What do you guys do when you feel unmotivated to teach/work? Cause we all have that bad days, right? Like you don’t have the energy to enthusiastic in front of your class. Do you need to be energetic all the time??? It’s draining sometimes 😢
ES? I feel your pain. JHS? It shouldn’t be all energetic all the time, as long as you can put some energy into what you say.
I personally try to plan a little trip on the weekend or maybe consider taking some vacation. It really helps me to have something fun to look forward to.
Sometimes looking at funny memes or videos help. I’ve definitely not been energetic at all times, but it’s also because I feed off of others’ energy…and my high schoolers are often very quiet or tired.
It’s totally okay to have bad days and/or not having the energy to be super genki teacher, you’re human it shouldn’t be expected for us to be like that all the time.
I’ve had those days where motivation just isn’t there for work but I try to remember there’s more to this job… than just teaching.
So have that bad day, it’s okay. Clock out, go do something for yourself whether it’s a walk, grabbing a new bite to eat, singing at karaoke or meeting up with friends.
Motivation will come back when it’s ready, it sounds like you really care about your job and I think that’s great.
I don’t give the best advice at all, but best of luck OP.
I try to have other stuff going on outside of work so that my week doesn’t revolve around what happened in school. Even if I’m feeling a bit tired. The other ALTs who just go to school and go home literally aren’t able to discuss anything else and go into this spiral of complaints.
If you’re not a naturally energetic person its going to burn you out quickly trying to fake it. You can still have a fun class without shouting and jumping around like a clown. Your key is in the lesson content. I’m definitely not the energetic type either.
This year I have a lot of extra classes during the summer vacation. But if I ever feel unmotivated, I wait until a break and take a vacation using a lot of nenkyuu. Now summer vacation is starting all over Japan. It’s probably the perfect time for you to refresh.
When it happens I remind myself that I am in fact an **Assistant Language Teacher** and I focus on assisting my JTE and let them know I am here to **Assist**. If I wasn’t clear, assisting is the title of my job. I take a step back and take some hours off to recalibrate and show up ready to assist. As an assistant I sometimes give the energy that is required of an Assistant and nothing more. Which means that some days I am required to assist hard.
It sounds silly, but it is necessary for me remember my role here and not let my JTEs become complacent while at the same time not coming off as a lazy bastard according to some JTEs. Since **some** of them act offended that I can’t teach the content **they** are trained to do.
Time to remind people that usually, your nenkyu refreshes in August…so if you wanna take a week, there are some three day holidays coming up in august that you could probably get away with taking 3-4 days, and having 7-8 days off total.
Sometimes I just wasn’t really genki. I was still kind and interested in my students and they seemed to appreciate that. Often I’d just find little ways to make myself laugh. I’d look for chances to add a bit of humor. It was certainly easier with the elementary texts that had such random content. Sometimes I’d just make pained expressions at the kids while we all repeated some awful sentence until the kids started laughing. In general getting kids laughing helps when I’m down and making faces is pretty low energy.
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ES? I feel your pain. JHS? It shouldn’t be all energetic all the time, as long as you can put some energy into what you say.
I personally try to plan a little trip on the weekend or maybe consider taking some vacation. It really helps me to have something fun to look forward to.
Sometimes looking at funny memes or videos help. I’ve definitely not been energetic at all times, but it’s also because I feed off of others’ energy…and my high schoolers are often very quiet or tired.
It’s totally okay to have bad days and/or not having the energy to be super genki teacher, you’re human it shouldn’t be expected for us to be like that all the time.
I’ve had those days where motivation just isn’t there for work but I try to remember there’s more to this job… than just teaching.
So have that bad day, it’s okay. Clock out, go do something for yourself whether it’s a walk, grabbing a new bite to eat, singing at karaoke or meeting up with friends.
Motivation will come back when it’s ready, it sounds like you really care about your job and I think that’s great.
I don’t give the best advice at all, but best of luck OP.
I try to have other stuff going on outside of work so that my week doesn’t revolve around what happened in school. Even if I’m feeling a bit tired. The other ALTs who just go to school and go home literally aren’t able to discuss anything else and go into this spiral of complaints.
If you’re not a naturally energetic person its going to burn you out quickly trying to fake it. You can still have a fun class without shouting and jumping around like a clown. Your key is in the lesson content. I’m definitely not the energetic type either.
This year I have a lot of extra classes during the summer vacation. But if I ever feel unmotivated, I wait until a break and take a vacation using a lot of nenkyuu. Now summer vacation is starting all over Japan. It’s probably the perfect time for you to refresh.
When it happens I remind myself that I am in fact an **Assistant Language Teacher** and I focus on assisting my JTE and let them know I am here to **Assist**. If I wasn’t clear, assisting is the title of my job. I take a step back and take some hours off to recalibrate and show up ready to assist. As an assistant I sometimes give the energy that is required of an Assistant and nothing more. Which means that some days I am required to assist hard.
It sounds silly, but it is necessary for me remember my role here and not let my JTEs become complacent while at the same time not coming off as a lazy bastard according to some JTEs. Since **some** of them act offended that I can’t teach the content **they** are trained to do.
Time to remind people that usually, your nenkyu refreshes in August…so if you wanna take a week, there are some three day holidays coming up in august that you could probably get away with taking 3-4 days, and having 7-8 days off total.
Sometimes I just wasn’t really genki. I was still kind and interested in my students and they seemed to appreciate that. Often I’d just find little ways to make myself laugh. I’d look for chances to add a bit of humor. It was certainly easier with the elementary texts that had such random content. Sometimes I’d just make pained expressions at the kids while we all repeated some awful sentence until the kids started laughing. In general getting kids laughing helps when I’m down and making faces is pretty low energy.