mercylovepity – projectGENIUS

The Overworked Japanese Teacher

mercylovepity — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 01:07:47 +0000

It is with regularity that news articles appear that discuss the issue of the overworked Japanese school teacher. An article in The Asahi Shimbun reveals that Japanese teachers have the worst ratio across the OECD of hours spent at work to hours spent actually teaching. A article in The Yomiuri Shimbun explains that a special committee of the Central Council for Education is urgently exploring ways to improve the lot of Japanese teachers through various measures such as unencumbering teachers of certain clerical and extracurricular duties. A Japan Today article worryingly claims that Teaching in Japan is becoming a ‘Black Occupation’, which is a term loosely applied to companies that overwork their employees to such an extent that the job, though not inherently dangerous, may result in severe health issues or even death. Clearly, the work load of teachers in Japan is unsustainable and pragmatic measures need to be taken to ensure that schools are able to provide their students a quality education.

Japan’s education system – more (and more equitable) bang for its buck

mercylovepity — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 03:12:00 +0000

Japan has been able to create a more equitable learning environment for children across economic backgrounds despite Japan spending less money on schools than the OECD average. How the Japanese national and local governments allocate resources has a positive net effect on education. A very interesting article on this can be found HERE. The model is one that other countries should consider looking at. Though, admittedly, the article does gloss over somewhat the significant positive effect of Japanese teachers working long (often unpaid) overtime hours for the sake of their students – and also of their careers.

Robots Passing University Entrance Exams

mercylovepity — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 08:20:39 +0000

The artificial intelligence of a robot developed at one of Japan’s most prestigious universities – Tokyo University – was good enough to best 80% of students taking the same test. While the robot’s results wouldn’t have got it accepted into Tokyo University, who have the bar to entry set particularly high, the results would have been adequate to gain entry into many Japanese universities were the robot actually a living, breathing human. See HERE for more on the near-future potential of robots to better us in the art of passing a test.

Happy Birthday JET

mercylovepity — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 04:20:12 +0000

Probably half the expats I know here in Japan were JETS early in their formative teaching years. The Japan English and Teaching Program (JET) turned 30 years old earlier this month, serving as a conduit for Japanese culture, as well as fostering language education throughout schools and government organizations the length and breadth of Japan. With the Olympics on the horizon, there has been a resurgence in the the JET program. This article HERE gives a nice summary on the history and relevance of JET over the past three decades.

University Exam Revisions: Implications for English Teaching

mercylovepity — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 02:18:08 +0000

The Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has announced reforms to the means of admission into Japan’s public and private universities. This includes revising its own entrance exam format as well as creating a more transparent and thorough recommendation and selection pathway for students to enter university based on high school performance rather than through the exam system. MEXT is also recommending that any entrance exam (its own and those implemented by private universities themselves) be expanded to include short answer questions in addition to the multiple choice format that almost exclusively make up current entrance exams. Some educators, too, are asking for an English-speaking component to be included in examinations.

These changes are sure to have implications in the teaching of English at the high school level, where we may see a real demand for (rather than a cursory application of) a more communicative model of English teaching rather than having L1 English teachers simply adding padding to what is essentially teaching test-focused English.

For more details, read this Japan Times article.

Teaching Idea: Simple Past Tense

mercylovepity — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 08:21:45 +0000

This lesson and game centers on giving students a chance to practice their skills using the simple past tense in a fun game. Ideally for junior high first-year students.

Follow links for lesson plan and materials.

The Textbook Serves the Action Plan Serves the Teacher — not the Other Way Around

mercylovepity — Sun, 05 Feb 2017 14:05:54 +0000

“I would have let the group discussion activity go for longer, but I needed to get the game that I had planned.”

Good for you planning a game. (Good, at least, if the game actually stimulates English use, and keeps the kids in their Zone of Proximal Development.) But even if it’s a good game that you have planned, if you have a group discussion … or a drill … or some other sort of elicitation activity underway, and that activity has momentum, then there is only one thing that justifies ending that ante-lascivial activity. There is only one reason why such an activity should stop. It should stop when it is finished.

At ProGEN, we encourage (I would say we require, but the reality is that many of our otherwise brilliant teachers get away with not doing it) — we encourage our teachers to conceptualize a lesson as a succession of actions (actually, we call whatever recipe you are using to guide your lesson an action bucket); and we encourage them to define each of those ACTIONS in terms if the action’s completion conditions. “This action will be complete when I can hear the students volunteering variations of the target language to each other, and they are at peak engagement with this challenge.” This means … (a) don’t cut it off if you can still feel the activity building towards your completion conditions (or if you feel the student’s engagement pushing beyond what you had anticipated its potential to be), and (b) don’t kill time by letting it drag on and on, long after the kids have gotten the point. Conclude your action where it naturally concludes.

You wrote a lesson plan, and it’s purpose is to serve you, not the other way around.

“I would have used a different model conversation than what is in the book; but that’s what’s expected.”

I love how ESL teachers that took an expository writing course in college or high school, which exhorts them not to over-use the passive voice suddenly find it so useful when it comes to decisions they make concerning the use of a textbook.

“We are expected to cover these pages.”

“I was told that the exercises on this page are important.”

“It was decided that this would be the primary textbook.”

And that’s fine if you need blame to fall elsewhere on the question of whether or not whatever material you have is the right material. But in my experience of observing many, many schools, there is only one textbook that I find to be truly harmful and that would be Expressways. I said it, now let’s move on.

Even in the case of Expressways, I have never seen anybody teach a bad class specifically because of the textbook. In fact, a book like Expressways (I’m not moving on, am I) forces you dig deep, glean what is most useful and then shape it into something that really meets the students where they are.

No matter what the book, the mistake is the same. Even the best textbooks do not know your kids. You know your kids.

You (or somebody big and powerful) bought this textbook (perhaps even with your input, which is often the case with our teachers), but that book will kill any value that you might otherwise potentially bring to the room unless first you make the material your own. It’s purpose is to serve you, not the other way around.

Christmas Shopping Activity/Lesson

mercylovepity — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 03:54:14 +0000

Here’s a great game/activity that mimics a shopping experience. The target language is plurals and is suitable for Junior High School 1st grade and up. The activity is themed on Christmas shopping, but of course, you can easily adapt this for any lesson at any time of the year. Fllow the links below for lesson plans and resources

Lesson Plan

Workflowy Lesson Plan

Xmas Shopping Worksheet

Will, May and Might Lesson

mercylovepity — Tue, 17 Jan 2017 06:29:21 +0000

Here’s a very simple, yet incredibly useful topic and lesson from Kim Stahl on future tense and possibilities using will, may and might. Suitable for beginner level students aged 12 and up.

Follow the links for lesson plan.

Lesson plan document

Lesson plan (workflowy)

The Most Interesting Man in the World Lesson

mercylovepity — Thu, 10 Nov 2016 01:58:11 +0000

Here’s a lesson from Kim Stahl on the use of superlatives appropriately titled, “The Most Interesting Man in the World.” Follow the links for lesson plan.

Lesson Plan