Job Discussion Forums

[easyasabc]

Hmmmm - having just looked at the Genki English website my first suggestion would be to get some better material and appropriate planning. If you look at the profile for that Richard guy who makes the Genki English stuff you see that he has no training in ESL or teaching or how primary school children learn. No wonder the activities seem so cr@p. I looked at a few activities and games and I wouldn't use any of them.

I'm glad you didn't do that "Drawing Game" because I don't think it would be useful. I just looked more closely at the instructions for the lesson and cringed when I saw this:
As you have to teach each kid what their present is in English it can take some time if you have 30+ kids. But most kids are quite happy to keep drawing for a long time, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Oh great! An English lesson where instead of fucussing on using English they just draw for a long time. Aaarrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!


I taught primary school classes (directly employed by the BoE in my city) for a few years. The classroom teacher was usually present but I ran the class by myself in whatever way I wanted. We generally had great classes with very minimal discipline problems. Of course there were some kids at time who were a right royal pain but I certainly never had to stop a lesson and get someone else to discipline the kids.

If you are only seeing these kids once in a while you need to do it really right each time. Try and get some better material and/or someone to help you plan some of your own stuff and hopefully that way it will go better and the kids won't have to have the idiot teacher screaming at them like he did.

[canuck]

[JimDunlop2]

(self-edited)...

I don't need teaching lessons, and definitely not from you, OK?

You guys can get off your high horses and go preach to some fresh-out-of-college kid who has never taught a lesson before. My batting average is just fine, thank you very much, and I have yet to have anyone complain about my lessons. There is nothing wrong with my style, method, delivery or anything else for that matter. Stop assuming there is. I never asked you for your maternal didacticism

If you can't accept that the class dynamics in 1 class out of 100 (yes, I DO teach 100 different classes) is buggered up, then I really have nothing more to discuss with you.

That is all.

[easyasabc]

[king kakipi]

[JimDunlop2]

king kakipi: sure. Nothing wrong with that. But there is a right and a wrong way to go about it.

First, let me apologize for the rudeness of my previous post. The first bit was uncalled for.

Second, let me just say that I was rather taken aback and offended at what seemed to be a very personal attack on me in a situation where I thought had little to do with my teaching style. (I still don't think that 1 class out of 100 should set the precedence in my approach to teaching). I felt that all I received from the two posters whom I called by name were providing little more than unfounded, deconstructive criticism, and trite, pat answers to rectify a situation which really didn't need to be rectified.

The reason why I reacted so strongly to the few comments prior to my last, was because I felt that those posters were behaving as if though they had never had a bad class in their lives and have had nothing but perfect lessons throughout their careers. If I came along and witnessed one of them having a bad lesson, even though all their other lessons were really good, but then I started freely dispensing my own knowledge and wisdom in how to fix things, I'm pretty sure they'd be P.O.ed and rather offended too.

[canuck]

Jim, I'll disregard your "close mindedness" from the early post. If the foundation of your lesson is bad, how can you expect everything else to be good?

You acted irresponsibly by not finishing your lesson and walking out and putting the Japanese teacher to belittle the students. You don't teach the kids often, is impossible to establish a report, and get pissed off when the lesson broke down, to the point where you refused to finish your job (for that class). Do you expect that you not finishing the lesson, you somehow deprived them of something that will change their behaviour for the next time that you see them? What about the students that were listening and trying? You gave up on them!

By totally dismissing some criticism or some suggestions, because "you're not fresh off the boat" is silly. There are lots of old timers stuck in bad habits or don't have the proper foundation to teach a good communicative lesson. (I'm not necessarily referring to you, but I do think your lesson plan/materials were poor.)

Of course everyone that teaches in Japan doesn't have smooth lessons every class etc. But I can say the foundation of my lessons is sound. I can't say the same for what presented. I gave you some suggestions and you just totally dismissed them, as an attack. Come on...have some backbone.

I also find it strange talking about your batting average of 99/100.

[JimDunlop2]

Canuck: First of all, let's clarify one thing. I did not walk out in the middle of class and let the JTE berate the students. What I did, was pull the teacher aside (into another classroom), explain my problem, ask him to help me out with the students' attitude. I then came back to class with the JTE. He chose the route he chose (yelling for 15 minutes), leaving me to pick up the pieces when he was done. I didn't ask him to yell at his class. .. There were obviously issues long before I got there. Maybe the class had it a long time coming. Maybe the teacher doesn't know how to discipline other than blowing his lid. I dunno. All I know is that when I'm a visitor to their class (1 visit every other month) I cannot be expected to be the disciplinarian in the room.

Second of all, I disagree that the foundation of my lesson is bad. I can understand what you're trying to say.... But your idea of what makes a good class is very different than mine. Until the old boys' club at Monbusho change their tune, I am following the guidelines set out BY Monbusho in their published manual: Practucal Handbook for Elementary School English Activities (ISBN4-204-04078-2).

canuck wrote:

You could have started the class going over the vocabulary. DRILL, DRILL, DRILL.

