Title: ALT Experiences
2008/07/09
Good Afternoon Leaving ALTs,
I know that you ARE busy preparing for your departure, but I have one more favour to ask of you. Just one more favour!
You might have been a SUPER ALT in your own town or city. You might have felt isolated from your JTEs and students. You might have done your job well and were happy with it. You might have been underutilized and felt that you didn’t contribute much at school. But whatever your experience, you are a part of the JET ALT community and ARE a resource. There are current and future ALTs that can benefit from your experience, people! If you don’t mind sharing, please contribute. I’d like to have your stories.
WHAT DO I WANT?
Team-Teaching stories/accounts/anecdotes/cautionary tales.
2 TYPES: 1 good à great & 1 mediocre à horrible Team Teaching experience.
LENGTH: a few paragraphs to 1 page for each.
DETAILS: In your stories, please detail this success or bomb of a lesson. Add any and everything! Below are some guidelines. But however you define the lessons, explain why they were good/bad. Think of the following:
Your ALT/JTE relationship: Open? Share work? Dictatorship?
Lesson: who planned it? You? JTE? Together? Was it well-organized?
Breakdown of lesson: class components: warm-up, review, read & repeat, pair work, group work, etc.
Space in class: Who stands in front of the class? At the side? At the back? Walks around the class?
Students: Were they receptive? Energetic? Bored? Genki? Did they understand the lesson? Any extra attention paid to slow learners? Any extra challenging work for advanced learners?
Extras:
Were you able to provide extra examples of the grammar point for your students?
Did you add cultural tidbits during the lesson (talk about your home)?
Your feelings: happy when the students understood were involved in the lesson; upset, when some students didn’t understand but you had to rush through the lesson; ecstatic/concerned when your JTE let you have complete control of the class; annoyed that you visiting school didn\'t send a plan ahead of time…
ATTENTION: You can identify yourself as a 1-shot, JHS or SHS ALT. Please DO NOT include the names of teachers, schools or the towns you live in. This MUST be anonymous.
WHY DO I WANT THEM? To create an anthology of sorts for:
-potential reference/motivational tool/warning for new ALTs at Zao
-case studies at future Teachers Seminars at the Center.
WHY SHOULD YOU DO THIS?
For English Education in
Please mail your stories to me by August 1st, if not sooner (the sooner the better).
If you want to write about an excellent/awful part of a lesson, that\'s fine too.
If you want to write about outside of the class experiences, I\'ll accept those as well.
THANK YOU in advance,
Ceed
Title: Notes from Ceed
2008/06/12
Good Afternoon Everyone!
What a beautiful day today! It’s strange to think that in just under 2 months the overall Yamagata JET group dynamic will change. What an exciting, yet somewhat sad time this is, ne.
Sorry for this lengthy mail. Separate mails seemed too time-consuming.
Welcome Letters for new ALTs
Kato-sensei and I will mail welcome packs to the new Prefectural ALTs next week. Whether you’re staying or leaving, Municipal or Prefectural, write a welcome letter for them. Please send me your letter, as an attachment, by Wednesday June 18th, onegaishimasu.
Municipal ALTs, the
Reference Letters for departing ALTs
If you want a reference letter, it’s better if you write you own letters and have your bosses sign them, rather than having your bosses write them. Thanx Jeremy.
If some of you are interested in a reference from Sato-sensei, he\'s invites you to mail and ask him: ffsatoken@yahoo.co.jp
If you’re interested in a reference from me, let me know and we’ll talk about it.
1st & 2nd year leaving JETs
You have a 3-year VISA. This working VISA is valid for 3 months after your JET contract ends. To extend it, you have to find a new job while this VISA is valid. After you find a new full-time job, go to the Sendai/Sakata bureau to get the Shurou Shikaku Shomeisho (employment certificate). Remember, whether it’s work or leisure, if you plan to stay in
Inhibitant’s Tax (3rd-5th-year ALTs)
Inhabitant\'s Tax is due this month. You should figure out "if" or "how" you need to pay beforehand so it doesn\'t come as a nasty surprise. Just to let you know, your BOE does deposit this amount into your account.
OE English Camp
Volunteers needed! Trust me, I know that it’s a difficult time of the year, but these students would love to meet you. So far, I have only one potential volunteer. You don’t have to be at the camp for 4 days. If you’re only available for 2 days, 1 day or even 1 afternoon, please volunteer. Don’t stay at your school nenkyued out and bored. This is a great opportunity to spend some quality time with students really interested in English! Leaving JETs, I promise that I’ll never ask you again. Think of the kids! Explore beautiful OE town!
