Job Spotlight: Maebashi City ALT Position

'Tis the season for hiring, in the world of April-start contract jobs, anyway. We got a heads up today on an ALT position in Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture. Unfortunately, the deadline for the job is today. However, the package on this one is pretty nice: Maebashi might be worth looking into next year if you're in the market.


Application Deadline: Jan. 27, 2011

Info is on the Maebashi City Homepage.
The details are:


Job Title: 外国語指導助手 (Assistant Language Teacher)
Number of Positions: 16
Type: 12-month contract employee
Qualifications: Bachelor's degree. 1 year ALT experience. A native speaker of English, person from a country where English is spoken as a common language, or TEFL/TESOL certificate holder. Conversational Japanese ability. Located near Maebashi City and able to commute. Valid working visa.
Duties: Standard ALT job in junior high or high school, with potential visits to elementary schools or kindergartens. Assist in summer school courses for junior high students.
Working Hours: 8:30 - 16:15, Monday to Friday. (8:45 - 16:30 in case of elementary school).
Remuneration: Monthly, 300,000 yen. Some travel expenses reimbursed if commuting by automobile or public transportation.

Application Deadline: Jan. 27, 2011
Application requires direct submission of:

•  a resume
• copy of diploma
• copy of passport
• copy of Alien Registration Card
• health report issued by a hospital (健康診断書)
• copy of TEFL/TESOL certification (if not a native speaker/from a country using English)
• a self-addressed, stamped envelope (80 yen stamp)

to the Maebashi City BoE. Applicants are briefly interviewed on submission of application.


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Sorry to not get the word on this job sooner; it made for an unusual Thursday post from us.
It would be difficult to apply in time today, but again, this looks like a good one to keep in mind for future opportunities. The salary is on par with JET, and this listing may indicate a recent move by Maebashi City away from the JET Program in favor of annual direct hires.


Anyway, stay tuned for more Job Spotlight goodies throughout the upcoming week!

Driving Test Tips: Checklist when Entering and Exiting Car

The driving test starts from the moment the proctor calls your name. The proctor will be watching your actions before you get in the car and after you get out, all the way up to the moment you walk back inside the building. Here is a checklist of things to do outside of the actual driving component:

• As you walk towards the car, you may have to cross a street or another parking area. Show that you're a safe pedestrian and aware of your surroundings by glancing around for oncoming traffic before walking over to the car.
• Before getting into the car, some proctors like you to check around the car for obstructions. Take a quick walk around the car and inspect it, and bend or crouch down to check under the front and rear of the vehicle.
• After sitting down in the driver's seat, you need to, at the bare minimum, check your mirrors, seat position, and seatbelt. There's a lot of stuff to remember in the driving test, and it can be a nerve-wracking experience, but these three are absolutely imperitive. Touch the mirrors and the seat handles even if you don't think they need it. I used a simple mnemonic device and repeated the three letters "SMB" to myself when I got in the car: Seat, Mirrors, Belt.
• When closing the door, don't swing it wide and slam it shut. Bring the door within about 10 centimeters of the frame of the car and give it a quick jerk to close the door from that distance. It's considered proper car etiquette in Japan.
• Lock the door after you get in the car. Not all proctors watch for this, but it is taught to Japanese people in Japanese driving schools, so it's a nice touch to add to your own test routine.
• Starting the car: When starting the engine, put on the foot brake, then the clutch, shift into neutral, then turn the key.
• With the car started, use mirrors and turn your head to check your surroundings. Flip on the turn signal in the direction you're pulling away from the curb in, double check over your shoulder, then finally remove the emergency brake.
• Turning off the car goes in reverse order of starting the car: Stop with the brake, engage the emergency brake, put the car into park (automatics) or reverse (manuals--you may need to disengage then reengage the clutch to get the shifter to slide into reverse), turn the key, remove your foot from the clutch, then finally remove your foot from the brake.
• When exiting the vehicle at the end of the test, first check your mirrors and over your shoulder for oncoming traffic. Open the door but don't immediately swing it open. This little door "pop" is supposed to act as a signal to anyone behind the car that you're about to swing the door open. Once you've thoroughly checked for oncoming vehicles, it's safe to open the door and exit the vehicle.

PT: Japanese Beer

Will any of these not give you diarrhea? Think of it as a challenge.

