Teacher Discussion Forums

Hello Everyone,
I am currently teaching at 8 different elementary schools in Japan (1st grade through 6th). Because I only see the each class about once a month for 45 mintues my main focus has been on vocabulary. The kids are very low level beginners and they cannot read. We always play games that get the students out of their chairs and moving, which to look at them you would believe they were really happy. Recently however, I have started asking the students to rate how they enjoyed the days class, and the results have been lower than I expected from 1st grade all the way to 6th. One 6th grade teacher expressed that it was because the games were not related to words. I am just a bit frustrated because what type of class once a month for 45 mintues will keep 1st graders happy? 2nd? 3rd? 6th? Clearly they all have different abilities and needs.
Just needed to get this out as my supervisors keep telling me anything is okay. They may see me as a dancing bear to entertain the kids, but I really want to make thier introduction to English as painless as possible.
Thanks for reading and thanks for your help!

Enlgish teachers always seem to be the ones to play games with the children and games do not have a high status in education in Japan. Whenever anything is fun the teachers and students don't think they are learning. It comes from the style of education there with students sitting down and listening to the teacher and never disagreeing or the teacher would lose face. With allowing the children out of their seats, you are breaking with this tradition and allowing for something to happen that might casue you to lose face or worse, you might lose control. It would be very hard for a Japanese teacher to allow this to happen as they might lose face with the children and even more with the teacher culture in the school. Foreigners are allowed to do silly things though because they don't have the same position in society to maintain. Your family wouldn't be shamed if you stepped outside the norm or your family name questioned or your future jeapordized.

In my view, the students obviously benefit by being out of their desks, they are probably learning more than everyone realizes including the idea that schools might operate in a different way and the students still learn. Students see movies of schools in different countries and will come realize that there is just not one way to learn. They will contact other students through the Internet and find this out as well. So you are a good introduction to these ideas.

I used to have a poster in my English room that said, "English is fun". The kids came in with a smile and always a question, "What are we going to do today?" It warmed my heart.

But actually the biggest influence you will have on the kids, the teachers and the schools is during the breaks. Try to spend as much time as possible with the students in break activities or talking in the teacher's lounge and attend all school functions where you can help out or cheer the students on.

I taught in 12 elementary schools for two years and joined the teacher's bowling league on Tuesday nights. I don't know if they have such things but you could start a Karoke night for teachers from the various schools. Because I knew the teachers from all the schools I was able to bring people together of like interest and methods of teaching. Think of yourself as a bee bringing pollen from one school to the next and so on and include this in your report of things that you do. There is even a name for this - Itinerant English teacher.

You can try to think of as many ways as possible to bring the various classes together in one school - have the grade six class teach the grade one the alphabet and also have schools sending materials to other schools and even meeting if possible - you can have a grade six English competition for example with the best teams from each school competing.

If you make up a curriculum, you will see that you are teaching with a purpose and can show this to the students, teachers, adminstrators and parents. We all put things together in a way that has purpose so even if your games seem random, I bet you have a underlying pattern of learning for them.

Just having someone come into the school with a smile and a light heart would be good for these schools. Keep it up.