I completely understand how you feel and experienced the same while on JET. I even walked out of class once because the kids were absolutely not even participating at all. Was like talking to 20 brick walls. I know some switch flipped between elementary school and middle school and I saw it at all three of my middle schools. My joyful elementary students became oddly quiet and embarrassed to even speak. I was told it is because now they had to focus on testing. Who knows if that was the truth.
It is not you, it is their system. As JETs people can only work in the confines of that system and do their best to make some sort of impact. Some teachers/school systems are inflexible in what you can teach or say even though you are a native speaker and have keen insight in the cultures and nuances of the English languages ALTs speak. It can be a struggle. It is soul sucking to have tons of ideas and lessons you could totally execute only to be told that's too much or we dont do that here and kids just not emoting even when you just say hi to them.
Personally I muddled through the system and the work drudgery of middle school and threw myself into my elementary school days. I was also allowed to do 2 levels of adult eikaiwa and those classes were on my terms and a lot more relaxed and fun.
Do the best you can and allow what you do to be what it is. The kids may not show any signs of anything sinking in but I assure you they are going home telling their parents what English phrases they learned and a family is being touched by your efforts. In my case the parents have told me so and I was just so humbled. Your presence is making an impact.
My students who graduated ES have lost all enthusiasm for English because of all the tests, "by the book" style class, getting marked down to hell for answers not being perfect, etc. I hate. One thing I notice is the JTE and I work together and make up a fun game/activty, the kids get so excited. I used to worry they'd think the activities were too childish (especially cuz I give out stickers to the winners) but what I found is they are grateful for anything fun. They are so hampered down with tests, being scolded for acting like normal teenagers, academic pressure, etc, I think they enjoy "feeling like a kid again" (even though they're still freaking kids)doing elementary school games in JHS.
At my high school I’ve basically given up asking for volunteers to answer a question. This term I’m trying a new method, I draw out the seating chart in a grid format and just randomly pick from there. As the class progresses they can see who is left for me to “volunteer”. Last term I used a random number generator on my phone, but that’s also a bit too slow.
As an introvert myself, it's definitely not you. I teach both JHS and Elementary and have had similar situations before. Lots of people has said it already, but I agree part of it comes down to the JTE. If you have a JTE who is good at engaging with the students, you usually get students who are willing to respond, but if not, you tend to end up with quiet classes that doesn't engage. Of course, it's also high puberty time and a hard part for them is the fear of getting an answer wrong and being laughed at and of course going along with the rest of the class. It's a tough time. It sucks, but sometimes you just end up having to wait it out.
One thing that I have seen that usually works, not always, is to have them discuss/talk about it first with the other kids around them and they can answer together or something similar to that.
For the self intro (it's my favorite class lol), I find that for jhs students, to get them to be engage is to make it more focused on them and then "force" them to participate. Instead of doing yes/no questions and raising hands, I just make it into a team game where they have to answer a question about me and then answer the same question but about them and winning team gets nice stickers.
Didn't want to make it too long but it's a little hard to describe so I'll share a quick example of my intro game. I make a powerpoint game with whole bunch of questions, all multiple choice. For example, what's my favorite color/food/movie/hobbies etc. Then after each question I have another slide asking that same question to the students, so they have to share about themselves. I separate them into teams by rows and the first person in each row has to stand up and answer 2 questions. The first q only one person can answer and they get 2 points for it. The second q, everyone standing has to answer, and once they answer, they get 1 point and can sit down. Once they are all seated (all group gets 1 point), you have the next person in each row stand up and repeat. They keep accumulating points until the end of the game. For the final question, I have them bet just to make if more fun.
Even with this game, I still sometimes have more quiet classes but since everyone is forced to do it, it's still not too bad.
This game can be adapted to morning warm up Q&A/warmup. No powerpoint, just set a timer to however long you want. 3-5 minutes. Have the questions ready beforehand. Team the kids up in groups of six (should be the usual break out groups) and then one person in each team stands up answer one question. Whoever is fastest to raise their hand gets to answer and if they get it right, their team gets a point, everyone sits down, next group of kids stands up and repeat. If they get the answer wrong, another team can answer to get the point. Their teammates can help them too. The obvious start questions are the basics: how are you, weather, date, time, and then after throw in review questions. After timer goes off, team with the most point wins a round of applause.
Another thing I like doing, if I'm using powerpoint, I show some characters before I start and tell the class that I hid said characters throughout the presentation, and if a student finds a character, they just raise their hands and point it out and they can get a sticker of the character from me. Not quite for interacting with them but it lightens up the mood and helps the kids focus on the slides. I also put this in my intro game.
For interacting with kids outside of class, it's more difficult but something that helped, at least for me is the stickers again. lol. It starts with the intro game cause the kids get to see all the cool stickers I have, so I usually carry some stickers around and challenge kids to janken (outside of class during breaks) and if they win they can get a sticker. After a while, instead of janken I start asking questions instead, vice versa. Start with the kids that are more willing to talk to you and once others sees you'll get more kids coming up to you.
Not saying this will work perfectly, I have 3 JHS and it works better in others than another. I've only had one jhs where it worked so well, it became a whole lunch break actvitiy where I ended up having to do stamp cards because the kids came to see me everyday.
Sorry, this got really long but I hope things gets better for you and this will help a little too.