Once again, below is a general outline for the Oe E-CAMP YAMAGATA 2008.
Date: From 3:00pm, Tuesday July 29th to 11am, Friday Aug 1st (4 days 3 nights).
Where: Yamagata-ken Asahi children’s nature center
2523-5 Tateyama Aterazawa Oe-city Yamagata-ken
Phone: 0237-62-4125
Participants: 20-40 JHS students
Aims:
1 To give junior high students the opportunity to develop their listening and speaking skills.
2 To provide a deeper understanding of the English language, foreign countries and their cultures.
Class size: 20 participants
Class length: 50 minutes
Content: English conversation activities.
If you are interested, please let me know by Monday, June 16th, if not sooner. I’ll provide more information to those of you who volunteer.
Daily Yomiuri news articles:
Here are a few more articles for you to ponder…
Bringing English to rural
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/20080529TDY14001.htm
Focus on form emphasized to improve English Fluency
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/20080603TDY18004.htm
Making English Work
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/20080603TDY18002.htm
Japanese in Depth: Live to Communicate!
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/20080520TDY19001.htm
Take care! Hope to see you at Van’s!
Title: Oe English Camp
2008/05/25
Good Afternoon Everyone,
The English Camp season is just around the corner and Konnai-sensei needs volunteers. Below is a general outline for the Oe E-CAMP YAMAGATA 2008.
Date: From 3:00pm, Tuesday July 29th to 11am , Friday Aug 1st (4 days 3 nights).
Where: Yamagata-ken Asahi children’s nature center
2523-5 Tateyama Aterazawa Oe-city Yamagata-ken
Phone: 0237-62-4125
Participants: 20-40 JHS students
Aims:
1 To give junior high students the opportunity to develop their listening and speaking skills.
2 To provide a deeper understanding of the English language, foreign countries and their cultures.
Class size: 20 participants
Class length: 50 minutes
Content: English conversation activities.
If you are interested, please let me know by Friday, June 13th, if not sooner. I’ll provide more information to those of you who volunteer.
Thanks in advance. Have a splendid week,
Ceed
Title: Daily Yomiuri News
2008/05/08
Title: Regional Seminar 2008
2008/01/08
The last round of seminars this year are the regional seminars taking place mid-late January, 2008. The basic aims of the seminar are as follows:
-To exchange innovative ideas for more successful Team-teaching.
-To strengthen relationships between JHS and SHS ALT communities.
-To discuss job-related and cross-cultural issues.
...and these are good and worthy goals.
We’ll start off the seminar by watching a superb ALT/JTE demo class in our regions. Afterward, we’ll discuss the demo class and have a brief re-contracting chat. In the afternoon, we will share ideas that have worked in the past or could work in the future.
We’d like each of you to prepare a handout with 4 activity ideas: a warm-up; grammar point/reading; a cultural activity and an outside-of-class activity. For the cultural activity, prepare something more generally “western-ish” or simply “non-Japan-esque.” Some examples are holiday-based (Halloween, Christmas...), sports (Cricket), dancing (The Lambada) etc. For each activity, if possible please include the following: school level (elementary, JHS or SHS), time allotment, description, variations etc. From your handout, choose one activity (plus a back-up) to demonstrate to the other ALTS, who will act as students.
To avoid any repetition, a demo-list will be created the day of. If two people intend to present the same idea, one of you will be jankened into presenting your 2nd choice. In an attempt to avoid jankening altogether, please think of activities that are not the norm. The more fun, interesting, daring your mini-demo, the better. If you want to push the envelop, go for it! Remember, there are 63 other ALTs that can potentially use your ideas in this prefecture alone!
Hopefully, for each seminar, there’ll be a number of people demonstrating various activity ideas. But, if everyone ends up doing warm-up demos, so be it. The point is for every ALT to have a flood of ideas to take away.
What to Bring : Please don’t forget the following: 1) Hanko. 2) Something to write on and with. 3) Your double-sided handout with the 4 lesson ideas (a copy for each participant in your region, plus 2 copies) and any necessary materials for your mini-demo. 4) Indoor shoes.
You have just under or over a month to think about ideas. Attached are the official letter that Sato-sensei sent to your school last week(including dates and location) and a sample handout, along with an accompanying power point file. The sample handout contains 2 cultural activity examples. But you only need one. Please try your best to have a one page double-sided handout.