I (27F, ALT) am so annoyed at one of my JTEs… Let’s call him JTE1. JTE1 shares duty of the 1年 (SHS) with JTE2. JTE2 is super organized and on top of everything : he takes a lot of time to make sure his groups understand the material and goes beyond the basic info given in the textbook. His classes are always very engaging and the kids have fun, and he always communicates clearly with me about what we’ll be doing and how he needs me to contribute.
Now, JTE1 is a very busy man. He runs a bunch of clubs and administrative stuff, he’s not often at his desk. I still manage to go see him before every class and ask him what we’ll do. The answer is usually something along the lines of “I’ll explain the grammar and you assist me.” Sounds good! However, he then shows up to class and obviously has no idea what he’s doing. He knows the grammar per se, but seems to be looking at the textbook for the very first time. He keeps looking at me like “what’s next??” or doesn’t seem to understand what needs to be done in the textbook, which is all in Japanese so I can’t help much either. He sits down, clicks through the provided powerpoint and blandly reads along. Sometimes, he’ll also just randomly announce to the class that I’m going to have them play a review game now, without asking me first, and I’m stuck having to improvise a 45-minute game that’ll magically help them review a very specific grammar point. I usually try to stay “ready for anything” for last minute scenarios, but it’s always a little jarring/embarassing when it happens IN CLASS and is for full periods.
Now that exams are coming up, it is very clear that students from JTE1’s groups are completely lost. They don’t really understand the grammar all that well, they simply memorized the example phrases. Now, you might tell me that that’s just how English education is in Japan, but in this case JTE2’s classes are doing so great and really understand. It feels really unfair because of course they’ll all get the same exam.
I am hoping that JTE2 (to whom I’ve mentioned this issue) takes it upon himself to talk to JTE1 and try to synchronize efforts. JTE2 is my age, and a good friend, whereas JTE1 is much older and conservative… I’m a little afraid to vex him. What can I do/suggest to help make second term a little less unbalanced for students?
TLDR ; one JTE sucks, the other one’s awesome, and it feels unfair to the students.
13 comments
That’s …. Life.
If you think back to your great and not so great teachers during grade school, some were on top of their game and some were just cruising until retirement.
The students who don’t understand the concepts will probably get help from their cram schools and whatever additional tutoring is available if they are motivated enough to grasp the concepts.
You can do your part to assist JTE1 but don’t be disappointed if your willingness to assist gets turned away. You’re fulfilling your duties as an ALT and that’s all they want from you.
You are doing a wonderful job and your concern for the students is wonderful, sadly, that’s just the way the school system is.
The best thing to do is to talk to JTE2 and hope they talk to JTE1. However as JTE1 is older I don’t think anything will change.
in JTE1’s classes just try your best to help the students in any way possible. Also put your foot down in a nice way and tell JTE1 that if you don’t have any warning about preparing an activity, that the best you can do is a 10 minute warming up kind of game and then the rest will be self study time.
I’ve had to “sacrifice” a class once in which the JTE was like okay so let’s start the review quiz game with the ALT, something the JTE did not mention at all during our talk at the start of the week. This wasn’t the first time so this time I just looked at him and said I don’t have anything prepared. JTE was like oh and we did textbook/workbook/self study.
After the class, in a calm way I just explained how I didn’t have an activity because you didn’t tell me, and that in the future I’m happy to prepare something as long as I’m told ahead of time. You want to get the point of “how the fuck am i supposed to have fucking 50 minute activity prepared when you didn’t tell me shit when you had all the fucking time in the world to do so yesterday” in the nicest way possible. If JTE isn’t an asshole they’ll recognize oh yeah true I didn’t say anything so my b, going forward I’ll communicate more.
As someone married to a public JHS teacher (not eng) and a private jhs teacher myself : the first teacher is probably mentally overloaded. You can let them know that it’s rough to pull a game out of nowhere – just be kind. It is unlikely the younger teacher will get the older to do anything because that runs counter to how age relationships work here.
Subject teaching is not considered the #1 priority of teachers in public schools in this country, just one of many priorities.
The Japanese education system has many, *many* flaws and JTE1 is a perfect example of one of the larger ones. Japanese teachers have way too many responsibilities laboriously put upon them, both from the administrative side and from after school clubs. It comes as part of the Japanese Ministry’s efforts to maximize their employees and reduce costs. *”Why hire extra staff when we have all these other employees that can do that* ***little extra work*** *during their regular hours?”*
It would be ideal, perhaps, to ask JTE2 if there are any reference guides or study cheat sheets that they might have that you could share with JTE1’s class.
What you mean is one JTE is being screwed over by different levels of the school. It happens, but it’s not (entirely) their fault. JTE2 and JTE1 should already be talking if they share a course.
What can you do? Work on your Japanese and ask JTE1 for a schedule as to where he’ll be according to the calendar and make materials accordingly. You don’t **have** to, but that’s what you can do to help JTE1’s kids.
This is his class, he can do what he wants. You have zero responsibility for the students. Just be patient and wait until you or him to change school.
I wonder if the term malicious compliance would fit here.