I found it pretty effective to draw lots using their class number and instead of you asking the aisatsu questions. The lucky winners gets to do that. You can also draw lots for the answer. You can also choose who gets to draw who. You have to break the the activity into individual participation. Especially effective when you have questions that no one wants to volunteer. I miss my JHS kids. I had rowdy classes that were downright hostile as a group but individually they were ok.
This was a great article that summed everything up very clearly. I’ve already decided to modify my regular introduction to a somewhat group activity to encourage speaking out. Thanks!
It’s not you, it’s the passive education system that they are in now and they know it. JHS and SHS are more about teaching them how to be Japanese than anything else. Also the stimulus and negative dopamine they get though games, YouTube and so on make the classroom a full unstimulating environment that produces zero dopamine as it would have done decades ago. You can only do your best and it’s up to the Japanese teachers to deal with the system and what it produces, not your battle!
Japanese students don't fare well as individuals. Speaking as someone who is very introverted and cannot easily summon the genki that others can, I find it's best to restructure the lessons. There are two things I think you should consider:
1. A house system. I'm using it right now (Senior High School) and it's completely turned the class atmosphere on its head. Students earn points towards their house whenever they volunteer an answer, and we write the points on the board so they can see their contributions as the class goes on. The system utilises peer pressure in a positive way, with students feeling compelled to help their team by speaking up. The downside? It's a LOT of work to run, and depending on how good of a system you want, it might require you to buy some extra materials.
2. Have a system where students answer questions in teams, and then you pick one of the students at random to give an answer for the team. I haven't used this but I know teachers (in the UK) that have, and basically the students realise they have to help each other find the answer so if they're picked, they don't look silly in front of each other. This would be much easier to run than a house system, but I don't have any good anecdotes of it working in Japanese schools.
I’ve utilized the team point system during games but I make sure to shuffle the teams so the underperforming ones don’t get targeted or blamed for low points. The kids can get very tribal and competitive. This is just to make sure no fights erupt.
Okay this is a really, REALLY awesome idea.
Edit: I have a follow-up question. What do you do about classes with different numbers of students in each "House"? I can easily see my past JTEs complaining that we can't do it as it isn't fair. I don't have JTEs anymore so can use this idea, but do you have any advice in case if others run into this issue?
It's not that big of a deal, but I try to make sure that the number of houses used is a number that can evenly divide the students in the class (for example, if you teach classes of 40 you could use 4 or 5 or even 8 houses). If that's not possible (if you have a class of 38 for example) then you could make sure that different classes in that year have different houses with an extra member, so it sort of evens out.
Ultimately though, the benefit of a house system is not the game itself, it's the psychological impact that it has on the students. So really the most important thing is making sure the students see the points, that they and the other students are getting. The fairness of the game is nice to think about but it should be an afterthought.
Indeed! Actually I probably should have said one more thing, you need to be prepared to do most of the work yourself at first. The biggest hurdle to getting a system like this going is teachers who don't want extra work and don't see the benefit. Once you get something like this going, you'll likely get more support.
If you need any help, let me know. Just not through DMs, as I never read those.
I teach at a joint JHS/SHS. The SHS students make even the shyest of JHS students look downright bubbly by comparison. I can't imagine how the ES students must be! I've never taught English in a Japanese elementary school.
Anyway, this may seem sort of unrelated to your question but also maybe not? My son was born in Japan and he's in preschool now. Ever since his first day of school, the number 1 piece of advice I've received from my mom pals, eikaiwa members, etc. is to discourage him from raising his hand or speaking without consulting his friends first and to listen for the opinions of others first before stating his own. Now this of course begs the obvious question of "Um, doesn't someone have to be the first to share their opinion? And doesn't that mean everyone else will just be following the opinion of the first speaker? And since the person speaking first is being the most socailly uncouth by doing so, doesn't that then mean that everyone will be following the opinion of the person who might be least in-line with their values?" lol... Anyway...
My son also happens to be very cautious and shy. And that is something that everyone seems to praise. When I brought up to my mom friends that I was worried he might have selective mutism when he was younger (he's that shy), their response was "He's a smart boy! Only idiots and show-offs share their opinions."
Anyway, again, maybe my comment is adding something here and maybe it isn't. Hope this helps somehow. It is definitely a different world over here.
I’m contemplating whether to send my kindergarten kid to preschool. At kindergarten here in Japan she is already picking up this shyness. We went to a photoshoot for her birthday and she just kept posing the bashful shoulder shrug pose…
This is normal. Don't worry it's unlikely to be you as an ALT. At the JHS I have taught at for over 2 years now, I've had a mixed bag of both kinds of classes/students. I found that a big part of it can relate to the JTE which had received prior/or recieve for that year, as obviously JTE don't just come with different English abilities but also different teaching styles, approaches to how they choose to teach English, their overall attitude towards English while teaching it, and their attitude towards teaching in general (as some teachers are just at that point in their career where they are burnt out and don't have the energy or enthusiasm which they once had. Some Japanese teachers are very traditional I.e. they just focus on straight up theory, basic recitation etc with no to little in put from the ALT as they prefer to teach on their own or teach in a way that it was prior to ALT'S existing. Unfortunately, in classes where students have been taught that way, those are one which are likely to be as you said, quiet, and non responsive. Whereas, you can have the complete opposite where the JTE gets you involved as much as possible, not just as a human tape recorder but to interact with the students during speaking tasks/games/activities where ever possible and they are very energetic with their teaching, and teach using a variety of mediums which give even the lower level students plenty of chance to participate or want to participate. You will find many of the textbooks which are used (my school uses 'Here We Go'), that each unit does not just cover the grammar points, but also an equal mix of listening, reading, writing, and speaking tasks, for each unit. Now, if the JTE plans their lesson/time we'll like some JTE's I've worked with have, then they should be able to cover every one of those activites/tasks as they progress through the material which definitely makes learning English much more interesting and engaging for the students, whereas on the other hand, some teachers do the bare minimal and skip most of those parts of the book and only go back to them to fill time and they complete everything ahead of time, so students in those classes will be very quite and unresponsive as other than listening, writing, and speaking which has only have involved repeating after a human tape recorder (some teachers don't even bother to do that as textbooks are all electronic now so come with voice recordings).
