Job Discussion Forums

[tokyo376]

I will soon change from teaching elementary school to junior high. I would like to ask anyone with JHS experience to kindly give me some insight (day to day school life, popular classroom activities, common problems, etc).

Thank you.

[Glenski]

I work in a private JHS/SHS. All I can say is, I'm glad I don't teach in the JHS section. They are uncontrolled animals. Oh, sure, their heads are empty, which makes them potentially receptive to whatever you teach, but JHS teachers in general don't control the kids, inside and outside of the classroom. They get a royal shock when they enter the SHS.

Be prepared for a lot of one on one counseling with the kids, TONS of it, as well as plenty of pampering.

A study by Bennesse (sp?) has shown that JHS kids prefer younger teachers that act like mother figures, while SHS kids prefer older teachers who can give more career-oriented advice.

[scrying]

I would say the biggest diff between elem school teaching and JHS teaching (i do both in a small town) is the tailing off of interest that starts around 5th/6th grade and peaks in the second year JHS kids. the discipline problems i have had have been greatest in the 1st and second year students, by the third year the ones who were uninterested at least had the decency to generally not be disruptive.

all of this is also really contingent on what the kids in your school and area are like...you'll hear saint/sinner stories from all places.

good luck to you...

[JimDunlop2]

I've been meaning to reply to this post, as I've been in the opposite situation -- I used to teach JHS but have been transferred to elementary by my BoE.

First of all, let me say that unlike elementary, in JHS you can actually hold down a semi-intelligent conversation with some of the kids. They have gotten to a maturity level that makes it a little easier to have some chit-chat, especially outside the classroom. By the time they hit 9th grade (san-nensei) some of them are actually pretty good (by Japanese standards).

The biggest difference is in what you will be teaching. Monbusho has issued a royal edict and it has been written into the laws of the land so that it cannot be repealed, that English shall not exist in elementary school. It is a part of the "period for integrated study," and specifically, "international understanding." The purpose of International Understanding, according to the Ministry of Education, is to foster an interest and passion in the English language and its culture... NOT to actually teach it. As a result, elementary school level ESL in Japan consists mainly of singular concepts, e.g. "What color do you like?" "I like... blue, red, yellow, green, etc..." reinforced by songs and games. Genkienglish.com is a good exemplar of the Monbusho mandate.

In JHS, the students are actually exposed to real English grammar, sentence structure, reading, writing and working out of a textbook. This will be the first time the kids will be learning English from a textbook instead of orally (unless they've been enrolled in a juku or eikaiwa beforehand). As such, the first thing most 1st year JHS kids learn in school is the ALPHABET. No joke! But even then, English writing is often neglected. It's amazing how many san-nensei (9th grade) kids I had writing lowercase "a" that looked like a "2" or a Greek letter "alpha." To them it was an acceptable shortcut, but to me it was the wrong answer (so I always circled those on their sheets and tests). The textbooks used by most JHS are either "New Horizon" or the "Sunshine" series. I'm not even going to pretend that I like these books. They suck, OK? But that's what the kids are using, so as a JHS English teacher, that's what you are confined to.

Now I know that many teachers will say, "Yeah, well I never use the textbooks! I do my own thing." That's great! Good for you... But do realize that if you deviate completely away from the textbook, although you may be giving a great, dynamic, interactive English lesson, you are doing absolutely nothing to help the kids pass their next English test, which will cover only the textbook materials and not your interesting, dynamic classes. The best strategy is to develop a balance. Find out what grammatical points they are learning in the book, and the vocabulary, sentence structures, etc... And use those as starting points to build a CONVERSATIONAL English lesson that takes all that boring grammar that they will never know how to use in real life, and gets them to practice it with you and with each other. Then, not only is your English lesson interesting, it utilizes the textbook material, so you are helping prepare the kids for their next test.

