So I recently got a job as a teacher and I am in charge of 2 JETs. I’ve never had experience being an ALT so I don’t really know what they want. What would you want or wanted the teachers to have you do?
Usually the biggest complaint is JET ALT want more open communication and collaboration. Many of them few underutilized and unfulfilled in their duties. It would be best to ask your two ALT when you meet them in person what they would like to do and how much they plan on participating in regards to class planning, etc.
Generally as the name implies, assist. Usually I’m used as a learning tool. Reading words on the board, talking to kids during the speaking portion of a lesson and occasionally designing materials to go with the lesson.
You can always start with giving them less involvement and slowly scaling up as they get used to being an ALT. This will also help you gauge what they can and want to do.
I want to quit.
Okay, I’m wondering something here. If I’m not mistaken, you are a native speaker who is licensed to teach in Japan. Why would you get an ALT for your class?
I thought the point of ALTs was to give the kids some exposure to people from other cultures and as a language model. Obviously, you are that model for your class.
Or am I getting something wrong here?
Well, I guess I would not be surprised if the BOE decided every English teacher gets an ALT just cause “this is what we do”. I have seen worse wastes of money.
Most ALTs want to be more involved. A lot of the time they are used as “human tape recorders” and occasionally do a game or activity.
Though in defense of the Japanese teachers, most ALTs have no experience or training in teaching and education so keeping them on that leash is sometimes the best option for them.
People are going to hate this, but have meetings with the Japanese teachers of English and the ALTs.
The one school where I felt everything was well done had a situation like this in place. It allows clear communication of what the expectation of the ALT is and what the ALT would like to do as well, assuming at least half of the JTEs can understand English well enough.
Don’t get me wrong, I hate meetings, but it’s preferable to the garbage you can get when one teacher just wants to use you as a human tape recorder and another wants to tell you **that morning** to make an activity using grammar point x for the class starting in 20 minutes.
I teach solo now in a private school, but when I was an ALT, that was the best situation. Have everything planned for the whole department and the same standard for each teacher in terms of expectations and actual use of the ALT.
IMO the best gigs basically involve: – Being paid as close to 330k a month as possible plus subsidised housing/living/healthcare expenses – Having minimal input (i.e. twiddling thumbs, then occasionally singing a song, playing a game with kids of modelling some conversational English while the JT handles grammar & classroom management/discipline) – Lotsa free periods to browse t3h w3bz and study Japanese – Proper, fully paid school holidays… none of that bullshit where you’re locked up in a room for 8 hours a day in dead silence, expected to ‘work’ because you’re being paid – No weird, ~45 year old gaijins who wear Nazi jackets to work, call you ‘one of them’ and make team gaijin look like a bunch of arseholes – A plane ticket home after ~1-3 years once you’ve decided what you wanna do with your life
I think JTEs need to have a more open mind about different teaching styles. I’ve had JTEs gossip to *other JTEs* that I never made lesson plans. This was a bold-faced lie, the lesson plans were just more input-based than they were used to.
The students enjoyed the lesson.
I enjoyed the lesson.
The JTE did not because it was different, and she made sure the other JTEs would stop using me as well.
It got so bad I had to make her put her hanko on the lesson plans because she kept saying I didn’t make any.
She would try to undermine my lesson after the fact by trying to force children to use the new words in full sentences, which was not the goal of the lesson to begin with. The students could listen to the words when used in novel commands (like “draw a red cat under a blue tree”) and they could perform the action flawlessly. In other words, it was a TPR lesson not a speaking lesson.
So again, JTEs need to be more open-minded. I understand that a lot of ALTs have no experience and no theory, but some do. Even the ones that don’t want to try out new things and *get better*.
>What would you want or wanted the teachers to have you do?
Approach this from the opposite direction. What do you want your ALTs to do?
As an ALT, I wish I had been given more responsibility with carrying out and implementing my own activities. But that’s not something I figured out until my 3rd or 4th year (dispatch ALT).
This is something that you need to discuss with your JETs. If they’re just out of college with no educational background, they probably won’t have a coherent answer for what they want to do in the classroom. So it’ll be up to you to decide what you want them do.
Hey OP,
New ALTs might not know what to expect at all, and they might need some guidance to understand what their role is exactly, from school to school, lesson to lesson.