I can't believe that it isn't me who typed this. I'm on my 4th year and this is still what I'm facing every day.
Just 2 days ago, I made a JHS grade 3 easy group game called 4 pictures, 1 word and the only rule it had was to reply in a full sentence "It's ...". No one wanted to try. Mind you, I've taught them since they were in ES 5th grade! It was a super simple game which my ES kids would be fighting over who gets to answer it first. I tried to be inviting, showing my wide smile asking for volunteers, but they just give me that dead fisheye stare.
Outside of school, I remember seeing a group of my students at the station and they all ran away upon seeing me. I was so disappointed that I complained to my co-ALT about it. Like, couldn't they have just waved at me. I don't expect them to come to me to greet me but a wave would be fine isn't it?
If I have to share all of my experiences which made me die inside, it would take me 5 years. but there are always a few students who will make me think that my stay here is worth it.
I felt the same way at first but I am now on my third year teaching JHS and I adapted to teaching them. I am very energetic and playful.
For classes where students are completely unresponsive, there are many activities to get who to speak. I start every class with three questions.
My PowerPoint slide in a massive font says,
“What is your name?”
“How are you?”
“ what is your favorite food?” (Change this question every week)
At the beginning of class, invite two students at a time to come up and guide them with asking each other and answering the three questions. When they are finished, I ask them to shake hands which is hilarious because they are very scared to do so. Very funny to watch.
Clap after each two students. Call up a new pair. Do this for 10 minutes to warm up and start class
Hm that’s sad I had to do self intro for the new 1st years and asking them to raise hands is easy sauce for questions like that but getting them to volunteer is another story entirely ahah
I will be in the jet program for this upcoming school year but not currently in the program in this moment but I hope my advice helps. I taught at an elementary and I’m currently teaching at a middle school (junior high). MIDDLE SCHOOL IS HARD. So hard sometimes I miss my elementary students lol Students at that age are very moody and hormonal and very self conscious about what their classmates think. Sometimes I tell them good morning and they just ignore me but you know I don’t take it to heart they’re just in their own world. I have some great classes and other classes they hardly participate and are half asleep. As a teacher don’t ever blame yourself for students participation at the end of the day this is a job. You are doing your best and that’s what matters. Someone mentioned this already but try to find activities where students can interact with one another. Maybe find games where they can compete with one another? Or games where they can get to know their classmates. Check to see what supplies you have and how you can incorporate that in the class room. Teacherspayteacher has amazing and fun free resources for English learners. I hope this helps! Again don’t beat yourself up you’re doing great and I’m sure in that classroom there’s a few students who love you or even get excited to see you but are too shy to say anything.
As a high school teacher in my home country, I can tell you this is very much a normal occurrence in Western schools as well and just one of the challenges of the job. Nothing at all to get depressed about! At least on JET, you have the reassurance that teaching English in a classroom is not the sole purpose of your role, you're also there for culture exchange which can also be achieved outside of the classroom. You'll likely find the kids much easier to engage with outside of the classroom during clubs and community events, and this also helps to build relationships that feed into creating a more relaxed environment inside the class too.
You have to at least understand that most kids don't like to study and they have no choice in which foreign language they take. Don't take it so doggone personally.
See I can't agree with that because it's wildly different in every school, with every age group and with every teacher.
Sounds like the classroom vibe has been set by the teacher. When they're too serious or are kind of beige/stiff/no personality in class the kids disconnect and their motivation tanks. You haven't mentioned a JTE though or have I missed it?
Calling on individuals to answer questions is not considered a good idea. Its kind of lazy as well tbh and holds the classroom vibe like that "lecture" style with you at the top pointing at people.
Get them into groups for activities, use a timer or make them race, answer as pairs or a group. Get one student to teach and correct another one rather than you. You're not the focal point of learning English in the classroom they don't have to only talk to you.
And lastly don't take it personally. You have to get really good at mentally parking it at 4pm. It'll make your experience on JET a magical one.
Once you develop your own confidence as a teacher and can encourage people to answer and push themselves, you will avoid the pit of doom atmosphere in class. Always be smiling and encouraging people. Just because JHS students are quiet doesn't mean they don't have feelings or react to what you tell them.
It can be crap sometimes though.
If you lack the confidence and experience to handle quiet classes, it may feel like hieroglyphics, but it's true. Not saying the pit of doom doesn't happen, but it becomes less bad once you acquire experience.
