Hi folks,
I’m a new ALT and just had my first classes yesterday.
The classes were for the Teijisei department in my school. One of the classes in particular, a fourth year Teijisei class, the students were completely disinterested and it was impossible to illicit any response from them, whether in Japanese or English. I remained energetic throughout my self introduction presentation (perhaps too much at times in hindsight) to try and lighten the mood
somewhat.
I already had an understanding that Teijisei students can often be difficult, but I was wondering if there is any way possible to get through to these students, or if it’s a lost cause. I’m curious as to whether anyone has been in a similar situation and has had any success at all! I don’t want to write these students off just yet..
5 comments
Never a lost cause. Probably a pretty good chance that these students have had a revolving door of uninspired teachers paraded in front of them for years. Good thing I the bar is set pretty low at the moment.
Try getting them up and moving, visit another part of the campus, give them easy classroom tasks that require movement.
I’ve had classes like this where I’ll get them to write down one thing that stresses them out on an A4 piece of paper. Then divide the class in two (say 15 students on each side of the classroom), make centerline. Next have each student crumple their paper into a ball.
Choose a fun fast song that’s outside of their comfort zone (I use Beatles: Back in the USSR). While the song is playing each team (side) throws their “Stress” at the other team while the music is playing. Goal is to get more stress balls on the other side when the song ends. Finally, students pick up the closest ball and read aloud what it says. Interestingly the students find out that everyone is dealing with similar problems and it becomes a team building exercise.
I taught at one of these night schools back in the day. It was very depressing. The class was a mixture of kids, some Japanese, some Brazilian, who couldn’t attend normal school for whatever reason. There were zero expectations so I wouldn’t worry too much. Luckily I quit after a few months.
Hi Willkun,
I’ve worked at Teijisei schools since 2016. I like to call the students who go to these schools “non-traditional students”. Many of them work part-time jobs for various reasons, some of them missed the opportunity to attend school when they were younger (my oldest student is 60 years old), some of them are first-generation immigrants and struggle with Japanese (they’re aiming to take the Japanese high school equivalency evaluation 高認), and some even have selective mutism (緘黙障害) and can’t speak at all. It’s tough…
I’m disappointed that your JTE isn’t being more proactive. In an ideal world, planning between you and your JTE (打ち合わせ) should be done before every class. However, I understand that Japanese education is far from ideal.
When you say, “*illicit a response*”, are you asking your students questions point-blank? They may not understand your question, have the courage to answer in front of their peers, or both.
When I do my self-introduction at Teijisei, I give my students a checklist of basic nouns like “Chinese Food”, “Baseball”, “K-POP”, “Exercise”, etc, and I ask them to imagine 15 things on that list that I might like. The students make their predictions and check the appropriate boxes.
My specific directions are like this:
>ALTの好きなものを先に想像して、15語までチェックしてから、実際に質問しましょう。想像がつくかどうかを確認するために、ALTに「Do you like _______________?」と質問してください。
I then write the sentence “Do you like _______________?” on the blackboard. Each student asks me a question like “Do you like (**baseball**)?”, and if **baseball** is something that I like, then I say, “Yes, I do! Ok, everybody please put a check (if you haven’t already) next to **baseball**”. I may throw the question back at the student who asked like, “So, I like baseball. Do *you* like baseball?”. “Oh, you do!! Who’s your favorite player?”, etc.
You can also do games with no right or wrong answers. For example, I sometimes move all the desks to the side or back of the classroom and draw two lines on the floor using chalk.
I begin by having the students stand in the middle of the classroom. The line on the right side of the room is for answering *yes,* and the line on the *left* side of the room is for answering *no*. When I ask a question like “Do to come to school by bus?”, the students who come by bus stand on the *yes* line and those who don’t come by bus stand on the *no* line.
Pm me if you want to talk more.
I work at a challenge tejisei. Personally I love it and there’s a lot of freedom. There will be classes which are totally disinterested, and amazing classes too.
For the really disinterested classes, I try to make class as least painful as possible. I don’t spend much time doing presentations or trying to illicit spontaneous responses. It’s usually that it’s beyond their interest or ability. I’ve had a lot of success with difficult/low level classes with playing extremely simple games. It gets them away from traditional school work which they usually don’t enjoy, and gives them confidence when they can participate without having to work too hard.
For example, my students like Go Fish, shinkei suijaku, or board games, or English Uno. I find even the low energy classes can eventually warm up to class if they can expect something fun.
But you may have some tough classes regardless!
It will get better and sometimes it will get worse. I’ve been teaching 定時制 since 1989! I also teach at regular high schools but have steadily always had 定時制 as well. At first I couldn’t believe the disinterest. Times have changed a lot tho. In the beginning my students all worked in the day time. They wanted cars or motorcycles or had unexpected kids that needed to be taken care of. I also had girls who were pregnant who couldn’t go to regular schools. I had some that were great students but had to help family businesses during the day and had no choice but to go to night school.
These days it’s completely different. The majority are just playing games all night until morning then sleeping and going to school. I don’t have that many actually working. Lots more foreigners than before and they have trouble with Japanese do night school is easier for them. Not everyone is a goof off but I have many more goof offs than those who are actually interested in studying. I currently have one 79 year old who missed the chance when she was younger. She’s adorable and many students treat her with respect. Her husband writes children’s books and is in his mid 60s. I love this about her! ❤️ Some days I hate my classes other times I like them. But even if only a couple want to study then I’m happy to be there.
I’m always happy to chat if you want just dm me.