I've been wanting to write about the massive variety of Japanese beers for a long time, but never found the time. Don't get excited, because I still haven't. However, I came across this interesting article about Japanese home-brewing of beer, and thought you, dear reader, might be interested. In fact, the whole of the Beer in Japan website may interest you - it has all kinds of information about breweries, bars, brands and other things beginning with b.

Do you like Japanese beer? Tell us your favourite varieties in the comments.

Being an ALT #5: Getting Drunk on Duty (The Enkai)

All the drunken work party antics you've seen in Japanese TV shows and movies are true. The enkai in Japan is a sacred event where work colleagues get completely hammered as a semi-compulsory part of the job.

On special days, like big sports-events or opening/closing-ceremonies at school, you'll be invited to join the majority of your co-workers for an enormous meal and massive piss-up. Also, when a colleague gets married, or occasionally when they have a child, win the lottery, etc., be prepared to give your liver a bashing.

It won't be cheap, but if you treat it right it will be the gift that keeps on giving. It can also be a quite surreal experience.

First, beware the price. At my school, we have enkais at the start and close of each term, on sports-day, on faculty sports-day, and on PTA day. Then there are other exclusive enkais, like Maths department enkais or second grade teacher enkais, which are sprinkled randomly throughout the year. The average cost of each of those is 5,000 to 6,000 yen. Smaller-scale ones might cost a bit less, and PTA enkais can be catered affairs on school grounds, bringing the cost down to around 2,000 yen.

The enkai itself includes lots of rambling speeches, each teacher trying to outshine the last with golf-clap-caliber humor. One speech, usually given by the vice principal (教頭先生) will kick off the party, and once people are drunk enough, a proper speech session for everyone will begin. Different people talk depending on the event, like retiring or transferring teachers at the end of the year and new teachers at the beginning of the year. Or, for example, school festival enkais incorporate as special guests the old teachers who transfered away last year. These speeches can go on for bloody ages. At the start of this school year, my school had 9 or 10 new teachers and the speeches in total went on for more than an hour. It wasn't too bad, because more food kept coming to the table during this time, but it was a bit awkward when the new and very drunk office boy could barely stay standing through his 10+ minute introduction (which he had decided to do standing on his chair).

The food will vary from workplace to workplace. At my school, organisers like to put things together the old-fashioned way, meaning a traditional Japanese, sit-on-the-floor banquet. These entail about six small dishes of various Japanesey things, like raw mushrooms in cold water, leaf tempura, koi sashimi, eighty-four types of tofu, and sixty-eight views of Mt. Fuji. Some of it is delicious, some edible, and some a gift for the guy next to you.

The drink is an unending stream of happiness, poured not by yourself, but by the person sitting next to you, or by the person crawling around the table with a bottle in hand pouring beer shots while bowing profusely. Beer is usually the only option (unless the high-roller principal has called for a bottle of the establishment's finest sake), and said beer is usually a lower-end brand name like the bowel-loosening Asahi Super-Dry or Kirin's best-effort rival brew. If a sake bottle shows up, Mr. Principal is probably going to call you over, being the token foreigner, and you'll end up drinking it even after promising yourself you wouldn't this time. Of course, getting wasted isn't obligatory. You can be an いい子 and drink oolong tea instead. This is where the tradition of filling other people's glass gets a bit silly: Having your beer topped up by excited co-workers is great, but being forced to glug down 2 litres of oolong tea an hour for three hours waterlogs anyone's stomach.

The aftermath of the enkai is you stumbling out of the building after mumbling your way through the school song (or company dance or whatever convey's your workplace's spirit) and the big banzai, only to discover it's still light outside and children are playing in the park.

And then... beware of the afterparty. This is where things and people can get messy. Usually teachers will divide into grade-groups and go to different izakayas around town where they will somehow find space for more food and a lot more alcohol. Treat these invitations with caution. After the afterparty, most of your male coworkers will go find a flowerbed to sleep in (the female coworkers will either be remarkably sober or have been asleep at the table for hours). You will go home to your totally sober girlfriend feeling like you've been hit by a train, but trying to retain your swauve debonaire persona.

And the worst part is that all more often than not happens on a weekday!

But anyway, it's all in good fun, and not going to an enkai you've been invited to is a faux pas. Miss a few, and feel the camaraderie you used to feel at work slip through your fingers.