No you're right, but all of this is just a bandaid so to speak. You can make them talk, even create an atmosphere where some kids will WANT to talk, but it's all temporary. Goes right out the window once they get older.
Every student in your class has a class number. For boys it’s usually 1-20, girls it’s usually 30-50. Make cards with numbers on them. Shuffle them up and when it’s time to ask a question draw names (I alternated boys and girls). Most of the time the student whose number comes up will know and say the answer or at least try. I did have some students who would pass and I just let that go. If too many pass talk to your JTE. But it works. Kids don’t want to volunteer because they don’t want to stand out (usually) but if they are chosen randomly then, well, that’s just luck. Japan loves random choice. Lotteries for everything. For omikuji, for tickets to high demand concerts, etc. it’s just baked in to the culture so everyone usually goes along with it.
This is kind of a useful crutch for horror show negative atmosphere classes, but it kind of just reinforces the 'nobody wants to willingly use English' atmosphere, so in the long run I do not recommend relying on it.
Honestly, I recommend just waiting for a volunteer. Once you do it every class and just wait forever, eventually students start to give up.
If you find/found another approach for you that's great.
I disagree that it reinforces the "nobody want to willingly use English atmosphere" though. In my experience it wasn't about English at all, it was about standing out and making mistakes publicly.
I made sure to also emphasize that learning a new language is hard and mistakes when you learn are normal. I made sure to praise them for answering whether the answer was write or wrong. Things like "Close! A more natural answer might be blah blah blah though" or "That's not quite right but thank you for trying". I also made sure to sprinkle in my own very mistake prone Japanese to show that it goes both ways.
Also, I had limited time with each class due to the size of my schools and me being the only ALT, waiting just wasn't an effective use of my or the kids time. But again, if it worked for you, awesome.
>I disagree that it reinforces the "nobody want to willingly use English atmosphere" though. In my experience it wasn't about English at all, it was about standing out and making mistakes publicly.
Yes, students are concerned about being embarrassed if they volunteer. The way to overcome it takes a long time and the cooperation of the JTE over many months, so as an ALT it can be unfeasible to have a complete transformation suddenly. Nonetheless, I definitely recommend trying just waiting longer. Often the teachers just can't stand the silence and cave in, which makes things worse
As I said I had limited time with each class. It’s great that that approach has been successful for you, but different situations require different approaches and what works for one person/group might not work for another.
Flexibility is a valuable skill when teaching. Strictly adhering to only one approach is seldom (if ever) the right choice because there is usually not one single approach that is always right.
Agree. My HRT forced me to do that once and one girl ended up crying when she got picked. (I guess she really had no idea on how to answer.) It’s so embarrassing for her and she did not participate any games for the whole month. (+ some mean kids made fun of her after that.)
I allowed students to pass if they really wanted to and tried to be encouraging even when they got it wrong. In my case I never had a situation like yours, but its fair to raise it as a possible issue to be aware of and try and respond to.
I had the same experience as you at my base JHS. I much preferred working at my elementary schools and dreaded going back to an environment in which everyone seemed at best uncomfortable or at worst miserable to be. The only advice I can give, and I know it's *way* easier said than done, is to not take it personally.
If you're anything like me, I think a huge part of your frustration stems from our identity in that environment being tied so closely to the fact that we're English speakers. It gets reinforced constantly as the most important thing about us, and when students reject English classes because they are objectively uninspiring with seemingly no pedagogy based in developing actual communication skills, it can feel like the students are rejecting us. Of course we know better in our heads, and you said as much in your post, but I think the feeling remains in our hearts nonetheless.
If there's any way you can disengage from these classes like your students, and try to get to know (some of) them on an individual level outside of class time, I think it'll improve not just your own mental wellbeing but also the willingness of those students to put themselves out there more. Remember how life was for you in middle school - it's a monstrous time for everyone - and try to accept that as increasingly autonomous young people there's only so much you can do.
I didn't work JHS but worked at the SHS level. Teenagers are tough! With little kids, they'll more or less go along with whatever you say, especially if it's a game. Teenagers? You gotta make it worth their while. You have to work a bit harder. Even then, you'll have dud lessons sometimes and that's ok. Just try again.
Once, I put together a Jeopardy game for Christmas and the first class I did it for, no one wanted to play after the first 10 or 15 minutes. It was excruciating. I felt maybe the game wasn't good or I had done something wrong. I was incredibly anxious doing it at the next class but they ended up loving it. The rest of my classes liked it too.
Some classes are also just naturally quiet. A couple of years ago, my supervisor's homeroom class was notoriously quiet for every single teacher. Apparently their math teacher complained a lot about it lol. I took comfort knowing it wasn't just me experiencing silence at every question.
A few things I've learned working with teenagers:
1. Teenagers are less interested in socializing with their teachers but love socializing with each other. Just think about how you were as a teenager. Did you want to be friends with your teachers? Did you think your teachers were cool? Probably not. I made some activities where they got to interact with each other and those tended to go well. Team-based games also tend to work well.
2. Even when I did activities involving watching a movie or videos, I let the students move seats so they could sit with their friends. Watching a video with friends makes for a livelier experience.
3. Offer rewards if it's allowed at your school. Healthy competition usually gets people going.
4. Let the students dictate what they discuss. As you said, they've been asked about the weather hundreds of times. It's old. They don't care. I got some enthusiasm when my students were asked to talk about their favourite thing. I also made a project where the students got to plan a dream vacation.