Behavior: This is a real sticky one. This has been brought up many times in many ways on the forum. In a nutshell, I've found that a LOT depends both on the homeroom teacher's philosophy of discipline, as well as the Japanese teacher's ability to maintain order and give the kids a bullocking when needed. But as a general guideline, ichi-nensei (grade 7 kids) are little angels -- they are still freaked out by their new environment, emphasis on schoolwork and study, the amount of work they have to do, and generally everything that gets thrown at them. By about the second semester though, that all changes and they become little demons. If the JTE can keep them under control that can be kept to a minimum and you can still have productive, interesting lessons with them but it takes more work and effort. Always remember that it is NOT YOUR JOB to discipline the students. It is the homeroom teacher's job! If neither you nor your JTE can keep them in line, your next course of action is to complain to the homeroom teacher. Do not attempt to discipline the class on your own. Not only will you likely fail (Western discipline methods are completely different and usually ineffective to Japanese kids) but the kids won't respect you for it -- they are taught to respect their homeroom teacher, and usually no one else. If anyone's going to chew them out, it has to be him/her.

Ni-nensei (grade are the worst of the worst (in general). Nothing short of Giant Silva (a Pride fighter) coming into the class and beating the shinola out of the kids will get them to behave. Again, this may not be your situation, but grade 8 is a transitionary grade. The kids have learned how to work the system, and are no longer afraid of their teachers... But they also lack the maturity of 9th graders.

9th graders: can be really good or really evil. Some classes get really mature and will do ANYTHING. Heck, I've had 9th graders who would gladly sing nursery ryhme songs just for giggles because they've gotten over the whole "this is lame" attitude. On the other hand, I've had kids who refuse to do anything. Some classes get so quiet by gr.9 that you could hear a pin drop.... And if you pick a student to answer a question in class, you'll be lucky if you get a shoulder shrug. Yet other classes never quite got over the party they had all year in gr.8 and behave accordingly. I was lucky, that most of my gr.9 classes were actually pretty decent, and I ended up having some of my best lessons with them. If you can get away with singing English songs together, for instance, DO IT! If they don't think it's too lame, they will really enjoy your class. I often brought my guitar to class and taught them all sorts of stuff. I had one class in particular who LOVED anything by the Beatles. It was Beatlemania all over again. It was a little weird, actually.

Motivation: Yes, true to rumor, you will have some kids sleeping in your class. Others will chat incessantly. Some will write notes, do their math homework, and basically anything BUT what they should be doing. I would say that if you have more than 50% of the class paying attention, run with it. Only if that number drops to below half would I start the discipline measures. I usually leave the sleepers, note-writers and math-homework do-ers alone. They aren't disturbing anyone. I only come down hard on those who are noisy. Don't think that a fun, interactive game will get everyone involved. Often the sleepers have other emotional problems that reach far beyond your ability to involve them in class activities. Often they won't even wake up for their friends or their homeroom teacher.

Playing games: You're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. In case it isn't clear yet, let me say the obvious: the games you played with your kids in elementary school probably won't work in JHS. That's not to say that you shouldn't play games -- you should, but they have to be both age and level-appropriate. Keep that in mind when designing games. Also, DO NOT play a game in every class. If you do you will regret it. One of my friends earned the nickname "Game-sensei." As in, "Oh good! We've got Game-sensei in third period today!" If all what they know you for is providing a good time, then will always expect it when you walk in the room. Even me, I've sometimes had kids chant "game, game game, game" as soon as I enter the classroom. Yes, they probably need the mental break -- their other classes certainly won't let them have fun... But if that happens to you, I would recommend writing out your class outline on the board at the beginning of the class, and checking off items as you complete them.... So if I walk in and the kids are chanting "game, game game..." I usually say to them... "No game. First, warmup. Then, review. Then, new vocabulary and textbook. Then game. First we must finish everything. If you are quiet, and work quickly we will have time for a game." I write the outline on the board as I explain the above to them. I also add, that if they goof-off, not only will we not have time for a game, but they will have homework too because we won't have time to finish everything. Usually I have the JTE explain that part in Japanese just so there's no misunderstanding. Often the activities that I would do in class would be just as entertaining as any game, because they would get the kids up and moving, and talking in English. That's really the best situation so you don't have to worry about becoming "game-sensei."