For me, the most bizarre thing about school enkais is that I suddenly find myself sitting among dozens of new alcoholic friends who develop a passable ability to speak English. They'll talk happily all night about being my younger- or older-brother (whichever is least appropriate), how tall I am, and how massive my penis must be. Then after the party's over they'll never speak to me again until the next enkai. Are they ashamed? Can they not remember our solemn friendship pact unless they get drunk again? The whole thing is a mystery.


That's it!

Any reader-stories in the comments please.

See you again!

Being an ALT series: 

Part #1: Teaching English in Japan 

Part #2: Your Role

Part #3: A Typical Day

Part #4: Planning Classes 

Part #5: Getting Drunk on Duty (the Enkai) 

Part #6: 4 Japanese Teachers You May Have to Work With

Part #7: Physical Resources

Part #8: Making Activities

Part #9: Hopping Between Schools

Part #10: More School Hopping

Part #11: Getting Molested At School

Part #12: It Is Really This Easy?

Part #13: Brushing Your Teeth At School

Worksheet Sunday: Movie Clips

Occasionally, a quote from an old favorite movie will come to my mind when I'm trying to decide how to present a new grammar point in class.

I mean, we've already seen how drab some textbook examples can be. Why not dump all those examples about Kumi's pencils and learn the comparative forms through clips from Braveheart ("That can't be William Wallace! I'm prettier than this man!") and Spaceballs ("I see your Schwartz is as big as mine!")?


But, before you jump in to using media in the classroom, it's a good idea to at least familiarize yourself with etiquette regarding copyrighted material in the classroom. UnderstandMedia makes some good general recommendations about fair use of media, concluding that using movie clips to make a point in the classroom falls under fair use. That's great, because it's exactly what this article is about: Finding an interesting clip you can use to show your students "real" English. (Incidentally, letting your first graders watch Aladin 2 in segments over a week of classes because you are too lazy/forgot to prepare actual lessons does not fall under fair use.)

The tools to find the text of your funny quote aren't groundbreaking. The best quotes are going to be the ones that pop into your mind when checking out next week's grammar lesson, not the ones that you forcibly scour out of the Internet from obscure movies. Google will obviously help you track down your estimations of quotes, or check out IMDB's search function, which allows you to search exclusively for movie quotes as cataloged by site users.

Getting visuals for your quote is the harder part. You can take in a copy of the whole movie, but that takes time to cue up in class, especially if you're working from a DVD player. If you have the whole video copied over in another format, such as DivX or XviD, there are many editing tools to cut down the video. However, I find that even simple edits like cropping can quickly eat up a lot of time. You may be better off cuing up the clip from a full copy of the film before class, especially if you only plan to use it once.

Or, of course it's possible to find some clips on Youtube. Youtube clips come in an obnoxious Flash video format (.flv) which can be hard to edit. I found some success with RichFLV when parsing two .flv files together. But, cropping just a few seconds out of a longer clip seems to cause problems with audio and video desync. Converting the .flv to another format is also possible, but that can cause audio-video desync as well.

So, there's two duds of suggestions that you could have probably figured out yourself. But, here's the part where we introduce something not everyone already knows about. :)

MovieClips is a great site that does a lot of this tedious locating and cropping work for you. Simply type in the title of a movie, and it spits back specific, memorable scenes from that movie. The library isn't comprehensive, but the clips that are available are edited down to perfect 2-to-3-minute snippets for classroom examples. And better yet, it's free and clear of that "free use" grey area surrounding movie clips. (You may not care, but it'll put your supervisors' minds at ease.)

Finally, a word on displaying the clip in class: Japanese classrooms are starting to get more techy, despite plenty of teachers that don't know how/just don't use the new tools. Depending on your city, it may be standard for public school classrooms to have a DVD player or TV with PC hookups. Visiting a tiny junior high school in the mountains last year, I noticed even it had flatscreen TVs with USB-to-HDMI converter boxes for each classroom, which would I think be the ideal setup for showing movie clips: Cue up your PC before class, walk in two or three minutes before the starting bell, hook up to the TV, and have the clip ready for whenever you need it.