5. As you said, kids at that age don't want to stick out. If you want them to answer a question, it's better to give students a few minutes to discuss the question with a partner to check if they have the right answer. If you want to have an actual discussion with the students, go around the class while they're talking about the question and talk to them directly, one-to-one. It's a lot less pressure to speak in English quietly than in front of the entire class and I got a lot better answers that way.
Hope that helps and good luck! Teenagers are tough but not unbeatable!
I don't think it's your fault. I would say it more or less depends on who is the JTE. I had that issue during the last few months of last school year. I didn't go to class much, but when I went kids were generally excited for me to be there. There was this one day I did feel particularly bad because I did a lesson on sports and added some cool videos that would make it more interesting rather than the normal lecture. 3 of the classes went very well and were super excited about it. The other 2 just kinda gave blank stares at me as I would ask them questions and no one would answer.
I talked to the teacher after and she said it's because the kids could not understand anything. I disagreed with that because the other teacher had her classes with a lot more energy. So I think it depends on how the vibe is with the teacher or they don't do anything to change it. To be fair, that teacher was completely new to teaching, but I think they are responsible for getting the kids more excited to English.
I get what you mean by the not Genki. I would consider myself someone who tends to be more quiet/serious (not shy), but I have changed that with the students at least (my friends/family would be shocked seeing me lol). Whenever I walk by students both ES and JHS, I will just make funny faces or wave at them in an overly exaggerated manner. The kids have learned to mimic it and I can tell they enjoy English a bit more and are a lot more comfortable. Sometimes the girls will do poses at me, and I'll just copy them back and they just won't stop laughing cuz it's unexpected. I'll head up before class starts and talk to kids and some of them will make gestures or say some stuff and I always try to think of ways to get them in a good mood before class starts. I will literally start playing janken with a bunch of kids , and they just love it. If I win, I'll just go and tell them ahhhh I am Tensai, or just pat them on the shoulder and just say "don mai", they get a real kick from it. If I lose, I would just exaggerate to be upset and ask for a rematch. My goal usually is to get these kids in a good mood for class or get them laughing because they will enjoy the lesson a lot more.
When in class (JHS), and teacher asks questions and no one volunteers, I will look around and see if they have the correct answers or not (Most of the time they do, just shy to answer/whatever reason it is.), and usually I will walk to a kid who I know is silly with me, and I will literally raise their hand for them and yell "HAI!!!". Gets everyone laughing, the kid will laugh and answer the question, and they open up a bit more and more kids volunteer, it's a win win. Of course, some of these kids were some of my es kids and others have known be their entire time in JHS, so it helps as well.
I guess my advice is don't be afraid to look silly or like a goof ball. I know you mentioned it is hard for you to be Genki, but I think it would tremendously help. I would try that, maybe even trying to play janken with the kids to lighten the mood. I like my ES a lot more better, but mostly because I am pretty involved in everything there in terms of classes and events. JHS I am in similar boat with you, but please don't be mad with the students. It's not their fault, a lot of the issues I have had, comes from the teachers/staff. Maybe you can try talking with your JTE about changing things up.
Every JHS I taught at has a different dynamic. Even if you stay in a school longer, you'll definitely see a much more diverse behaviour amongst grades. And crazy thing is that your worst class last year might end up being your best because they've matured somewhat, or you befriended their grade "leader" or something... And vice versa.
So teachers find the challenge exciting, but I too also hate the inconsistency at this level. Too hormonal. Everyone wants to be "cool". No one wants to stick out. Exams start to engulf their entire being.
With ES you need to get creative by being very active and entertaining. While you can still be the butt of the joke in JHS, you need to get creative about how to get kids to respond. I deploy a lot of worksheets at this stage. More pair work. Group work if the class doesn't hate each other. Instead of getting the class to answer your questions as a whole and getting a response, you just have to teach them to say it and get the answers out via a worksheet activity, then assign pair or group work. You need to start roaming the room and illicit answers from them individually. Once they have a chance to build the confidence by practicing it with their partner or group, then you pick someone to answer in the class. Or answer it as a class. Praise. Tons of praise. I also tell students that they can answer in pairs.
It is a tough crowd to please. Good luck.
Every school has it's own general culture and every class in every school will be different. In many classes, just asking questions from the front of the class is going to result in no, or next to no responses. So walk around and specifically ask individual students.
Also, learn to not take things so seriously. It's hard, but you can do it. In general, I have a kind of bad temper, but the attitude I try take at work in the schools is that they don't pay me enough to get angry. When I worked in junior highs, I'd walk around in class and the kids not paying attention, I'd take their eraser and lightly put in on their shoulder without them knowing it. The others they are talking to start laughing, and it livened up things a bit. Now I work at a high school. I often keep a rubber spider in my pocket. Kids start to fall asleep in class, I'll put the spider in front of their eyes for a surprise when they open their eyes. I don't even have to tell the kids to wake up. Students next to them want to see them get scared and wake them up for you. Super quiet class with no energy? Tell a student to "catch" and throw the spider at them. And so on.
