ESL Madness

Dear Reader,

This blog was created in order to help myself organize my thoughts, and to try and make a little sense out of the half-crazed lessons I teach at random.

Here’s a little background on me:

I currently work as an “assistant language teacher” (ALT) (of English) in a small, small town in southern Japan. How I ended up here, I’m not really sure. I had volunteered a few times as an assistant teacher before, but nothing, and I mean nothing, prepared me for the shock of the Japanese countryside. So be it.

My job is to help out the English teachers at one junior high school Monday through Thursday, and visit one of four elementary schools every Friday. I also teach an adult “conversation” class on Tuesday evenings.

There have been ALTs in this little rice town for likely 20 years or so. Yet when I arrived, the only things here to guide me in what I was supposed to be doing everyday was a foot-thick plastic binder of cheesy adult activites from 4 years ago, and lots a crappy, mostly useless books.

So, I went through the books, and thumbed through the “guides” handed out by the infamous JET program, and thought I had a handle on what to expect… and then my first elementary school visit happened.

As I approached my very first class, all eyes were on me, and the entire group of 25-30 2nd graders all looked like they would go into hyperventilation at the sight of me. A chorus of applause and cheers greeted me as I entered the classroom, as if I was a famous, internationally-known actor.

Subsequently, I have had fantastic days, and I have had breathtakingly frustrating days. Sometimes I’ve planned a great out-of-your-seats activity only to find that the kids won’t stop hitting each other if they’re let out of those seats. Other times, I’ve prepared a calm, rainy-day activity only to have the kids stare at me and yawn, along with their teacher.

You never really know, do you?

Over the past year, I have collected so many printouts, websites, and my own ideas, that I don’t know what to do with them. With a whole lot of spare time at work, I’ve tried organizing website links on ESLResource at del.icio.us, I have binders for everything, and still there are activities floating around everywhere I go. So, this is my next attempt. Maybe it’ll help some other people out too.

Good luck in all of your language-teaching-madness-adventures.

Sincerely,

The author.