People who are in charge of English clubs or created them, how is it?

13 comments

1. I went to English club everyday that we had it, but I almost always went with a JTE who was in charge of it. I was still the main person planing activities. We played games, did crossword puzzles, and watched Youtube videos. It started around 3:40 and I would usually leave at, or a little bit after, 4:30, regardless of whether not the club had finished. If it was one of those days without a JTE I would wait until 5 and send everyone home.

   My opinion of it is fairly positive. I thought it was fun and it gave me a lot of opportunies to try activities that I wouldn’t be able to during class time.

2. Participating is different from being in charge. You DO NOT want to be in charge of that because it could mean up to 2 hours of daily extra unpaid work.

   Each school is different, you should ask students how it is in your school

3. I was told that I cannot be here after 410pm. So even if I wanted to do clubs, I can’t do them.

4. We have English club twice a week, once for 15 mins during lunch time as a sort of lunch chat and then from 3:30-5 pm two days later. For the most part, it’s watching movies, playing games, and recently, my JTE wants to try to use a new textbook with them, which I don’t care for since it’s a little too much like their actual classes with not enough talking. I didn’t have guidance on what the English club did from my predecessor and the JTE always overrides when I ask the kids if there’s anything specific they want to go over like music, casual language, acting out scenarios and so on so we haven’t gotten to do any of that. Generally I just show up and bring a topic like the English newspaper article, talk about a recent holiday/event etc. for the lunch time chat.

5. The English club at my school is very low commitment. There are two teachers officially in charge of it who take care of the logistics and whatnot (funding requests, recruitment, preparing for culture day, etc…). To be honest, my only role is to “plan” the activity for the meeting. We only meet once a week.

   Last year, we had 12 students. None of them were serious about English in the slightest. It was essentially a step up from “Go Home Club”. We hardly did anything productive.

   This year it’s only three students, but they are actually super motivated to learn English. We just play a different board game every week (hence why I put plan in quotes above). That’s mostly what they want to do and they enjoy it.

   As far as extra time, I’m schedule to work until 4.15 but the club runs until 4.30, so yeah it’s an extra 15 minutes. I’m not one to make a big fuss about 15 minutes once a week though.

   A friend though works at a bigger school with a more intensive club. She mostly does board games and shows movies. Her club runs until 5, but she’s made it clear to the JTEs that also lead the club that her day ends at 4.15 and heads out at that time.

6. Something to check would be how you school handles clubs. My JHS requires all students to join a club and all clubs have practice 5 days a week (4 weekdays + Saturday morning). Students aren’t allowed to join more than one club. So obviously, starting an English club at my JHS would be pretty close to impossible. I know other schools have a chiller approach to clubs though, so knowing where your school falls on that spectrum would be important

7. I’m in charge of my English club. Twice a week for a total of 2-3 hours. I plan our activities, which spans from watching movies to having holiday parties and doing presentations about American culture. It is definitely a lot of unpaid extra work, but I really enjoy it. I’m at a high level high school so it’s a good opportunity for the kids who are really enthusiastic about English to use it in a fun space without any fear of making mistakes.

8. My contract lasts for 35 hours a week. I worked it out that for every hour worked past 35, I am able to get time away from school when it’s possible. I keep track of it, and you should too.

   Please everyone, remember that we are part-time assistant teachers.

9. For my school (SHS), they’re limited to a certain number of official clubs, so instead I have an English cafe every other week. I’m usually there until 5:30-6:00pm on that day. Usually I have a bunch of different games (scattergories, my version of cards against humanity, etc.)or topics that we talk about as a group, but I also ask them what they want to do for the next lesson. I usually have 3-4 ideas and let them pick. Then I spend the next 2 weeks prepping.

   My kids love it, and they are super active during the lesson. It is night and day compared to how quiet they are in class. I really enjoy it too. It’s helped me connect with a lot of students trying to prep for university exams.

10. I’m “in charge” of English club at my school and honestly I hate it. It’s SHS and I have been given literally zero guidance on what to do. There’s 5 kids that come and while they’re all lovely they don’t really want to speak English with each other, aren’t very good at it or are very shy. I can’t blame them for any of this. I don’t speak Japanese with my other foreign friends, why would they speak English with their Japanese colleagues? But the shyness kills me. Again, I totally get it. I was a shy high schooler, but it’s torture. I try and chat with them and ask questions but they just ‘I don’t know’ or say one word answers usually.

    I asked the kids what they wanted and they just said “games”, so we play Uno, Jenga, Battleship, Pictionary. I want to try ‘Two truths one lie’ with them but it might be too hard, honestly. It’s really tough having activities in English for first, second and third year SHS because the knowledge gap is pretty large at that point. It’s also tough researching activities as so many are based around ES or JHS. And I don’t really wanna spend a bunch of money on games.

    At least for me, it’s just an hour once a week inside my contract hours, so I don’t stay late. It’s just time making battleship sheets or whatever. I don’t know if it’s worse in some ways because it’s just an extra club for some of the kids, so they don’t really care, and attendance is spotty and hugely variable. Some weeks it’s just 2, sometimes cancelled due to nobody showing up, one time we had 4, then a new member and a week with 3, then back to 2… And if it were daily/couple of times a week I could do longer form activities with them or watch-alongs or something, but then I don’t really want the extra workload so eh… I want to try making a cards against humanities game but I’m hesitant to put all the effort in and then have the kids really struggle to play it.

    The worst worst worst bit though is my helicopter JTE. She’s *in charge* of English club, but basically it just means that she hovers awkwardly around and jumps in occasionally to fuss with something or tell us it’s time to go. I know, I have a watch… She just kinda kills any chill atmosphere I can get with the students.

    I want English club to be good but I’m still new and still finding my feet here, so at the moment it’s pretty shitty. I was hoping they’d all enter speech contest so we could do that for weeks, but only one did and he’s too shy to read his speech in front of the club. I hope I can improve it but I’m not really sure how.

11. After attending but not being involved in the planning, I inherited my English club from some dispatch/direct hire teachers who couldn’t be bothered to do JH English club anymore.

    I asked them what they wanted to do because it was “their” club. So we elected a club president (actually 3 girls who wanted to share the duties) and I told them that they could plan all their activities or games each week. But that if they needed any help with ideas, materials or management, to let me know and I would support them. I still attended, but I let them run things.

    2.5 years after finishing JET, I hear it’s still being student run and doing fine.

12. I have an agreement with one of my schools that my work day starts later because I do English club until late every Tuesday (when I visit them). I love the English club and am a late riser so it’s a win-win. Some ALT in the past must have requested this because I did not bring it up to my school. At this club I am technically not the head but am seen as the head because the head JTE never attends. I plan games, projects, have brought movies, chat with the kids, it’s quite nice.

13. Like with most things JET, this can be ESID. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s “a bunch of unpaid extra work, extra responsibilities, and requires many commitments.” For some people it may fall entirely within their responsibilities in their contract.

    For me personally, it required 2 whole hours of overtime per week (till 5:30 on M/F). Sure it’s unpaid and falls into a weird gray area in our contract, but personally I saw it as a privilege. It was a great chance to get to know the students on a more personal level and it gave the kids who wanted to extra opportunities to practice English or play English-based games.

    I only had 11 classes on average throughout the week so I had plenty of downtime to prepare for my club so it definitely was a ton of extra responsibilities, but I know others are different. Could you theoretically turn it down? I guess, but I’m gonna be honest, I feel like anyone who does that, unless you have a heinously busy in-school schedule, is kind of just a scumbag. Hot take? Maybe. I just think it’s a lost opportunity if you do.