1) when I came from t2 jhs and started immediately as t1 in ES with the t2 literally being invisible like didn't exist. I couldn't understand the teaching style and books (teachers book only Japanese) and had no experience taking a lesson for 40 mins. I'd be like ok what shall we do next…. Idk…. Just standing there like a lemon. Really traumatic for me and probably for the kids. Fixed it by writing out a4 pages per class of literally everything I was going to say by imagining it in my head. Added a ton of activities, warm ups, games, and self made activity sheets. Still couldn't get my head around how to use the book and tv video properly , but the students loved me for what I did. Really traumatic start tho. I'm actually scared shitless to go back to ES even tho I know I can do it now.
2) jh teacher who asks me to do his class but then changes what he wants at the last minute. For example I have a class I've done before all beautifully timed out and really interesting and cool and level appropriate. But then in the last 15 mins he asks me to change how I'm gonna conclude the lesson and it just becomes a boring shit fest for the last 15 minutes and every repor I had dies. For example I did a sentence mix and match cooperative class and go round to every table and correct or praise them as they make the answers but then the last 15 minutes he says I have to read out all 25 sentences one by one which completely killed the mood. Dude if I'm taking the class and obviously know what I'm doing don't fuck me up. I honestly just should have said no.
3) t1 in jhs the main English teacher just fucking leaves at the start of multiple lessons and I was relying on him to be interactive and provide real time input and Japanese input so they understand and get engaged but nope it's just me there with my presentation and open ended questions to the students so when they reply to me because I don't know Japanese I'm just like "yeah. Probably. Good job. I have no fking idea what you just said. Where the fuck is the other teacher by the way?" multiple classes . How I fixed this was obviously rewriting my lesson plans to assume there won't be any jp teacher in my classes and also complain to the Kyoto sensei to get him back in my class. And then do you know what he did? Sat in the back of my classes chatting up the female 15 year olds in the corner and literally shouting out funny responses to me while the girls all laughed. And in another 1st year class I had students ask me "why do you hate xx teacher?" and I was like ummm… I don't??? (But it would be nice if he came to my classes and actually helped…..and not make me out like I'm a loser….)
As for the 3 things mentioned above, only number 2 really screwed me over because the others the students still really loved me and understood my situation. In 2) they didn't know the teacher was screwing me over and just thought I was being annoying so that's what pissed me off the most I guess.
by Apart_Instruction345