(If you don't know what your school has available, ask! Public initiatives send all kinds of crap into schools with tax money; a lot of it perplexes the ever-changing staff of Japanese schools and just never gets used. I've discovered digital whiteboards and still-wrapped CDs of English sing-a-longs stashed away in language labs just by asking the administration what was available to work with.)

So, there it is! If you have any other tricks you use when finding and playing media in class, we'd love to hear them. Comment below!

The 4 Stupidest Characters in the New Crown Textbooks

My new hobby is picking numbers out of thin air and getting angry about them (see my 5 most annoying pages and 3 appalling stories from New Crown), so here are the 4 stupidest characters in the New Crown textbooks.

I've had just about all I can take of this awful cast. Praise the lord I haven't been subjected to the CD version of these total puppets yet.

Anyway, whatever, here they are, and apologies in advance for my anger.

Paul Green

"I know, right?!"

Future acne-scarred, Bill S Preston look-a-like, Iraq war apologist, jock Paul is my first figure of hate. His douchey blonde-haired stereotype is straight out of Home Improvement or 90210 and scrapes a toothbrush hard against my gag reflex. What's in your bag Paul? Is it something stereotypical? Oh, an American football! I was expecting, I dunno, a gun and 2 kilos of coke? You cracker bitch.

"To the douche-mobile!"

His brief appearance in NC3 is only embarrassing, but at least he found out how to use the Internet. Let's just hope his child-grooming father knows how to work the parental lock. Unlikely. I bet the only kanji they know between them is 休 and 友達, thanks to Ms. Sasaki and Poor Kumi.

I don't know what happened to Paul when he came to Japan. At least, I presume he wasn't born here, otherwise he'd be playing down his American-ness somehow, right? And maybe he wouldn't dream so hard about playing American Football with black guys (not going to happen). But anyway, his first appearances in NC1 are pretty butch. He looks like he's been doing some lifting and bench presses. Turn the clock forward two years and he's just another tender-hearted featherweight. Fast forward to the teary-eyed walkaway at the end of Chapter 8 and he's even put on a bit of weight. Whatever, forget Paul.

Ratna
Matted-haired, suspiciously-stinky Ratna and her Special-Olympics-clap-along to every goddamn thing in the book deserve no more mention than this, if only because she has nothing to talk about except the fact that she's from India.


Poor Kumi
And then there's Poor Kumi. Clearly just trying to make friends and be nice, she annoys the living hell out of me. My only moment of comfort is when she openly wets herself on the opening pages of NC1.

Ta-daa!

Her ferociously annoying chirpiness grates against everything I stand for. "Oh, a kite! That's nice!" "I have a tennis ball!!!!!" "This is my rainbow coloured knitted jumper!!" "Do you want a break?" God, yes...

The only respite from her awful kid's TV personality is at the end of NC3 when she's clearly grown into a fine figure of womanhood. She and her friends walk off misty-eyed together across a map of the world and you just know she cried at graduation. The best part is: I bet no one ever calls her. All her "friends" leave her to stew in the psychological crash that surely follows her entry into Best High School in the Region. She descends into a deep, dark depression eventually chronicled in minute detail by Natsuo Kirino, the fruit of whose labor gains a steady cult following.

Take that, keener. Keen bean. Try hard. Twat.

Wang Ming or Ming Wang or Wing Mang or whatever he is

I hate to even get started on Wang Ming; the obscenely dull Chinese kid who thinks "Wonder Rings" are some genius invention which defy all logic, rather than the most pathetic opening to any textbook in the history of government-supported education. Someone definitely isn't from the big city. How many more times must I slog through painful classes where the JTE forces the children to actually follow Ming's instructions and make those terrible attempts at magic?

Kumi :  Just a minute. Wonderful!

YEAH THANKS A LOT KUMI.

Things go from bad to worse for Wang, or Ming, or whatever we're supposed to call him; in NC1, he desperately needs the toilet but can't find it. It's behind you, moron. The writers give him one more chance to prove himself with a cultural insight into China in NC3, and the best he can come up with is the Great Wall. Yeah, great, but what have you done lately?

All of this helps to explain why he only manages to be on one page in NC2, and even that was only because Poor Kumi felt sorry for him.

No-one wants to hug you.

And god-dammit that's the end of this stupid blog and I hope you all hate it!!!

..sorry :(

Oh... hi guys. These are my, uh, friends.