Here’s what worked for me:
When I started out as an ALT, there usually wasn’t time for JTEs / HRTs to meet and discuss lesson plans week by week with me. But, a memo directing me to the lesson plan, textbook information and detailing what was expected of me in the lesson, was absolutely fine. I was also encouraged to regularly leave a memo or send an internal email to teachers if I had any questions, and then the teachers could reply similarly.
Communication is key, as other commenters have mentioned, but realistically, there isn’t time.
When I started as an ALT, I was given one or two sections of the lesson / textbook to lead (such as drilling vocabulary, or presenting cultural information linked to the lesson topic for 2-3 minutes). Then during group activities I went around the classroom monitoring students and joining in with them. That was everything I had to do in the beginning. This allowed me to get to know the lesson structure and my place in the classroom steadily.
After about 3 weeks, I was required to do more and more (which I was glad to do!). Eventually, I began to do everything; from beginning the lesson with greetings, reviewing the previous lesson, introducing the new lesson topic, presenting some relevant cultural information (usually a video or PowerPoint), drilling vocabulary, demonstrating activities and setting the students going with group work, organising extra activities (for me it was usually craft or sport related English activities at break times). Eventually, the lessons went from half-English half-Japanese, to almost entirely English. There are caveats to this, but this is the gist.
Hope that helps!
The fact that you’re on here asking these questions puts you in good stead, I think.
In my experience being clear cut with what they want from me, others have said this as well.
The best JTE I have worked with so far gives me a sheet what she wants to work on today, vocab, textbook readings, review, expressions, etc. And then we discuss how I could fit into this, whether it’s reading new words, role playing, explaining new concepts or if I have a game on hand, I can do that.
I think it’s good for a teacher themselves to have a set schedule of what they want to accomplish that day and what order, sharing this with an ALT helps a lot.
Just don’t make them be T1…like others have explained, offer clarity about their role/school expectations, and any advice of pointers for resources (if needed, like I had to lesson plan and got 0 help Until I asked repeatedly.) They are usually not experienced in teaching and completely new to this. Even a friend to be there for them/make them comfortable voicing their questions would be nice.
12 comments
Usually the biggest complaint is JET ALT want more open communication and collaboration. Many of them few underutilized and unfulfilled in their duties. It would be best to ask your two ALT when you meet them in person what they would like to do and how much they plan on participating in regards to class planning, etc.
Generally as the name implies, assist. Usually I’m used as a learning tool. Reading words on the board, talking to kids during the speaking portion of a lesson and occasionally designing materials to go with the lesson.
You can always start with giving them less involvement and slowly scaling up as they get used to being an ALT. This will also help you gauge what they can and want to do.
I want to quit.
Okay, I’m wondering something here. If I’m not mistaken, you are a native speaker who is licensed to teach in Japan. Why would you get an ALT for your class?
I thought the point of ALTs was to give the kids some exposure to people from other cultures and as a language model. Obviously, you are that model for your class.
Or am I getting something wrong here?
Well, I guess I would not be surprised if the BOE decided every English teacher gets an ALT just cause “this is what we do”. I have seen worse wastes of money.
Most ALTs want to be more involved. A lot of the time they are used as “human tape recorders” and occasionally do a game or activity.
Though in defense of the Japanese teachers, most ALTs have no experience or training in teaching and education so keeping them on that leash is sometimes the best option for them.
People are going to hate this, but have meetings with the Japanese teachers of English and the ALTs.
The one school where I felt everything was well done had a situation like this in place. It allows clear communication of what the expectation of the ALT is and what the ALT would like to do as well, assuming at least half of the JTEs can understand English well enough.
Don’t get me wrong, I hate meetings, but it’s preferable to the garbage you can get when one teacher just wants to use you as a human tape recorder and another wants to tell you **that morning** to make an activity using grammar point x for the class starting in 20 minutes.
I teach solo now in a private school, but when I was an ALT, that was the best situation. Have everything planned for the whole department and the same standard for each teacher in terms of expectations and actual use of the ALT.
