Job Discussion Forums

Harajuku Girl · Joined: 05 Jan 2010 Posts: 14

I'm just wondering if current or former ALTS in Japan have any favourite websites or books which are/were useful to them when starting out as an ALT.

I've checked out recommendations on this website and I know of online resources I have used in my previous ESL teaching experience. However, what I'm more interested in is what works/ worked for "you"? I'm pretty sure that 1) teaching in Japan and 2) teaching in the public school system will be different to what I'm used to. So, it would be great to be guided in the right direction!

Thanks in advance......

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Look up some of the ETJ-related Yahoo discussion forums.

Imseriouslylost · Joined: 09 Nov 2009 Posts: 123 Location: Tokyo

I teach in Korea and am going to transition to Japan but there are similarities. I know ALTs get less freedom in Japan then they do here (I've been %100 in charge of all my public school classes for the past two years), however being prepared couldn't hurt and the smart thing to do would be to go into it as if you were going to teach unassisted (who knows, you might get lucky)...

For developing lesson plans and materials there are quite a few good resources for beginners and even people who have been at it for awhile. You might want to add "Korea" to your search in Google, though, as I don't find teachers in Japan posting nearly as much by the way of resources for ESL classes as teachers in South Korea.

Off the top of my head, I'd check out:

EFL Classroom 2.0 - http://eflclassroom.ning.com/ (great for emergencies)
Waygook - http://www.waygook.org/ (I'm a contributor -- full class lesson plans and curriculum stuff for all age categories, lots of delicious PPTs)
Boggle's World ESL - http://bogglesworldesl.com/ (More on the kiddie stuff side)
Iteslj - http://iteslj.org/ (Great for ideas if you have the time to prepare them and turn them into full lessons)

Here you can find stuff for all age brackets. For teaching large classes, powerpoints with a good theme and handouts to go along with them go a long way, especially for a new teacher. Once you get the hang of it you can veer more into group centered activities that are a bit more difficult to manage.

Iteslj has a lot of teaching methodology stuff to help you get past your first few months. Nothing worse than standing awkwardly at the front of the classroom with a failed lesson plan and no idea what to do...

Mr_Monkey · Joined: 11 Mar 2009 Posts: 661 Location: Kyuuuuuushuuuuuuu

http://www.manythings.org/

It's a huge site with more activities than I care to count.

stevenbhow · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 58

This one is pretty good.

http://www.sendaiedu.com/lessons.html

Harajuku Girl · Joined: 05 Jan 2010 Posts: 14

Thanks everyone!
I'll have a look at them now Very Happy

gwynnie86 · Joined: 27 Apr 2009 Posts: 159

In my favourites from my TEFL course lie the following links:

http://mes-english.com/
http://teach-esl-to-kids.com/
http://www.toolsforeducators.com/
http://genkienglish.net/games.htm

Sorry, I know you said you wanted to know what worked for "us" but I don't know yet Wink

... I'll let you know when I do though!!