First time after a long time

Roni · Post by **Roni** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 12:07 pm

I am a first time English teacher about to go to Japan for a year. I did my CELTA course just over a year ago and I'm a little concerned that I'm not quite up to scratch. Other than reading through my course notes, can anyone advise me of ways to prepare to make sure that I'm up to speed?

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 7:40 pm

What kind of school are you going to? Do you know what level you will teach? Do you have a chance to take along materials?

Roni · Post by **Roni** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 11:28 am

I don't know if you've heard of the company, but it's Shane English Schools. I believe it's mostly conversational classes that I'll be teaching from elementary to upper intermediate and pretty much all ages. Basically I can take as many materials as I can carry in my suitcase. Thanks for your help.

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Wed May 04, 2005 5:15 pm

I think I would take along as many of the materials from my daily life as I could - flyers, movie brochures, stickers, souvenirs, articles about Japan in the newspapers, things that kids like where you live - sports cards, posters of rock stars and such. You can buy almost any English textbook in Japan and games too and a school like that should have a good supply of materials. It sounds like they will help out with training too and usually overlap the previously teacher with the new one for a week so that you get to know what the previous teacher did. Be sure to take pictures from home or have them on the Internet somewhere so you can get them to show your students. If you could set up some email exchanges with the students before you leave that might help. Remember that the kids that come to these after schools are the ones that are not doing well in English or whose parents are pushing them so they are usually not there from their own wishes. It means you have to work extra hard to win them over and encourage them to think that they can learn English. The more positive you are the better because they don't always get a lot of positive feedback in the rest of their lives. It can be the one place that they feel welcome and valued. Try never to lose your temper or to criticize them or to tell anyone anything they have told you. Have a great time.

Roni · Post by **Roni** » Fri May 06, 2005 12:07 pm

Thanks for your advice. I've been taking lots of pictures but it looks like I need to stock up on lots souveniry type stuff.