IrishOboe

This year my schedule is full on Thursday and Fridays, which is not ideal, but it will work out. I teach four classes on Thursday and Friday, and on Thursday I have three in a row. It’s not so bad, but I have to say I was a little bit sick of my introduction lesson by the time I’d done it twelve times . . .

For the most part classes are fairly good. Of course some are more responsive than others and the English ability and interest level various quite a bit. Of particular note, one half of the 1-1 class (they group the classes by ability with 1-6 as the highest and 1-1 the lowest) had not a clue. They were quite self-motivated in the speaking activity, but they were clueless with the rest of my lesson. I made a note that their English ability was almost null set about thinking of ways to compensate for the next class. However, the next week I was in for a great surprise.My second lesson was going fairly well with most classes, however, I’d fallen into the easy trap of having Hirose sensei translate what I said. My reason was that I didn’t want to take too much time explaining logistics because I wanted students to have time to actually do the activity. Plus, it was important that they understand what the goal was. So, in class I would take 10 minutes to explain (with interpretation) that I wanted them to write a Show and Tell introduction that they’d perform next class as their oral test for this term, then Hirose sensei and I would give our own Show and Tell presentations as examples. This also gave me a chance to introduce myself to my kids (I’d planned to do this in the first lesson but as usual I’d underestimated the time activities would take so it got pushed back). That left 35 minutes for them to think about what to bring for Show and Tell and write their scripts with our help when they needed. Most classes did quite well, though always there were some who jumped right in and others whose minds were someplace else. That doesn’t bother me, but Hirose sensei is a teacher and made sure to keep them in check. In most classes students were willing to call me over for help and try to express themselves in English (it took a while for last year’s ichinensei to do that), and I was happy that many times when they just spoke in Japanese to me what they wanted to say I was able to figure it out. Maybe I should have insisted that they try harder to put it into English, but I was too excited by the challenge to think about that . . .

But let me get back to the “dumb” 1-1 class. Due to situations beyond control I ended up at the last minute in the “dumb” student class with no JTE. That meant no translation with a group of kids who don’t know any English. Fortunately, I had the mistake idea that a JTE would come so I figured I’d start with what I could and by the end of that the JTE would arrive to clear things up. Well, nobody showed up (just a miscommunication) and I had the class to myself. Disaster? Not at all! It was one of the best teaching moments of my time here! As I mentioned before they were fairly genki (energetic) and self-motivated. I have to take time out to note that those are my terms for the 1-1 class. The school calls it “undisciplined.” They are quite disappointed in this year’s new crop of students. As you can tell, I feel quite differently, but I still judged them as too dumb for English! So, how did I survive class with no translator? First, I learned that there are more simple ways to explain things if I’m forced to think of them. I knew this was the case with one-on-one interactions, but I was never too good at it in the classroom. Somehow, on the spot, I improvised a way to explain everything more simply. What really made it work is that the students were responsive to me. If they didn’t understand they made it clear by saying “wakaranai” (I don’t understand) and “eh?” “nani?” (what?) and turning to their neighbors for help. Sure it’s Japanese, but I understood that they didn’t have a clue. That’s okay, I said it another way and one student would get it. I could tell because he went “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” then explained to his fellow students. What was beautiful is that it wasn’t always the same students who said “wakaranai” and “aaaaaaaaah!” They understood different parts and helped each other. It was a team effort and everyone was involved. I knew when to slow down and say it a different way and when to move on because it was clear what they understood or not. It did help that I could throw in a Japanese word here or there and understand enough of their talk to each other to know that they had the basic idea right. It didn’t take much longer than usual to get through the explanation and the rest of class went as usual with students working on their projects and asking me for help. Now, most of them didn’t write as much as other classes, and a larger percentage than normal used the time to goof off, but again, I don’t mind. It’s their grade! At least I knew they understood and were choosing to not put their utmost into it. At the same time, the other students did a great job and showed they understood the goal of the assignment and finished with a decent product (something very few in other classes did). This was beautiful class for me (and I hope for them!) because we engaged in genuine communication. I was able to keep a relaxed atmosphere because I was the only one present (the JTE’s take care of discipline problems). For example, one boy got up and was standing next to his friend discussion the assignment. I took the chair from his desk and brought it over for him, which shocked both boys since a normal response would be a command to return to his seat. We learn when we work together! If that’s how they choose to go about the assignment, it doesn’t bother me any! If there’s spirited discussion that sometimes strays from the assignment, so be it. I see progress being made and the students enjoying themselves. What more could I want? When I requested their attention to clarify something, it took a little time to get them to settle down, but they did (with the help of their peers) and I had their respect. Sometimes when I have the respect of students I can’t tell, but when I can tell, it’s clear as day. I communicated the necessary information, then let them get back to their work.

Let’s take a moment to see this from the school’s perspective. I use the word school to portray a philosophy pervasive in the schools that is necessarily conveyed through the teachers and administrators since there is no ‘school’ apart from them. However, individual teachers have hearts for their students and truly intend the best for them. Thus when I describe the inhumane way students are viewed I use the word “school” because this view of student flows from the structure of the institution and not from evil on the part of administrators and teachers.

This is what the school sees. Here is classroom without a real teacher. She has no control of the ADD students who cannot sit still and quietly listen to her instructions. Students shift about in their seats and talk to their neighbors, not even in whispers but in full voice. They rudely interrupt the teacher’s lecture sometimes laugh out loud. After a chaotic 15 minutes of lecture the students don’t sit down quietly to their assignment but move about the classroom and chat with their neighbors never fully focusing on their work. They are loud and disruptive and completely undisciplined. It takes thirty second for the teacher to gain their attention and soon after the chaotic environment is reestablished. This is why it is against contract to allow an Assistant Language Teacher to run a class alone. This is why the education system is in trouble. The student level is getting worse every year.