Won One Over

[Crowbeak]

TL;DR Version

I finally got a positive response from a student who hasn't been having much fun or getting much out of my classes this past year!

Full Story

I teach English in Japan as a JET Program participant. The JET Program doesn't require applicants to have any teaching experience or training; theoretically the ALTs are Assistant Language Teachers, so it shouldn't be a problem, but that's not always the case in a practical sense. This is especially true at elementary schools, where English education is required but the teachers aren't required to be able to speak English. They teach English as best they can with the help of (arguably) pretty well-developed materials, but the presence of an ALT gives them a huge break.

In my case, I'm in a small town with a small number of schools and I am present for all the classes, so I'm the main teacher. I, however, am one of the JET ALTs who had no teaching experience or training before coming here, so I've been learning on the fly. I've gotten way better, but up until recently anything I tried was hit or miss. (It doesn't help that the previous ALT left me no indicators of what she taught the students, so I occasionally find myself trying to "teach" them something they know.) Some classes have gotten more misses than hits.

One class that was a solid streak of misses all last year includes a student (let's call her Velma) who will just give up on trying to learn/do something if she decides it's too hard. Since I did so poorly with the class last year, she wasn't really into anything I'd done. Today, however, I actually had two classes with this group (the 4th graders), both of which went really well.

First period was music, with which I helped because they're learning to play taiko. I've been doing taiko pretty much the whole time I've been here, so I can add a lot to what's in their textbook. The class went great, even though I was teaching them a difficult and showy kind of rhythm. Velma had a lot of trouble with it and was ready to do her "screw this" thing, but I worked with her and got her doing it. After class, the teacher told me that this was the first time she's said she enjoyed playing taiko. Win!

And then during our regularly scheduled English class, I picked an awesomely fun blackboard game for practicing vocab. The class in general needs lots of repetition to gain confidence with the vocabulary, and this was a game that is nothing but vocab repetition but which everyone loves playing. I hadn't done it with the 4th graders before, but once they got the hang of it, they really got into it. xD And Velma was one of the kids most into it, yelling the words as loud as she could and fighting to make it across the blackboard to the goal. At one point, when it wasn't her turn, she came up behind me and patted me on the back and backside, which is a Japanese kid's way of showing adults affection, and then hung on to my arm for a second before getting back into the game.

It may not sound like much, but that's really a huge sign that she's opened up to me in general. It's pretty much the best thing that's happened to me since Saturday, when a couple of my junior high school students came over to my house to hang out and play video games. (There's no pedophiliac teacher paranoia here! I can have students come over to my house and hang out, playing video games and chowing down on junk food. )

Anyway, it's been a great student interaction week in general. Yay!

[Sinuosette]

Definitely congratulations on winning this one student over, it must have been a great feeling! I like to hear about dedicated teachers, most of mine at school were not

[vintageenvy]

Woot woot! I can't imagine trying to teach classes full of kids without any formal training, but I've heard all about the JET program. Major accomplishment, we all know that person in our lives (many of them adults) who just need a little TLC to learn something new.

[Crowbeak]

It was fantastic! She's pretty smart, but if she doesn't want to try then she just doesn't.