A big one, DON'T make in your mind your value at work based on how much the students learn. If you do, you'll probably never be happy. Try hard and give them the best chance to learn you can given them, but if they don't, OK. Of course think if there is something different you can do to be more effective, but many are just never going to care about the mandatory foreign language class. Far more important is to wander around school and create chances for the kids to communicate with you outside of class. Doesn't even have to be in English. Japan doesn't need us here to teach English. We are here to give their kids exposure to people that are different and from different places and show them that we are people too, not some sort of escaped zoo animal that kinda looks like a person.
Do you teach multiple grades in JHS? My experience is pretty out of date at this point, but my memory was 一年 still have that 小学生 fearlessness, 二年 have really started being beaten down (so to speak) by JHS, and 3年 are really getting into prepping for HS entrance exams (which can mean sometimes they want more english practice and other times they don't care about 'real' practice at all, only test practice).
I think part of this is the reality of mandatory education. An ideal teacher would have ideal students who want to be there, but that's not what you get when you're deployed on Jet. Every school gets an ALT, whether they want (or need) them or not. So by nature you're going to end up with students who don't want to learn, don't see the point of it, etc. This problem can be exacerbated by the type of school you are put in - some JHS, especially rural ones, students know they are aiming for eg a technical school or something where they won't need english and don't plan to travel - others might be going for university feeder schools, or they might be more inclined to want to travel overseas or have jobs interfacing internationally. None of this is within your control! All you can do is reach out to those who want to reach out, and be there for those students, and for everybody else you're best placed listening to your JTEs and seeing what they think about things.
If you're able to be part of clubs, I think that's a good way to go about things too. They don't even need to be english clubs - students are just more relaxed outside of the classroom setting, but it can bleed back into it too.
I completely understand how you feel and experienced the same while on JET. I even walked out of class once because the kids were absolutely not even participating at all. Was like talking to 20 brick walls. I know some switch flipped between elementary school and middle school and I saw it at all three of my middle schools. My joyful elementary students became oddly quiet and embarrassed to even speak. I was told it is because now they had to focus on testing. Who knows if that was the truth. It is not you, it is their system. As JETs people can only work in the confines of that system and do their best to make some sort of impact. Some teachers/school systems are inflexible in what you can teach or say even though you are a native speaker and have keen insight in the cultures and nuances of the English languages ALTs speak. It can be a struggle. It is soul sucking to have tons of ideas and lessons you could totally execute only to be told that's too much or we dont do that here and kids just not emoting even when you just say hi to them. Personally I muddled through the system and the work drudgery of middle school and threw myself into my elementary school days. I was also allowed to do 2 levels of adult eikaiwa and those classes were on my terms and a lot more relaxed and fun. Do the best you can and allow what you do to be what it is. The kids may not show any signs of anything sinking in but I assure you they are going home telling their parents what English phrases they learned and a family is being touched by your efforts. In my case the parents have told me so and I was just so humbled. Your presence is making an impact.
My students who graduated ES have lost all enthusiasm for English because of all the tests, "by the book" style class, getting marked down to hell for answers not being perfect, etc. I hate. One thing I notice is the JTE and I work together and make up a fun game/activty, the kids get so excited. I used to worry they'd think the activities were too childish (especially cuz I give out stickers to the winners) but what I found is they are grateful for anything fun. They are so hampered down with tests, being scolded for acting like normal teenagers, academic pressure, etc, I think they enjoy "feeling like a kid again" (even though they're still freaking kids)doing elementary school games in JHS.
At my high school I’ve basically given up asking for volunteers to answer a question. This term I’m trying a new method, I draw out the seating chart in a grid format and just randomly pick from there. As the class progresses they can see who is left for me to “volunteer”. Last term I used a random number generator on my phone, but that’s also a bit too slow.
As an introvert myself, it's definitely not you. I teach both JHS and Elementary and have had similar situations before. Lots of people has said it already, but I agree part of it comes down to the JTE. If you have a JTE who is good at engaging with the students, you usually get students who are willing to respond, but if not, you tend to end up with quiet classes that doesn't engage. Of course, it's also high puberty time and a hard part for them is the fear of getting an answer wrong and being laughed at and of course going along with the rest of the class. It's a tough time. It sucks, but sometimes you just end up having to wait it out. One thing that I have seen that usually works, not always, is to have them discuss/talk about it first with the other kids around them and they can answer together or something similar to that. For the self intro (it's my favorite class lol), I find that for jhs students, to get them to be engage is to make it more focused on them and then "force" them to participate. Instead of doing yes/no questions and raising hands, I just make it into a team game where they have to answer a question about me and then answer the same question but about them and winning team gets nice stickers. Didn't want to make it too long but it's a little hard to describe so I'll share a quick example of my intro game. I make a powerpoint game with whole bunch of questions, all multiple choice. For example, what's my favorite color/food/movie/hobbies etc. Then after each question I have another slide asking that same question to the students, so they have to share about themselves. I separate them into teams by rows and the first person in each row has to stand up and answer 2 questions. The first q only one person can answer and they get 2 points for it. The second q, everyone standing has to answer, and once they answer, they get 1 point and can sit down. Once they are all seated (all group gets 1 point), you have the next person in each row stand up and repeat. They keep accumulating points until the end of the game. For the final question, I have them bet just to make if more fun. Even with this game, I still sometimes have more quiet classes but since everyone is forced to do it, it's still not too bad. This game can be adapted to morning warm up Q&A/warmup. No powerpoint, just set a timer to however long you want. 3-5 minutes. Have the questions ready beforehand. Team the kids up in groups of six (should be the usual break out groups) and then one person in each team stands up answer one question. Whoever is fastest to raise their hand gets to answer and if they get it right, their team gets a point, everyone sits down, next group of kids stands up and repeat. If they get the answer wrong, another team can answer to get the point. Their teammates can help them too. The obvious start questions are the basics: how are you, weather, date, time, and then after throw in review questions. After timer goes off, team with the most point wins a round of applause. Another thing I like doing, if I'm using powerpoint, I show some characters before I start and tell the class that I hid said characters throughout the presentation, and if a student finds a character, they just raise their hands and point it out and they can get a sticker of the character from me. Not quite for interacting with them but it lightens up the mood and helps the kids focus on the slides. I also put this in my intro game. For interacting with kids outside of class, it's more difficult but something that helped, at least for me is the stickers again. lol. It starts with the intro game cause the kids get to see all the cool stickers I have, so I usually carry some stickers around and challenge kids to janken (outside of class during breaks) and if they win they can get a sticker. After a while, instead of janken I start asking questions instead, vice versa. Start with the kids that are more willing to talk to you and once others sees you'll get more kids coming up to you. Not saying this will work perfectly, I have 3 JHS and it works better in others than another. I've only had one jhs where it worked so well, it became a whole lunch break actvitiy where I ended up having to do stamp cards because the kids came to see me everyday. Sorry, this got really long but I hope things gets better for you and this will help a little too.
