Job Discussion Forums

[maya.the.bee]

today, i rearranged my desk. books & folders moved over so my computer is now in front of me. yay! productive day...okay, i did have 3 classes as well & helped clean.

i havne't seen any of your strange happenings quibby...my strange event:

-male students like to wear their trousers very very large. one student was running in the gym and his pants fell down & he tripped! but he got up and did it again. maybe that's his gag. he has the flopping around on the floor down really well. quite the performer.

[Glenski]

Schools usually have 4 or 5 major exams per year. Some are held just before or just after summer break, so you may be in that period right now. And, those are just the exams for grades. There are other exams that teachers have to prepare (like entrance exams). Having worked there less than a week hardly gives you a big picture on things.

Give it another week or two.

Oh, and the reason you don't see the male teachers flirt back is pretty obvious, isn't it?

If you feel sorry for teachers who work a lot and don't speak much English, why don't you learn more Japanese? You certainly seem to have the time!

[Quibby84]

I am going to study japanese starting today. I do have lots of time, good idea to make my brain expand in that time...hehe.

If flirting is a problem why dont they stop it? I mean one day there is going to be a teacher that cant help himself..dont you think.

The massage boy has been here alot today, he is always with that teacher..today the teacher was swatting him (not hard) on the rear with a ruler...
I have seen some baggy pants here but NOTHING like back at home. I think they have even outlawed it some places. At home they will wear their pants to their knees..literally, there is even a special walk they have designed so as to hold their pants up, they also have a trademark hold on their pants at all times...lol.
I am smiling thinking about the boy that feel twice...it reminds me of sponge-bob (we watched this particular episode many times). There is an episode where Sponge-bob makes people laugh by ripping his pants so he started doing it ALLL the time...it is an hilarious episode, you should download it. He says "Oops...I think I RIPPED MY PANTS!". It is so funny that I did a test on it once...I like watching it that much..hehe.
Ok, gotta go back to reading

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[Squire22]

I think someone mentioned this earlier, but I highly recommend joining the club activities. It won't matter if you're not particularly good - you could be a sports great, I wouldn't know - because the kids will probably say you're great anyway, but the important thing is that the kids will really enjoy having you play games with them and you'll probably find that sometimes the kids will come up to you and ask you to join their club after school. I would say it's even more important if you're not getting much class time, some ALTs will just join one club and do that for the year, personally I join in all of them at some point.

Also, join in during cleaning time, go to a different classroom each time, help out, the kids will thank you. Just before and during the afternoon meeting too you can walk around and hang out with the kids. All of this is kind of important when your time in the classroom is as limited as yours seems to be.

Whenever there are meetings in the gym you can go and stand about or sit about, I find some of them fascinating, last term I watched the third grade practice getting on and off an imaginary shinkansen. Sometimes a year group will have a recreation afternoon and play dodgeball or some other team game, again, the kids really like it if you join their class.

You seem to be a happy person, be bold, be brave, get out there - that's about as much 'self-help' stuff as I can manage...

[Glenski]

Quibby,

I don't know what you are interpreting as flirting, so I'll just have to go on my instincts here.

Why don't they stop the girls from flirting? Aren't you a woman? You should realize that at that age, acknowledging the act would only make it intensify. So, ignoring it is probably the best solution. Heck, why don't you ask the teachers there?

[gonzarelli]

To the OP...I was really free during my last JHS gig. Eventually, I lost my mind and started leaving the school grounds. First I went to visit a local temple and enjoyed the sights. Next time I went to Moss Burger and enjoyed a taco salad. Mmmmmm. Next time I went to the train station and enjoyed a ride home. The earliest I left school once was 11:45. Next day a teacher asked, 'Did you leave early yesterday?' Answer, 'Yes.' That was that. Of course, I was leaving Japan so I didn't care. Preserving my sanity was most important at that point. Just a suggestion.

[Quibby84]

wow..you are super brave! I leave as soon as the clock ticks to 4...and sometimes they ask me to stay and help this kid but the kid doesnt finish his club until 4:40 so I try not to do that. I taught 3 classes on Friday, that is 50% of my classes for this month...lol. I am reading and studying japanese now, I dont know if I am brave enough to leave early and I really cant get fired because next year my husband had to stay here and study japanese...
I need some sort of craft project to do....

