After being in Japan for nearly 4 years, one key component of Japanese society is the lack of conversation surrounding headspace. So I think it’s important for us to be able to manage our own headspace.

We’ve all had bad days or days where we just don’t feel like doing anything. I know for me, especially after a long break my headspace tends to be in a weird place. In which I physically feel tired, and mentally blocked. 

Some methods I employ to help manage the lack of motivation and the weird headspace during these periods of time are:

1. Slowing getting myself back into the regular routine. Understanding that it’s normal after a long break to want to continue resting. During this period of time what works best for me is taking naps. Allowing myself to rest and to decompress can help with clearing any sort of weird headspace problems.

2.  Division of work. As work is starting back in full swing, it’s normal for teachers to have a lot of upcoming lessons to prepare for. If your motivation is shot, preparing for lessons can feel like a monstrous task. One way to bypass this is to divide the work. What works best for me is to outline the most important tasks to the least important. Then I make sure to give myself a reasonable deadline to finish the important tasks by. Rather than trying to finish it all right away, I make sure to give myself at least 30 minutes of rest for every 2 hours of working. During that 30 minutes I will do something that can allow me to shut my brain off and to refocus.

3. Understanding that you can only do your best if you are motivated enough and are in the right headspace. Forcing yourself to finish something when physically and mentally you are not there will only add more work for you in the future.

I wanted to thank everyone at Project Genius for their hard work this year at their schools, especially considering the many difficulties the world has faced these past few years. I hope our team can enjoy their holidays, whether it is here in Japan or abroad.

For the last several years at the junior high school where I teach we do a crafts activity in the last class junior high school first grade class of the year. I am from California, so I never experienced a "White Christmas" until I came to Japan. The few instructions needed to explain how to make a snowflake using just a pair of scissors and a piece of paper (cut, triangle, fold) is well within our student's English ability. I am also pretty bad at crafts myself, so once students understand what to do they inevitably create much more elaborate snowflakes than I could even imagine.

And while the two instructors from Project Genius at my school are from the west coast of the US, our school's JET instructor from Australia. She described what having Christmas in Australia was like while also having our students listen to an Australian version of Jingle Bells.

I also learned some new words through this lesson, such as ute and swaggie.

We are also entering our recruiting season. If you are interested in working for us please check Craigslist or Gaijinpot for our latest openings or send us your resume directly via this form.

Please have a safe and enjoyable holiday season!

As we get closer and closer to summer vacation a trend that I’ve noticed is the general decline in motivation in the students as well as in teachers. I’m sure we can all relate to the anticipation of the end of school and the two-month break, away from all responsibilities. But, before we can completely shut our brains off and binge whatever is the latest trending content on Netflix, we need to sludge through this last month.

One of the biggest hurdles for me (and possibly) other native teachers is dealing with the lack of motivation amongst the students. I’m sure we can all remember back when we were students and our general attitude towards school during the last month before a long break. So, how can we ensure that their motivation doesn’t decrease? A technique that works best for me is managing my own energy and motivation.

As teachers we see our students on a daily basis. Our day-to-day energy, vibes and emotional state can be easily picked up by them. If we ourselves are not motivated we can’t expect the students to behave otherwise. That’s why for me, especially during the last month before a long break, I make all my lessons centered around review games or activities that get the students up and moving. If I’m excited by the lesson I’m putting out there, my students can pick up on my energy. This in return can create a positive feedback loop where teachers and students are working together, bouncing off of each others energy and keeping each other motivated.

A site that I frequent quite often to get templates for in class review games and such is ‘taysteachingtools’. There we can find Mario themed games, Pokemon themed ones, and loads more. My high school students respond really positively to the Mario themed review games. Mix that with friendly group competition and some black thunder chocolate snacks I can keep my student’s motivation levels up right their final exam.

What are some of your techniques during this period?

I was told to be ready to have a self introduction lesson when I first came to Japan. It was 1998, I couldn’t just look up online for some photos to insert into a powerpoint and show that in class. I couldn't google anything that summer of 1998, let alone to get ideas for self introduction lessons. I did, though, go around my hometown and took some snapshots to bring. With the developed photos in my bag I got on the plane with plans to do my best in class. The self introduction lesson I remember most clearly now was the one that failed. I went into the class at this small junior high school in the mountains, one where a few months later would be surrounded by 3 meters of snow. As I started talking I could sense the kids had no idea what I was saying, and maybe not much interest, as well.  Finally, when the class was over, I thought the JTE would give some advice at best or be upset at worst, but all he said was, let's do it again in our next class.

I recently observed a veteran teacher who we just hired and he did this lesson quite well, though I wonder how I would have done with the ability to create a powerpoint and show it to the class. So, yes, even though it is possible to successfully do this kind of self-intro lesson I have known some teachers who think self-introduction lessons are, successful or not, not important and a waste of time. I disagree, however. A mentor of mine once mentioned that the teachers most remembered were those who shared some bit of themselves with their students. So I always think it is good that students know a little bit about me.

But how can I guess what they want to know? Although I know I can do a much better job with a self intro lesson today today than I did in 1998, just like what I found interesting in my hometown probably was not interesting to my students in rural Japan at the time, what I find interesting today might not interest my junior high school students today. I realized the way to ensure students find out something they are actually interested in, and also make this a much more interactive activity, was to have the students ask questions about what they want to know about me rather than me telling them what I think is interesting about me to them.