Don't take this the wrong way, but to a group of lethargical grade 6 kids who barely even respond to their own teacher, that's BORING, BORING, BORING.

canuck wrote:

Then have your students, in pairs, talk about what they want for Christmas. Have them practice this 5 times. Have a few students present it.

They wouldn't have done it. Guaranteed. They would have simply just sat there. Staring.

canuck wrote:

Then have the kids walk around and ask 10 ten people, what do you want for Christmas. This way, it's all communicative and they are doing something in English.

If these kids had been in Jr. High, I would have agreed with you 100%. But they're not. This type of lesson would be much better suited for an older, more mature class.

canuck wrote:

Seems like you're aiming for the kids to "experience" English, instead of giving it the 'ol college try and try on teaching them something.

It's got nothing to do with a "college try." You are right. I AM trying to get the kids to experience English. That's exactly what the BoE and Ministry of Ed WANTS us to do....

[i] ."...the Elementary Course of Study was revised with the basic aims to allow individual schools to pursue their own unique education initiatives... ...and encourage in them a "zest-for-living." (MEXT Handbook pg. 121)

"When conducting foreign language conversation abilities within the studies for international understanding, activities should incorporate experiential learning, appropriate for elementary school age students, in which children are exposed to foreign language and familiarized with the culture and daily life of foreign countries." (MEXT Handbook pg. 122).

Bold=mine. Notice, that there is NO mention of students actually LEARNING any English... Also note, Monbusho does not even aknowledge that it's an English class that we are teaching -- rather, an international understanding class.

"Consequently, it can be expected that "foreign language conversation" experiences will naturally plant the seeds of awareness of issues related to international understanding." *MEXT Handbook pg. 123).

And THAT is exactly what my role is: to teach international understanding by exposing the students to English. Whether in fact they LEARN it or not is completely irrelevant to the Ministry of Ed.

"Additionally, it is necessary to consider helping students delop a familiarity with English through actual and simulated experiences. "English activities" are to be pursued as experiential activities so the creation of activities that have students listening and speaking, while being physically active, not sitting, is critical. Furthermore, greetings, songs, games and other activities that allow students to speak English in a natural way are desirable. Monotonous repetition drills are not only incapable of drawing out students' desire and enthusiasm, but are also fundamentally ill-suited to the purposes of the "Period for Integrated Study." (MEXT Handbook, pgs. 124,5).

That is precisely the reason why I wouldn't have started the lesson with drilling vocabulary. The whole reason why Richard (from GenkiEnglish) has been so successful in implementing his curriculum into so many elementary schools, districts and even having been on TV a number of times, is because of his approach. His lessons are fun for the kids, and the Ministry of Ed. is happy. Is it effective? I don't know because that's not for me to determine. But if I want to keep my job for any length of time, it's probably best to tow the Monbusho line. This way, when my performance eval. comes up before the superintendant, and my bosses at the BoE, and they ask me (like they did last year) to justify my existence, and how I think I was successful in the past year, I can give them a good answer. On pgs. 189-190 of the Mext Handbook, (chapter on student progress/evaluation) there is absolutely NO mention of the students having learned English as a quantifiable, measurable result.

Lastly, as for my batting average, you should not find it so "strange." I teach at 13 elementary schools, and each school has anywhere between 1 to 4 "kumi" per grade. In my larger schools there are 4 sections to each grade. So it's not inconceivable that I teach the same lesson to 16 to 24 classes. If I were to group my grades so that (for example) grades 5-6 got the same lesson (sometimes the schools actually do that anyway) then I can easily teach 1 lesson 50 times. Boring? Perhaps. But I also get really good at what I do. So it shouldn't strike you as too terribly strange that a good teacher would have success with most of his lessons.

[canuck]

Jim, if you can't figure out a way to drill so that it's fun, or disguise is as an activity... Time to start asking for help or to read up some more.

So, basically, you don't even go in with the idea of teaching or giving the students a chance to retain anything you show up for. Sounds like time to bring a video and let kids "experience" English...while you're telling them in Japanese.

You can't even get kids to do pair work? Everyone would have simply sat there? Ever try and model it? So, in 100 different classes, you can't get anyone to do pair work? Nice batting average.

It does no strike me strange for teachers to have success with their lessons. It's easy for you because you just have to show up and not worry about having kids learn anything...just experience English.

We can agree to disagree, but just show up, do your thing. But when you come to a message board, asking for advice or help because of something that happened in your class, and don't like what you hear...live with it. Choose to take my advice or not.

I agree, that English classes should be fun. But there are ways to make them fun and have them learn something. If you concentrate on just the fun part and give up on trying to teach them something.... Since you do the lesson 24 times...why not make one of the "lessons" a trial to try different stuff or take in some suggestions. Autopilot doesn't turn my crank though.

[JimDunlop2]

[azarashi sushi]

Hi Jim,

I did a similar thing to you the year before last. I worked part time in elementary schools in Tokyo. Over the space of one year I visited 9 different schools. It was also the first time for English to be taught in these schools. I think you mentioned in a previous thread that it's the first time for English to be taught in your schools. I can relate to what you say about being a "permanent visitor". I hated that aspect of it. And there was always a large time gap between lessons, so the kids never really got into a rhythm... Every lesson with each class always felt like the first lesson. The kids didn't have a chance to get used to me and with so many different classes and students, it was just a blur to me and hard to know what works with each class. Combine that with the fact that some teachers had no interest in English and some didn't like foreigners... It was tough!