IMO the best gigs basically involve:
– Being paid as close to 330k a month as possible plus subsidised housing/living/healthcare expenses
– Having minimal input (i.e. twiddling thumbs, then occasionally singing a song, playing a game with kids of modelling some conversational English while the JT handles grammar & classroom management/discipline)
– Lotsa free periods to browse t3h w3bz and study Japanese
– Proper, fully paid school holidays… none of that bullshit where you’re locked up in a room for 8 hours a day in dead silence, expected to ‘work’ because you’re being paid
– No weird, ~45 year old gaijins who wear Nazi jackets to work, call you ‘one of them’ and make team gaijin look like a bunch of arseholes
– A plane ticket home after ~1-3 years once you’ve decided what you wanna do with your life
I think JTEs need to have a more open mind about different teaching styles. I’ve had JTEs gossip to *other JTEs* that I never made lesson plans. This was a bold-faced lie, the lesson plans were just more input-based than they were used to.
The students enjoyed the lesson.
I enjoyed the lesson.
The JTE did not because it was different, and she made sure the other JTEs would stop using me as well.
It got so bad I had to make her put her hanko on the lesson plans because she kept saying I didn’t make any.
She would try to undermine my lesson after the fact by trying to force children to use the new words in full sentences, which was not the goal of the lesson to begin with. The students could listen to the words when used in novel commands (like “draw a red cat under a blue tree”) and they could perform the action flawlessly. In other words, it was a TPR lesson not a speaking lesson.
So again, JTEs need to be more open-minded. I understand that a lot of ALTs have no experience and no theory, but some do. Even the ones that don’t want to try out new things and *get better*.
>What would you want or wanted the teachers to have you do?
Approach this from the opposite direction. What do you want your ALTs to do?
As an ALT, I wish I had been given more responsibility with carrying out and implementing my own activities. But that’s not something I figured out until my 3rd or 4th year (dispatch ALT).
This is something that you need to discuss with your JETs. If they’re just out of college with no educational background, they probably won’t have a coherent answer for what they want to do in the classroom. So it’ll be up to you to decide what you want them do.
Hey OP,
New ALTs might not know what to expect at all, and they might need some guidance to understand what their role is exactly, from school to school, lesson to lesson.
Here’s what worked for me:
When I started out as an ALT, there usually wasn’t time for JTEs / HRTs to meet and discuss lesson plans week by week with me. But, a memo directing me to the lesson plan, textbook information and detailing what was expected of me in the lesson, was absolutely fine. I was also encouraged to regularly leave a memo or send an internal email to teachers if I had any questions, and then the teachers could reply similarly.
Communication is key, as other commenters have mentioned, but realistically, there isn’t time.
When I started as an ALT, I was given one or two sections of the lesson / textbook to lead (such as drilling vocabulary, or presenting cultural information linked to the lesson topic for 2-3 minutes). Then during group activities I went around the classroom monitoring students and joining in with them. That was everything I had to do in the beginning. This allowed me to get to know the lesson structure and my place in the classroom steadily.
After about 3 weeks, I was required to do more and more (which I was glad to do!). Eventually, I began to do everything; from beginning the lesson with greetings, reviewing the previous lesson, introducing the new lesson topic, presenting some relevant cultural information (usually a video or PowerPoint), drilling vocabulary, demonstrating activities and setting the students going with group work, organising extra activities (for me it was usually craft or sport related English activities at break times). Eventually, the lessons went from half-English half-Japanese, to almost entirely English. There are caveats to this, but this is the gist.
Hope that helps!
The fact that you’re on here asking these questions puts you in good stead, I think.
In my experience being clear cut with what they want from me, others have said this as well.
The best JTE I have worked with so far gives me a sheet what she wants to work on today, vocab, textbook readings, review, expressions, etc. And then we discuss how I could fit into this, whether it’s reading new words, role playing, explaining new concepts or if I have a game on hand, I can do that.
I think it’s good for a teacher themselves to have a set schedule of what they want to accomplish that day and what order, sharing this with an ALT helps a lot.
Just don’t make them be T1…like others have explained, offer clarity about their role/school expectations, and any advice of pointers for resources (if needed, like I had to lesson plan and got 0 help Until I asked repeatedly.) They are usually not experienced in teaching and completely new to this. Even a friend to be there for them/make them comfortable voicing their questions would be nice.