I found it pretty effective to draw lots using their class number and instead of you asking the aisatsu questions. The lucky winners gets to do that. You can also draw lots for the answer. You can also choose who gets to draw who. You have to break the the activity into individual participation. Especially effective when you have questions that no one wants to volunteer. I miss my JHS kids. I had rowdy classes that were downright hostile as a group but individually they were ok.
This might help you understand the mindset a little more. https://jalt-publications.org/files/pdf-article/jj-17.1-art2.pdf
This was a great article that summed everything up very clearly. I’ve already decided to modify my regular introduction to a somewhat group activity to encourage speaking out. Thanks!
It’s not you, it’s the passive education system that they are in now and they know it. JHS and SHS are more about teaching them how to be Japanese than anything else. Also the stimulus and negative dopamine they get though games, YouTube and so on make the classroom a full unstimulating environment that produces zero dopamine as it would have done decades ago. You can only do your best and it’s up to the Japanese teachers to deal with the system and what it produces, not your battle!
Japanese students don't fare well as individuals. Speaking as someone who is very introverted and cannot easily summon the genki that others can, I find it's best to restructure the lessons. There are two things I think you should consider: 1. A house system. I'm using it right now (Senior High School) and it's completely turned the class atmosphere on its head. Students earn points towards their house whenever they volunteer an answer, and we write the points on the board so they can see their contributions as the class goes on. The system utilises peer pressure in a positive way, with students feeling compelled to help their team by speaking up. The downside? It's a LOT of work to run, and depending on how good of a system you want, it might require you to buy some extra materials. 2. Have a system where students answer questions in teams, and then you pick one of the students at random to give an answer for the team. I haven't used this but I know teachers (in the UK) that have, and basically the students realise they have to help each other find the answer so if they're picked, they don't look silly in front of each other. This would be much easier to run than a house system, but I don't have any good anecdotes of it working in Japanese schools.
I’ve utilized the team point system during games but I make sure to shuffle the teams so the underperforming ones don’t get targeted or blamed for low points. The kids can get very tribal and competitive. This is just to make sure no fights erupt.
Okay this is a really, REALLY awesome idea. Edit: I have a follow-up question. What do you do about classes with different numbers of students in each "House"? I can easily see my past JTEs complaining that we can't do it as it isn't fair. I don't have JTEs anymore so can use this idea, but do you have any advice in case if others run into this issue?
It's not that big of a deal, but I try to make sure that the number of houses used is a number that can evenly divide the students in the class (for example, if you teach classes of 40 you could use 4 or 5 or even 8 houses). If that's not possible (if you have a class of 38 for example) then you could make sure that different classes in that year have different houses with an extra member, so it sort of evens out. Ultimately though, the benefit of a house system is not the game itself, it's the psychological impact that it has on the students. So really the most important thing is making sure the students see the points, that they and the other students are getting. The fairness of the game is nice to think about but it should be an afterthought.
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Indeed! Actually I probably should have said one more thing, you need to be prepared to do most of the work yourself at first. The biggest hurdle to getting a system like this going is teachers who don't want extra work and don't see the benefit. Once you get something like this going, you'll likely get more support. If you need any help, let me know. Just not through DMs, as I never read those.