Similar to your BoE, these guys also only wanted the students to "experience" English, although it did vary a lot with each teacher. Some teachers had a personal interest in English and really encouraged the students, others merely wanted the students to have a bit of a "sniff".

I found that with all grades up to and including 5th grade, I had a 100% success rate and you could pretty much get away with a "one size fits all" kind of lesson because the kids were happy and genki and willing to do anything. Sixth grade was different... It could go either way: It could be great, or it could be nightmarish. It seems that sixth grade is the beginning of the de-evolution of the J-student! I ALWAYS had a Plan B up my sleeve and in some situations, just had to take a bit of a "SHOUGANAI" attitude and battle on. Although the BoE wanted the students to have "fun" with English, 6th grade is such an awkward age, that the students were actually quite comfortable with a bit of drilling. What I'm trying to say is that, in my experience, you need to be VERY flexible with sixth grade.

Anyway, in answer to your original question, given the set of circumstances, I would choose (d):

Continue, despite the subdued atmosphere but perhaps change your lesson plan to reflect this and do something completely different than what you intended. (Keeping in mind that a homeroom-yelling session usually shaves off a good 10-15 minutes from your class, and if you're lucky, there may only be 5-10 minutes left in the class to do anything -- an awkward time to say the least).

However, ideally, I would have left saying anything to the teacher until after the lesson had finished. Doing it mid-way through the lesson puts pressure on him to act immediately, especially when you say that you don't think you can complete the lesson given the student's bad attitude. He probably freaked out!

But at least he yelled at the students and not you! I had one experience with a sixth grade class: We were about 15 minutes into the lesson and the students were being like stones... Absolutely NO REACTION or what so ever! I was trying to set up an activity but still there was no reaction at all. I was becoming very frustrated because I felt like they knew what they had to do but just wouldn't do it because of what I perceived to be an attitude problem. I asked the teacher for help... I thought I did it quite politely, but I guess I wasn't humble enough ... Well, so much for being a team player... He just turned on me and started yelling, saying that the students couldn't understand anything I was saying or doing! I think it was more of case that he couldn't understand anything!

I'm interested to hear about your feelings at the end of one year. I also repeated the same lessons over and over again. And while it's true you do get very good at it, by the end of the year, it was driving me mental! I was so happy to finish my contract. Now I work part-time in a private high school and it's just heaven compared to that!

[JimDunlop2]

Thanks for the lucid reponse, Azarashi... Sounds like our situations are (were) very, very similar. Actually, if you ever have time, PM me sometime -- I'd be curious to know what kinds of things you did with your gr.6 kids and how they were different than the rest of the "one-size-fits-all" group.... I think I'm very fortunate, however, that I have precious few "nightmarish" gr. 6 classes.

Anyway, for me it hasn't been a year doing elementary schools exclusively (yet)... Until September of '05 I taught at 2 Jr. Highs and made 1-day visits to elementary schools, each elementary having gotten a visit every two months. Funny thing is, when I got transferred, the BoE told me it was a "promotion" for having done such a good job with Jr. High. Hmph! Some promotion. Must be a Japanese thing, to reward good work with MORE work -- and the same pay....

Since I've changed there have definitely have been some positive AND negative aspects to it.... For instance, on the positive, I usually get to go home much earlier and go to work much later... Because the city has no-drive school zones where you can get a ticket for driving in them from 7:30 am to 9 am without a special pass (and I guarantee that the BoE has NO intention of getting me such a pass) all my classes must start from second period -- and since some of my schools are quite far from the board, they allow me to go there directly without "clocking in" at the board office beforehand.

Then on the negative, as I've mentioned, I've become nomadic. I am no longer a "staff member" at any school. Which means I cannot build any relationships with the teachers at these schools (or rather, it's much more difficult now) and I'm not a part of any one school's extra-curricular life: eg. field trips, sports days, drama festivals, enkais, etc... Essentially all of the things that separates a full-time teacher from a dispatched substitute...

Anyway, despite the repetitiveness of my job, I can't see myself moving onwards, for a good number of reasons, which include having just moved into a new house (from our old apartment), having made good friends who ALSO have lived here as long as (and much longer) than we have, and the fact that direct-hire BoE jobs are getting rarer and rarer, as if they weren't rare enough already... I have snagged one of the last remaining direct-hire positions in this part of my prefecture... EVERYTHING is being farmed out to Interac or one of the local eikaiwas nowadays.

I digress, but I know of one board who RECENTLY dropped JET completely because of the bad luck they were having with their appointees. One JET mysteriously quit and left after 3 days, and the next one started accusing a teacher of sexuhara (whether it's true or not we don't know) but in any case, that teacher left. So the board said "screw it" and brought in an eikaiwa to fill their staffing requirements.