School Life update

School Cultural Festival (Oct, 2016)

I teach in a Junior High School.  There are three class levels, 1年生, 2年生, 3 年生(ichinensei, ninensei, sannensei), split into four classes (one class per year level and a composite special ed class for four students – のびのびor “carefree”).

School Sports Day (Sept, 2016)

At the most, I teach each of these classes once per day.  They get English four times a week, so I have 16 hours, which also means there’s lots of downtime, especially since I have to be at school from 8am – 4pm.

School Sports Day (Sept, 2016)

What do I do during that time?  Prepare for classes, create an “English board” (a noticeboard with different English things e.g. Christmas), study Japanese and write.  I’ve got a few writing projects on the go, including this one on teaching music.

Monday mornings and all day Fridays I teach at elementary schools, so I have those classes to prepare for.  I’ll talk about them in another post.

Helping me decorate the Christmas tree (Dec, 2016)

The school day in JHS is:

8am   everyone arrives at school (most teachers have been here ages before this)

8:15    staff meeting

8:25    homeroom

8:40    classes start (6 x 50 minute classes, 4 before lunch, and 2 after.  Wednesdays there are only 5 periods.

12:30  lunch – trust me – this’ll get its own post…

1:20    cleaning (everyone cleans the school)

3:35    homeroom

3:45    school finishes

4pm   compulsory club activities

6pm   students go home (5pm in winter, or if it’s exam time, there are no clubs)

It’s a long day for the students.  I get to leave at 4pm.

Karuta Competition (Jan, 2017)

I usually do a warm-up game at the beginning of each class.  It’s usually a 10-minute game/activity that may or may not focus on the grammar point being learned.  For the rest of the class I check students’ work or read bits outs from the textbook as required.

For the のびのびclass we usually play a game that takes about half the period.  Current favourites include Guess Who?, Battleships and Go Fish.