When they embarrass you like that say “Okay JTE, can you explain the rules of the game in Japanese and demo it once?” Tell them in the middle of class that they didn’t tell you to prepare a game beforehand, and so you thought they had a game ready.
At that point i would probably study the grammar and be prepared to do my own lessons. There are maybe like 20 or 40 grammar related vocabulary words that you need to teach grammar in Japanese.
After he “teaches” them the grammar and hands you the class, just reteach everything and play a game. Depending on how you do it he’ll either loathe you for upstaging him or love you for doing his job for him.
Or just relax and ignore everything because it’s beyond your pay grade.
If you have a text book then you can usually guess roughly what will be taught that day anyway. They usually do 2 pages over 4 lessons i.e. 1 grammar point per week. If you are feeling fruity you can ask a student in the class what they did in the previous class or if you are free, casually walk past the classroom while they are teaching.
I had a JTE just as disorganized so I just prepared 2 activities. Vocab games are great because they don’t rely too much on the grammar. I also would prepare things like crosswords and word searches that the JTE would just steal and use instead of teaching. You could do things like crossfire .
It sucks that the JTE is bad, your company won’t help you and theres a chance the JTE will blame you for their shitness. But alas that is how things are here.
Not to sound harsh, but can you prepare the class by yourself, perhaps mimicking the JTEs class you like so much? If your partner seems to be looking at you to do something, then prepare something in advance. It sure helps to know how to say in Japanese what the students will learn in English, but it’s not completely necessary. You can teach a class using mostly English.
Also, don’t make excuses for the JTE who isn’t prepared. I honestly don’t care if he or she is too busy. Their main purpose is to teach. Their classes and the students should always be first priority. And if they cannot do that, they shouldn’t be teaching. I’d also go so far to say that the majority of teachers who say they are busy…just aren’t as busy as they say they are. Looking busy here is such a big part of the culture, even when you are not.
Repeat to yourself: not my circus, not my monkeys.
And if you want to be a teacher, get out of ALT work – you’re not going to gain much good experience or knowledge when you have to work under teachers like JTE1.
As one person mentioned. It is way beyond your pay grade as an ALT to give a fuck. Just be glad that you don’t have to deal with JTE1 all day. If he complaints about the quality of the games, then tell him that “the quality is reflective of the amount of time I was given to prepare.”
I had a very similar experience. Up until March of this year our former department chair was behaving like your JTE1. This went on for three and a half years in a row. Should mention this is elementary school and this JTE is no longer with the school (transferred out).
In my situation, two OBs (they came three times a year to watch our lessons) had a multiple serious conversations with the this former JTE. I’ll spare you the majority of what happened, but the underlying complaint from the OBs was that he wasn’t using enough (or any) English instruction.
This went on for years. My first year was a bit blurry as I came in fresh in October and I didn’t know what to expect, but once JTE2 was leading the majority of English classes in 2020 and 2021, I noticed a stark difference in lesson quality between them. JTE2 typically held 5th grade English classes. JTE1 had 6th grade English classes. It was as if 6th grade English was half the quality of their previous 5th grade classes.
I spoke with my OB a week and a half ago about JTE1. He was extremely unhappy with him in retrospect, even before I took the job as ALT at the elementary school. We never had a chance to speak at length while JTE1 was employed, and I regret not pulling him aside last year to have a conversation. Of course, I’m doubtful much would have changed.
I don’t have a heck of a lot of advice to give, as much of this is very recent for me as well, but being able to talk with the OB (former teacher) after the fact was an overall positive. I wouldn’t expect much to change, but you may have better outcomes than I had.
I also noticed that while JTE2 must have had his own opinions about JTE1 (his superior), he really didn’t want to get involved or talk about it, and for the better, I think. I’m not sure about your situation (is JTE1 JTE2’s superior / etc), but you said he’s a good friend, so he may be a bit more open to having conversation.
Every once in a while a school gets an amazing teacher like your JTE2. That’s valuable. Keep that bond going.
A lot of people are giving you advice that could make your situation even worse than it is.
Is the class your responsibility? No.
Would you be wrong for giving JTE1 some pushback? No.
But at the end of the day, is it worth it to your mental health to have a contentious relationship with a coworker? Maybe not.
Teachers like this don’t last long. They are usually a strain on their Japanese coworkers as well, and unless they are charming or popular, they’ll be looking for an exit sooner than later.
You’re in a difficult and unfair situation because the person who is supposed to bear responsibility can’t or won’t, and they pass the buck to you. It also seems like you genuinely care about your students, which is great.
What I would suggest is, instead of having 45-min games, maybe break that time up between a dictation worksheet and a complementary activity. Dictation (fill-in-the-blanks or multiple choice) > check answers with a partner > rehearse the dialogue > janken with teacher > remaining two students come to the front to demonstrate the dialogue. This will take up a good 20 minutes alone, and hopefully give Ss practice using phrases and vocabulary that will appear on tests.
Of course, that’s just a suggestion. I’m sure you can come up with some sort of activity that you could recycle using other grammar points and vocabulary that gives students a lot to do, and doesn’t force you to reinvent the wheel every week.
This situation is not your fault nor your responsibility. But you are in a unique position to at least make that fifty minutes more bearable (and maybe even educational) for you and your kids.