Chuunanshin Driver's License Center (Shiojiri) Driving Course Map

As of October 2010, this is a map of the current driving test at the 中南信運転免許センター (Chuunanshin Driver's License Center) in Shiojiri for people who are converting their foreign license into a Japanese one. Click on the image for a full-sized view, and read on for tips about the Shiojiri test.

Shiojiri's test is, from what I understand, pretty well in line with tests at other centers. But, you may find maps for your specific driving center in the AJET Driving Book or on a local foreigner mailing list.

With that said, here are some specifics about the Shiojiri test:

• At the starting line, make sure you are correctly prepared to drive.
• Signal right, pull away from the curb and up to the diagnol white starting line, then signal left again as you enter the real course.
• Remember to drive in the correct part of the correct lane.
• Shiojiri's outer ring has an interesting setup: There are two full-sized lanes for traffic moving clockwise, and only one lane for traffic moving counter-clockwise around the course. In principle, unless passing someone or making a right-hand turn, you want to be in the left-most lane while traveling clockwise.
• You don't need to signal while turning along the outer ring of the course, and you don't need to stop at the crosswalk on the left side of this image.
• At number 36 is a tall hedge around which you can't see. Ease yourself gradually through this turn.
• At number 34 is the stoplight. Stop behind the white line and dart your head around the intersection to show you're aware of what's going on.
• Coming out at number 30, you'll almost immediately be turning right again at number 31. So, instead of using the left-most lane, use the right-most lane for your traffic direction (in other words, the middle lane of the 3 going around the outer ring).
• When you leave the crank at number 29, you'll be turning left. This means you have to be especially careful about not hitting your back left tire against the curb as you exit the crank area.
• At the roundabout driving past numbers 21, 19, and 20, stay as tight as you can to the inside curb. There is a stop sign at number 19, so be sure to come to a full stop (count 1, 2, 3 under your breath) before the white line.
• When coming out at number 1, turn into the far left-lane. It's legal in Japan and saves you an awkward lane-change step later on.
• On your final run around the ring, you'll be asked to speed up to 60 kph.
• When turning back into the parking area, treat the turn like any other intersection: Take it slow and look around.
• Keep the car close to the curb and pull up within about 10 centimeters of the marker pole on your left side.

PT: Robots

To celebrate (or rather commemorate) the giant Gundam being removed from Shizuoka (see this couple's blog for details), here's a repost of my old plamodel decorated toilet. See closeups of all the awesome robots on my original blog.

Being an ALT #4: Planning Classes

As I mentioned before, a lot of classes will involve you making a game, activity or worksheet. This is an acquired skill, although you'll be surprised how quickly you pick it up, and often horrified when you re-examine the sheets or activities you made last year/when you started the job.

This week we'll talk a little bit about the process of putting together something for your class.
A future post will offer advice on how best to design sheets for different grades, while below you'll find some general advice and resources to get you started.

Aside from those "Anything OK" days, which generally result in a game or some kind of grammar casino-type exercise, you will often be asked to prepare something for a specific grammar point. If you're lucky, the last ALT will have left a folder of worksheets etc in your desk/on your computer. If not, and your creative juices have yet to fully ferment, the internet (and AccessJ) is your friend.

There are a lot of resources around to help you come up with ideas. Although not all of them are shining examples of fun things to do, there are often a lot of good, usable concepts which you can apply to your own style of teaching.

• ESL printables is the best of the bunch, with thousands of worksheets on every topic you can imagine. To download other people's sheets you need to share some of your own, but it's well worth it.
  People get very serious about making sheets to put on there, and some get a little over-enthusiastic, but there are still a lot of very good ideas.
• MES-English is a good site (almost too) full of game ideas and useful worksheet tools.
• JHSEnglipedia is a so-so site with a collection of worksheets specifically designed for teaching English in Japan.
• And thanks to Chris for recommending http://bogglesworldesl.com/
  
• Of course, let's not forget AccessJ's very own weekly Worksheet Sunday series, which features some activities which have been a big success for us, and that we wanted to share with our readers.

These sites are especially good when you find yourself dropped in it - given 15 minutes to prepare an activity for the whole class. If you were smart you would have created a load of plans in advance, just in case. But who's really that organised (apart from my woman)?

If you know of any good sites I've missed, or have any advice, drop them in the comments.