[6810]

Like you're already doing - study Japanese. The time is precious! You can also use the library, go and borrow books in Japanese and start reading.

[Lynn]

When I worked as an ALT I had 4 lessons a day, plus I was assigned to eating lunch with one class.

On the rare occasion that I had only 3 classes, I attened P.E. class. I also attended other classes, like math, and it was fascinating. At some schools I spent almost an hour a day in the "special ed" classroom.

I would also feel uncomfortable web surfing, reading Harry Potter etc. I worked 2 years as an ALT and at the end I passed the Japanese Level 2 exam. It's a great opportunity to study Japanese.

About the massaging...I would also receive shoulder massages from elementary 4th graders. I discussed this with a neighboring ALT and she also felt uncomfortable. I usually would smile and say, "oh how nice! Who is that?" and I'd take their hands and get the child to face me while I talked to him/her. It worked almost every time. There was one child who was too shy to talk to me and just wanted to give me shoulder rub.

Another time a boy was standing behing my chair and gently hugging me around the neck. It was so funny. He said to the boy next to him, "I have to go to the bathroom, will you take over" The boy's eyes lit up and took his role quite seriously like the changing of the guards.

Lastly, there was one boy who was a borderline troublemaker. He was from Brazil but was couldn't speak Japanese or Portuguese. He was language-less in a way. He liked to run his finger down my spine and run away. I asked the homeroom teacher what that was all about. She looked at me quite seriously and said, "That's his skinship. He wants so badly to get close to you like the other students, but he can't. (I spoke Japanese with the students). Oh it was so sad. I once did a little five minute lesson at the end of class for his sake. I said things in English that have turned into "wasei-eigo" and they had to guess what I was saying. I said, "McDonalds" no one could get it. I saw him look at me and finally he raised his hand. He said, "maku do" Bingo! The whole class was shocked he knew the answer. He looked so happy that day.

****ooops. Was this supposed to be about Jr. High ALTS. My experience was with elementary.

[Quibby84]

Wow, you sound like a good teacher! I knew from the start that you had elementry (simply from how many classes you had). My husband teaches elementry and he plays with the kids alot. He likes it, he likes kids, I would much rather older kids.
My job is getting better, I offer to go to English Club and that is interesting, I also have a few more classes, so I am up to 6 this week! Better than 3 last week.
Thanks for sharing your experience!

[jademonkey]

It's not that unusual a phenomenon. I've been teaching ESL high school students in Australia, primarily Chinese students and they have a Chinese translator who doesn't do a lot, except occasionally explain difficult concepts in Chinese. I guess she'd find her job pretty boring sometimes, seeing as I do 95% of the teaching.

[gaijin4life]

[fatimablush]

It does seem to be common for us ALTs to be not busy at all. Exams come and we do very little classes because the teachers have to prepare them for the exams, which they are always worried about. Then there are the 3-nen-seis who will be going to high school next year, so you may find that you see them even less, because they have to take high school entrance exams. Sometimes, you are simply the human tape recorder.

I myself go to 16 schools in my city, so I usually do at least 2 or 3 classes a day (but most of my schools are pretty small).

If you do get to the point where you are losing the will to live, you could always ask your teachers if you could teach a warm-up at the beginning of the class, if they didn't want you to come at all. 10 minutes is better than nothing. I definitely agree with the studying of Japanese, but there is only so much Japanese you can study in one day. My advice: Write journals or simply just write, visit other classes (Gym, Home Ec.), make an English Board (many schools have one), or simply just create generic English plans so you have something ready on that one day when the JTE comes up to you 10 minutes before the class, and says, 'I don't have a plan for today, please tell me your idea'. Keep them organized and then you will have a good stock of teaching plans for the future.

Good luck in your job!

Fatima.

[Quibby84]

I have been an ALT for a month now and it has picked up some. I have changed schools (I change once a month) and this school has more classes. It doesnt matter how bored I get or how busy I get I it will NEVER compare to the hell of Eikawa...still, after a month, I am eternally grateful for my ALT position.