[ladysixes]

My name is Iti. I'm an AET in a small city in central Japan. I used to work for a language school in Japan but in April I began working in the public school system. I'm looking for any good advice anyone would have regarding teaching in a public school. I teach at 3 elementary schools (1st-6th grade) and 1 junior high school (1st-3rd grade). Most of my older students (5th-6th grade elementary and all of the junior high students) are really really really shy and/or uninterested in learning English. I need fun activities for these students. My largest class of uninterested/shy students consists of 40 children (6th grade). They don't want to sing, dance, run, etc. I have to prepare games for 45 minutes that do not involve singing, dancing, running, etc. Please help if you can! I look forward to chatting with you!

[mesmark]

Welcome to the eslHQ forums.

If you have some questions please fire away. However, it's a lot easier to give advice if we know your content. If you let us know what you want to teach then someone will offer you some suggestions.

Happy teaching!

[HUE]

Hi & Welcome!

I used to teach JHS up north in Japan as an AET. Although I'm a little rusty on teaching kids, I'm sure I could come up with some solutions.

I'm surprised that they are shy, and don't want to learn English. At that age, especially the 1st and 2nd years, they love English. Are you sure they just aren't used to you yet? Are you sure that the previous AET wasn't a horrible person who made English a living nightmare?

Give it time, be persistent, and give the students every opportunity to talk with you. Hang out after school, and ask to participate in some of the club activities (or go to the gym during an off period and play volleyball, basketball, or whatever with the kids). This worked for me, and I soon had little trouble getting everyone to participate.

[dorothia15]

hello Iti..

[livinginkorea]

Welcome!

[Eric18]

Sometimes a simple technique really helps.

Here are three techniques that I use in my classes to provide order, increase student interest, and expand their vocabulary.
1. Take attendance by asking a question every day on a piece of paper. For instance, students write down their name and share some personal opinion. What's your favorite sport? Website? Movie? Book? Ideal vacation? Students like to share and it builds rapport.
2. Create opportunities for the students to design to their own projects. I know this sounds impossible, but you can build in student choice without losing group unity. For instance, have everybody bring in a photograph, magazine ad, or postcard and have them write a paragraph describing the picture and what will happen next.
3. Give a consistent homework assignment. It can be anything from write down five new vocabulary words to five new questions to summarize and evaluate a newspaper article. The content is less important, it seems to me, than consistency so students know what to expect.

Perhaps these tips work better with older students, but you might try them with your class.

Good luck!