Daily sight at one of my schools

Being an ALT series: 

Part #1: Teaching English in Japan 

Part #2: Your Role

Part #3: A Typical Day

Part #4: Planning Classes 

Part #5: Getting Drunk on Duty (the Enkai) 

Part #6: 4 Japanese Teachers You May Have to Work With

Part #7: Physical Resources

Part #8: Making Activities

Part #9: Hopping Between Schools

Part #10: More School Hopping

Part #11: Getting Molested At School

Part #12: It Is Really This Easy?

Part #13: Brushing Your Teeth At School

Worksheet Sunday: Snake Eyes (All Purpose "Anything OK" Escape Plan #3)

This is another great group game which involves the whole class interacting with the JTE and ELT.

You will need dictionaries for each group, and some dice.

Keep going as long as they are enjoying it, which can quite conceivably be all lesson. 

Similarly to the Typhoon Game or Snail Salt Chopstick Attack, Snake Eyes involves drawing as many snails or houses on the board as possible. In fact, any certain-number-of-strokes picture is fine. You could use the kanji for English or something else, or an image of some sort. I find the snail and house to be pretty straightforward.

Setup:

• Make groups. The ideal size is between 2 and 6 students.
• Give each group a dictionary.
• Have at least two dice on the table at the front of the class. Two for you and two for the JTE is better. Big soft ones from the 100 yen store are ideal and don't get lost.
• Write up group numbers or names on the board with space for them to draw next to.

Rules:

• In their groups, students must make a sentence using the dictionary (if necessary). It can be any sentence they want, as long as it uses the target grammar. 
• One student from the group comes to you or the JTE and tells you their sentence. If it's good, they can roll the dice, if not they must go back and try again.
• I did "Why don't we..." today, and if I or the JTE wanted to do what they suggested, they could roll two dice, if not, only one.
• It's up to you how you award the dice rolls. You can have bonuses for great sentences etc.
• Numbers on the dice equate to points. One point = one line on their way to drawing a snail or house (which take nine lines to draw).
• One dot on the dice means they have to erase all their drawings.
• One dot on both dice is SNAKE EYES, and means they can erase all of another team's drawings.

Laura and I came up with this one, although she probably deserves the most credit. Feel free to use it, but please don't redistribute anywhere else.

Job Spotlight: Tsukuba City CIR Position

Tsukuba City has posted a hiring notice for a Coordinator of International Relations (国際交流員) position on their home page. CIR jobs are generally positions within a city hall or other municipal office arranging community events and international awareness. Some CIR positions include teaching community classes or visiting public schools as a guest teacher. Here's the scoop:

Application Deadline: Jan. 22, 2011
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Job Title: 国際交流員 (Coordinator of International Relations)
Type: 12-month contract employee
Qualifications: An individual of any nationality who graduated high school and university courses of study in a region where English is the native or an official language. High-level Japanese ability. (CIR positions usually expect about a JLPT-2 [or N-2, in the new format]). Must have a valid working visa.
Duties: Translating documents, interpreting for foreign residents, making and receiving telephone calls (in Japanese or English), participating in or interpreting for local international pursuits.
Working Hours: 8:30 - 17:15, three days per week, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and national holidays.
Remuneration: Monthly, 150,000 yen, before taxes. Travel expenses reimbursed. 12 paid holidays per annum.
Insurance: No shakai hoken.


Application Deadline: Jan. 22, 2011
If your application is accepted, you will be asked to attend an on-site interview and interpretation test on February 2.


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The pay of this position gears it more towards individuals nearby or with preexisting ties in Tsukuba. 
By the way, this is the second or third January in a row that I have seen Tsukuba advertising for a CIR; it may be worth checking this one out again in subsequent years.

NHTVZ2CP9UDJ

Being an ALT #3: An Average Day

We kicked off this series with an explanation of what an ALT actually is, and how it differed from an ELT. We later explained your role in school.

This time, we'll have a detailed look at the average school day for an ALT.

Working in school can be very easy for some people, and very busy for others. It depends on your teachers and your ability/how well you apply yourself. If you are good at coming up with/using ideas, then preparation will not be such a big deal to you. Some people will struggle at first. Everyone will have times when they have been asked to create something for a grammar point which just has no inspiring aspect; it will seem like there's no possible solution. That's life! We'll talk about the creative process another time.