School life. Your classes will be constantly shortened, cancelled, rescheduled, moved, etc, etc etc. It's a wonder that JHS kids learn ANYTHING with all the irregularities in their schedules. If it's not medical checkups or school festival prep or grad prep or choir contest rehearsal or special guest speakers or IQ testing or midterm prep or the gazillion other things that happen during the school year, it's the JTE telling you that he/she would like to teach on his/her own that day because the students are behind and they need to study for their next major exam. This is something that will not change so you have to deal with it. The last semester before I got transferred to elementary, I went AN ENTIRE SEMESTER not having visited a certain class even ONCE because of such irregularities in the schedule. No joke! I mean, what was I supposed to say to the class that didn't see me all semester? It was the end of the semester, and I walk in saying, "Hi, I'm Mr. Dunlop. I'm your new English teacher? Sorry we only have this one class today. Normally we would have next semester, but I've just been informed that starting in September I have been transferred to teach elementary. Nice to meet you. Bye!"

As for popular classroom activities.... I may have to revisit this post later. It's already pretty long. I would recommend the book "Talk-a-lot." Sorry, I don't have the ISBN, publisher, etc right now... But it's pretty awesome for JHS. Also, before I got transferred, I was working on authoring my own textbook for that very purpose... I am still hoping to get that out to a publisher sometime this year -- but I've had to put a lot of things on hold due to our constantly changing lives... So far, I've completed about 5 of the 13 chapters as well as the book intro, but I'm afraid that won't help anyone for a few years yet, or until it gets completed and published. In any event, if you PM me, I can give you a rough idea of what kinds of activities I was writing in my textbook and how they work...

Anyway, I hope that helps. Let me know if you need more info.

JD

[Brooks]

junior high is when things get serious.
It is when the testing get serious and some kids get stressed out.
I think some 8th graders just give up at that point, and it is when bullying becomes a problem.

I have been in contact with junior high teachers, and I think things are getting worse. A lot of parents don`t discipline their kids, and not all homeroom teachers do an adequate job.
Being a homeroom teachers isn`t easy, especially with 40 students.

I work at a high school, so at this time of year, we wonder how the new students will be. Unfortunately, I would say that the overall academic ability of the students has been going down, and kids are generally getting ruder.

It is hard to generalize about junior high schools, since there are differences between private and public ones.

Junior high is mandatory for all Japanese kids. After that, school is optional.
So I found that teachers felt obligated to teach students the best they can and prepare them for the future.

I spent a year at a junior high, and I remember classes having as many as 42 students. I decided to focus more on listening and pronunciation with larger classes.
Lesson planning can be kind of challenging when books like New Crown are being used.

There are some things I wish junior high students were better at:

1) pronunciation. Some students have a katakana like pronunciation.
They need to learn that the word AND, for example, is not spelled ando, and has only one syllable.
Some students can`t speak without inserting a vowel, eg. 'I-ee go-oo to-oo shopping'.

2) some students need help with basic spelling. For example, b and d are separate letters.

3) verbs and tenses - especially the future (will/going to) and the past tense, like irregular verbs in the past. The past tense of give is not gived.
'I will going to' is just wrong.

[Brooks]

the site which has Talk a Lot is

www.eflpress.com

The book was written by David Martin, and he lives in Saitama.
They do give away free copies.

[Glenski]

[angrysoba]

In my experience, there are a lot of discipline issues with JHS.

Are you teaching as an ALT in a public school or do you have your own classes in a private school?

If you are an ALT teaching in public schools then the amount of input you have will necessarily be lower in which case it will be important to have a good relationship with your JET. If you do it makes it far easier to decide on discipline enforcement together.

If you are the only teacher in the classroom then you obviously have a lot more freedom (and responsibility) for disciplining the class. An important issue is getting the students to listen to your instructions so that they know what to do. Students are usually far better behaved if they have work to do and understand why they are doing it. If your instructions are poor or the students haven't listened to them then your activities are likely to fail and you will lose the attention of the class.

One way to get students to listen to you is to break up the groups of students who usually sit together. If they always sit together they are more likely to talk to each other and not listen to what is happening in class. Move students around so they don't always sit in the same groups. When you do this it is important not to single out the trouble-makers or they will feel particularly agrieved and more likely to become less cooperative.

[tokyo376]

Thanks for all of your replies. JimDunlop2, your insight is greatly appreciated, and thank you for the time you spent writing.