With the new school year starting and all, I felt compelled to write an article about the best ways to deal with a child that’s misbehaving. If you’re a teacher in America you can communicate to fully, in English, to those students when they are cutting up. Albeit if they’re really bad kids, they’re probably […]
You know, one interesting similarity about American and Japanese elementary school graduations is that there is a song that the students have to sing. I must be getting old or something because I can’t remember what my 7th grade, elementary school graduation song was**. I want to say it was Michael Jackson’s “Heal The World,” […]
…read Part 1 of this article… Wait, are you supposed to start with the bad news first? Damn it! Ah well, I won’t say anything if you don’t. Let’s take a look at some of the downsides of my first year as an ALT in Japan. THE NOT SO GOOD I’ll try to say these […]
It’s official, I have signed on for an additional year as an ALT. I will have a chance to teach many of the same great students that I had last year, and work with many of the same teachers, too. In many respects, it’s wonderful news. The first year I think was a chance to […]
Ah, teaching in Japan, one of the most fulfilling experiences you could ask for. The sun shines everyday, even on rainy days the sun shines just on my school. Birds chirps in English, the children are always 200% genki and merry, parents of your students greet you with fresh fruits in the morning, and you […]
I was talking about different types of desserts in one of my kids classes today, and I was shocked at the response to carrot cake. When I told the kids what it was, the response from most of the kids was “Ehhhhh!!!” (surprise). Followed by a chorus of “Iyadas” (いやだ) which is what I like […]
As a foreigner who is still working on his Japanese, working in a Japanese public school can present some challenges from time to time. One such challenge is getting used to new, Japanese, school-related vocabulary. Were I teaching at American public school, I wouldn’t even give issues like this a second thought because English is […]