To me, this has several benefits. First, since it is more interactive it keeps the students in the class more involved. Even if they are only listening, they are much more interested to see how I answer their classmates' questions rather than just talking to them. Second, it lets kids ask questions they are interested in. 

Third, and maybe the most important point, is it allows me to talk to the students at their English level.  One of the disadvantages of asking EFL students to ask questions is they are not going to be able to ask all the questions they may have but if they can’t understand me in English from the start it will be difficult to build a trusting relationship in English. By keeping the first class in English and asking and answering questions at their level lets them make a direct connection with me right away with information they are interested in learning in English 

This lesson also acts as a quick level check for the class as a whole and for individual students.  Depending on the size of the class, I try to get every student  to ask a question, which allows me to quickly learn if they are shy or outgoing, if they are strong at English or weak, etc. If it is a one off substitution that isn’t a major concern, but if I am their new teacher for the year, it lets me learn a lot about the class in a short amount of time.

Although I mainly now do this lesson with junior or senior high school students, I have done it at university classes and even small group adult business English lessons. Below are a few examples of some questions and what I do with the questions.

This is from a high school class where I was the substitute for the day. I made it into a quiz and gave students two choices per question.

This was at a class for university students planning on going abroad, so this activity also doubled as a way to prepare students for small talk when they would meet new people. After I answer the questions I put students into pairs and/or small groups. Each group has a small game board and some dice. They roll the dice and when they land on a number they have to answer the question that corresponds to that number.

This is from the first class of this year with the second year students I teach at my junior high school. I do sometimes tell students, especially older students, that they can't ask Yes/No questions but not this day.

It’s been a rough few years with Covid and online classes. Now that things are finally going back to normal how is everyone adjusting?

My school held online classes for the last month during the last school term. While I still had to commute to school to do the classes, compared to in person teaching it was definitely more relaxed. 

During my three years in Japan, this was my first time doing online lessons at any of my schools. So for me at least, it was extra stressful. Not only going into the process of doing online lessons but also coming out from this process. 

Before coming to Project Genius I worked at an ALT dispatch company. At that time, I was used more as a secondary assistant. In other words, my role was less impactful. Therefore when Covid first hit and a lot of schools went to online lessons, I was spared from that. 

That’s why this was my first time doing online lessons. The process going into it was stressful. Setting up teams, changing lesson plans so that students can participate online, and rescheduling the students final speaking test before their exam. It took a week to really get into the flow. It was also during this time that I found the merits of online classes. But, as fast as online classes came, it also went away.

Coming into this new school year, and doing the first in person lesson again after close to two month I was nervous again. But, a highlight of my school is that the teachers are given one week before the official start of classes to not only prepare but also to interact with the students and other teachers. It may seem like a small thing, but it definitely made the transition into the new year and new classes much easier. 

I know with Covid, a lot of schools most likely held online lessons. So I’m curious as to how everyone is adjusting to this switch back to in person classes.

English teachers in Japan often tell themselves that one reason students don’t progress is that they are afraid to make mistakes. But are we as teachers just as willing to make mistakes ourselves?

I taught English at public elementary schools in Tokyo in the early 2000s. Teaching English at elementary schools was still experimental at the time and so I was responsible for creating all the lessons I was teaching. I had excitedly prepared all the materials for this interactive lesson that I thought would just mesmerize the students. From the moment the bell rang, however, there was just no response to anything I did that day. I was really down and depressed after that class. I asked the homeroom teacher who I co-taught the class with at that school why the students were so unresponsive and he just said the culture festival was coming up so students were really tired preparing for that. Thinking back, the lesson probably wasn't as great as I thought it was but from then on I have kept an eye on what students are doing outside class while thinking about either the yearly curriculum or an individual lesson.

When I think of language learning mistakes I have made, though, I always come back to one I made when I was living in Niigata as a JET program participant. As you may know, Niigata is snow country. But I grew up on the coast in California, which is defenantly not snow country, and I had only actually seen snow just a few months before coming to Japan. So during my first winter I was glued to the TV trying to figure out weather forcasts. One day I saw on the TV the term 大雪, which means heavy snow. I knew 雪, or snow, was pronounced yuki. I thought the 大 (big) would be pronounced like 大学 (university or daigaku). I was in a meeting a few days later at the local board of education and I said it will be daiyuki. Everyone looked puzzled until they started laughing after trying to understand what I was trying to say. My JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) who was in the meeting explained that it was pronounced ooyuki not daiyuki.

I am sure students are afraid of such an experience. I can’t say I was in good spirits myself immediately after making that mistake, nor am I everytime I make mistakes in my daily life.  When making a mistake in the classroom, though, I try to keep in mind that even the smallest error is, in addition to giving the students a chance to correct their teacher while also being able to teach their fellow students something, an opporunity to show them making mistakes is not something to be embarrassed by but rather an opportunity to learn something new. If we as teachers are willing to show our students that it is okay to make mistakes hopefully they will see the value in taking risks and making mistakes as they progress on their English learning journey.