
the key to good discipline and motivation in your classroom. Lessons that
are boring, irrelevant to students, disjointed so activities don't fit
together well by build on information, or are just plain unorganized, are
just asking for the curtains to be set on fire. Bored students are more
likely to cause problems. If the information is challenging but not
impossible, students are active and most work centers around them, and
lessons reflect student experiences and interests, you will have few if any
problems in your classroom. Students will also enjoy your class and feel
more motivated to study and learn English. We all like to learn things that
we find fun and interesting. Keeping lessons fun and fast-paced will make
teaching more fun and less stressful because your students are also having
a good time learning.
So, what if a
lesson bombs? If in the middle of the lesson you are visualizing that you
are on a deserted tropical island, meanwhile dodging origami airplanes?
What do you do then? First try to have a sense of humor, everyone has
terrible lessons, it's really OK. Think about if there is a key piece of
the activity or assignment that students are not understanding, stop your students
and explain, have your JTE help you by translating if necessary. Ask
yourself if the students knew all the vocabulary and grammar they needed
before they started the activity. You may need to stop and remind them, or
teach them a few key words or concepts. Ask your JTE what they think would
make the activity work better. You can do this during the lesson, so you
can stop and teach the students missing information or instructions. Or,
after the lesson, ask your JTE what they thought went wrong. And never be
afraid just to press the "panic button" and end the activity if
it's not really working. Always try to have some back up games or
variations of the activity in mind while you are writing your lesson plan,
especially if it's something you've never tried before. Try to learn a few
games that only need calk and a little imagination just in case. Lastly,
just try to improve your lesson; there's no need to throw the whole thing
out. How can you change it so that it works? Some of my best lessons and activities
have come from activities and games that first bombed, but then I changed
them to meet the needs of my class and students.
As I said before,
relationships are the key and the joy in teaching. Take time to build a relationship
with your students. Be clear from day one what you expect in your
classroom. What students will be expected to do, learn, and what they will
be tested on. What behaviors do you want to encourage in your students? Do
you want students to feel free to make mistakes in English as long as they
are trying to communicate? Then tell them, "I expect you to try your
best! Speak as much English as possible. I don't care if you make mistakes.
I like to hear mistakes, because it means you are learning." Have high
but realistic expectations for your classes, students will usually rise to
meet them. Keep your high expectations, even when perhaps the other people
around you have given up on the kids long ago and say things like,
"They don't care about English. They'll never be able to speak
English. These are the stupid kids." (Which many ALT's encounter in
lower level schools.) Give your students sincere encouragement and praise.
Be positive. Smile. Try to have a relaxed classroom where everyone enjoys learning.
Build trust in your classroom so students feel free to make the mistakes
that lead to learning. Try to get to know your students' hobbies and
interests. You realistically can't get to know all your students, but even
getting to know a few students will encourage them and make you feel good
about your teaching. And you never know what long term effects your
interest and friendship can have on your students. Think about all of the
things you were brave enough to try and discover because a beloved teacher
inspired and encouraged you.
Last year at a
conference for ALT's and JTE's, there was a discussion about the role of
ALT's in school and in team-teaching. The JTE's said, they felt that
discipline was something they could offer in the team-teaching situation,
but that most important thing ALT's have to offer, as native speakers of
English and role models to students, is motivation. ALT's, the JTE's said,
are young and cool and fun. The students enjoy their sense of humor,
friendliness, and many talents. One JTE pointed out that because the
students like the ALT for who they are as a person, they want to speak
English, so they can get to know them better. So, taking into account all
the stress we feel living in a new culture, new language, having a new job
and having all new relationships.
Perhaps of all the
advice given to ALT's, the best advice is that which was given to me by my
mother, so many times I could have screamed, "Just be yourself!"
Try to have fun with your co-workers and your students. Have a fun in your
classroom, smile, laugh when things get tough, or even cry when needed. But
just be yourself, all the talents, humor, and even short-comings that make
up who you are. After all, if teaching is all about relationships, people
also want to know who you are. Let them know who that is. The best and
brightest pieces of who you are.
By Angela Brenner
3rd Year JET and Regional
Prefectural Advisor for Gifu City
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