First solo teaching day

Teaching has begun in earnest!

Today I went to my first school, Minami Okanmuri. The idea is that I, as the Assistant English Teacher, tag team with the Homeroom teacher, and together we provide an English lesson to the class. Today's lessons were a bit difficult, because it was a) my first experience teaching without the backup of other more experienced AETs, and b) I hadn't had a chance to plan what I was doing with the homeroom teachers, except a kind of "do a self introduction, and then start following the curriculum".

Today I taught 3 classes of year 5, and 2 classes of year 6, with one free period. Year 5 was long self intro followed by teaching them to introduce themselves, say "nice to meet you" (that's the vocab in the curriculum), and to shake hands. Year 6 was long self introduction, followed by the alphabet song, butchered to slow down the "...lmnop..." section. It also finishes with "Happy happy, I'm happy. I can sing my ABC". Eugh!

It's amazing though how you can run through the same activities and have each class react so differently. One class ran right to the bell, and we weren't wasting time. One class the teacher got confused about finish time, and as a result we finished 15 minutes early, and had to go back to question time to fill in the gap. Another class I went onto material that I hadn't done with any of the others, because we needed something else to do.

On the whole though, I think things went well. By the end of the week, I'll be pro at the basic intro lesson (but will need to figure out how to teach the next lot).

Outside the classroom, the teachers seemed very friendly, 3 gave me foodstuffs, a couple made prolonged attempts at conversation, one went and found me a year one kanji workbook, and anyone I asked was very helpful.

Now repeat the new experience *5, and I'll have had an introduction to all my schools. I have a newfound respect for primary school teachers. They must be made of pure energy!