Anyway, a normal day will look like this:

• 8am: Arrive
• 8:35-9:25 first period
• 9:35-10:25 second period
• 10:45-11:35 third period
• 11:45-12:30 forth period
• 12:45-1:15 lunch
• 1:35-2:25 fifth period
• 2:35-3:25 sixth period
• 4-5pm home time
  

You will most likely not teach in every period. The average of most ALTs in my area is 3 per day, while I have slightly less and my girlfriend has a consistent 4. You are required to be on site for the whole day even if you have zero lessons, which you sometimes will (test days, etc). Sometimes you will need that space for preparation, but most often you will have a lot of free time to spend as you please (like writing a blog, for instance).


For a more real-life feel, I'm going to narrate my day today:

• 7:55: Arrive. My schedule says I have lessons 2nd, 3rd and 5th period today (6th period was cancelled)
• 8:05: A teacher asks me if I have any ideas for third period. Luckily I have taught this particular grammar point very recently and have an activity I am comfortable with.
• 8:10: Another teacher asks me what I have prepared for 2nd period (she asked me to come up with something yesterday). I tell her. Everyone is happy.
• 8:12-9:35: I photocopy for 3rd period, make sure I'm confident explaining my game for 2nd period, and use my free time to plan this blog.
• 9:35: I teach a great class of 3rd graders to use "Why don't we.." (I lead the whole class). They come out with some funny stuff like "Why don't we build a love house?" "Why don't we make children?" and "Why don't we find beautiful women?". I also think a girl propositions me, but it might be lost in translation: "Why don't we do."
• 10:35-10:45: Break. Talk with the previous teacher about the good lesson, and the next teacher about the next class plan.
• 10:45-11:35: Teach the 2nd graders (my part lasts all lesson), where we study comparatives and superlatives with what turns out to be a too difficult sheet. That is my fault, as I need to keep tighter track of which classes are at what level. I've done the sheet before with a different class who did manage it, but these kids fail miserably.
• 11:40-11:52: Mark the worksheets from the 2nd grade lesson. It seems their ability/motivation was even lower than I thought, and 5 out of 31 students haven't even attempted to do the final section. Accidentally stamp all the sheets with "Great work!" instead of my name...
• 11:55-12noon: Mark a diary that one girl gives me every day. Today it is very sad; about visiting her friend in hospital, and JHS coming to an end. Touching stuff.
• 12noon-12:45: Speak to the teacher for 5th period, who cancels it and asks me to come to his class in 6th period instead. Come up with something quick for that class. Write some blog material.
• 12:45-1:10: Lunch. Rice, sukiyaki, chikuwa and pickled veg.
• 1:10-1:55: Speak to teacher about my activity for 6th period. Have to totally change it for his low-level class (I had hurriedly found a sheet online earlier), which took maybe 20 minutes. Photocopy it.
• 1:55-2:30: Study Japanese.
• 2:30-3:25: Teach period six. It's mostly the JTE that teaches, while I help the kids, provide examples for things and think up true or false questions for the text. I do my sheet at the end, which isn't a huge success, but what can you expect from a grammar point as dull as "as cold as a fridge"?
• 3:30-350: Cleaning time. Clean the staffroom with the same good-for-nothing students as the last few months. I have to drag them around and demand they do a proper job.
• 3:50-4:15: Check email, finish this blog, etc. Go home.

Today was pretty typical in that my role in class was pretty large sometimes, and pretty much the backseat the rest of the time. The cancelling and moving around of classes is also pretty typical, as is the workload and short-notice to come up with lesson material.

You will also notice that some lessons will go very well, leaving you feeling great about yourself; and some will bomb completely and make you feel awful. This is often completely unpredictable. That's life!

Well, that's it! Time to go home. Stay tuned for further entries in this series.

Being an ALT series: 

Part #1: Teaching English in Japan 

Part #2: Your Role

Part #3: A Typical Day

Part #4: Planning Classes 

Part #5: Getting Drunk on Duty (the Enkai) 

Part #6: 4 Japanese Teachers You May Have to Work With

Part #7: Physical Resources

Part #8: Making Activities

Part #9: Hopping Between Schools

Part #10: More School Hopping

Part #11: Getting Molested At School

Part #12: It Is Really This Easy?

Part #13: Brushing Your Teeth At School