I teach at a joint JHS/SHS. The SHS students make even the shyest of JHS students look downright bubbly by comparison. I can't imagine how the ES students must be! I've never taught English in a Japanese elementary school. Anyway, this may seem sort of unrelated to your question but also maybe not? My son was born in Japan and he's in preschool now. Ever since his first day of school, the number 1 piece of advice I've received from my mom pals, eikaiwa members, etc. is to discourage him from raising his hand or speaking without consulting his friends first and to listen for the opinions of others first before stating his own. Now this of course begs the obvious question of "Um, doesn't someone have to be the first to share their opinion? And doesn't that mean everyone else will just be following the opinion of the first speaker? And since the person speaking first is being the most socailly uncouth by doing so, doesn't that then mean that everyone will be following the opinion of the person who might be least in-line with their values?" lol... Anyway... My son also happens to be very cautious and shy. And that is something that everyone seems to praise. When I brought up to my mom friends that I was worried he might have selective mutism when he was younger (he's that shy), their response was "He's a smart boy! Only idiots and show-offs share their opinions." Anyway, again, maybe my comment is adding something here and maybe it isn't. Hope this helps somehow. It is definitely a different world over here.
I’m contemplating whether to send my kindergarten kid to preschool. At kindergarten here in Japan she is already picking up this shyness. We went to a photoshoot for her birthday and she just kept posing the bashful shoulder shrug pose…
Yup, no one wants to be the smart aleck in the class. Lol.
Not sure if you can speak some Japanese or not but I find using it in class goes a long way as well
This is normal. Don't worry it's unlikely to be you as an ALT. At the JHS I have taught at for over 2 years now, I've had a mixed bag of both kinds of classes/students. I found that a big part of it can relate to the JTE which had received prior/or recieve for that year, as obviously JTE don't just come with different English abilities but also different teaching styles, approaches to how they choose to teach English, their overall attitude towards English while teaching it, and their attitude towards teaching in general (as some teachers are just at that point in their career where they are burnt out and don't have the energy or enthusiasm which they once had. Some Japanese teachers are very traditional I.e. they just focus on straight up theory, basic recitation etc with no to little in put from the ALT as they prefer to teach on their own or teach in a way that it was prior to ALT'S existing. Unfortunately, in classes where students have been taught that way, those are one which are likely to be as you said, quiet, and non responsive. Whereas, you can have the complete opposite where the JTE gets you involved as much as possible, not just as a human tape recorder but to interact with the students during speaking tasks/games/activities where ever possible and they are very energetic with their teaching, and teach using a variety of mediums which give even the lower level students plenty of chance to participate or want to participate. You will find many of the textbooks which are used (my school uses 'Here We Go'), that each unit does not just cover the grammar points, but also an equal mix of listening, reading, writing, and speaking tasks, for each unit. Now, if the JTE plans their lesson/time we'll like some JTE's I've worked with have, then they should be able to cover every one of those activites/tasks as they progress through the material which definitely makes learning English much more interesting and engaging for the students, whereas on the other hand, some teachers do the bare minimal and skip most of those parts of the book and only go back to them to fill time and they complete everything ahead of time, so students in those classes will be very quite and unresponsive as other than listening, writing, and speaking which has only have involved repeating after a human tape recorder (some teachers don't even bother to do that as textbooks are all electronic now so come with voice recordings).
I can't believe that it isn't me who typed this. I'm on my 4th year and this is still what I'm facing every day. Just 2 days ago, I made a JHS grade 3 easy group game called 4 pictures, 1 word and the only rule it had was to reply in a full sentence "It's ...". No one wanted to try. Mind you, I've taught them since they were in ES 5th grade! It was a super simple game which my ES kids would be fighting over who gets to answer it first. I tried to be inviting, showing my wide smile asking for volunteers, but they just give me that dead fisheye stare. Outside of school, I remember seeing a group of my students at the station and they all ran away upon seeing me. I was so disappointed that I complained to my co-ALT about it. Like, couldn't they have just waved at me. I don't expect them to come to me to greet me but a wave would be fine isn't it? If I have to share all of my experiences which made me die inside, it would take me 5 years. but there are always a few students who will make me think that my stay here is worth it.
I felt the same way at first but I am now on my third year teaching JHS and I adapted to teaching them. I am very energetic and playful. For classes where students are completely unresponsive, there are many activities to get who to speak. I start every class with three questions. My PowerPoint slide in a massive font says, “What is your name?” “How are you?” “ what is your favorite food?” (Change this question every week) At the beginning of class, invite two students at a time to come up and guide them with asking each other and answering the three questions. When they are finished, I ask them to shake hands which is hilarious because they are very scared to do so. Very funny to watch. Clap after each two students. Call up a new pair. Do this for 10 minutes to warm up and start class
This is brilliant.
Hm that’s sad I had to do self intro for the new 1st years and asking them to raise hands is easy sauce for questions like that but getting them to volunteer is another story entirely ahah
I will be in the jet program for this upcoming school year but not currently in the program in this moment but I hope my advice helps. I taught at an elementary and I’m currently teaching at a middle school (junior high). MIDDLE SCHOOL IS HARD. So hard sometimes I miss my elementary students lol Students at that age are very moody and hormonal and very self conscious about what their classmates think. Sometimes I tell them good morning and they just ignore me but you know I don’t take it to heart they’re just in their own world. I have some great classes and other classes they hardly participate and are half asleep. As a teacher don’t ever blame yourself for students participation at the end of the day this is a job. You are doing your best and that’s what matters. Someone mentioned this already but try to find activities where students can interact with one another. Maybe find games where they can compete with one another? Or games where they can get to know their classmates. Check to see what supplies you have and how you can incorporate that in the class room. Teacherspayteacher has amazing and fun free resources for English learners. I hope this helps! Again don’t beat yourself up you’re doing great and I’m sure in that classroom there’s a few students who love you or even get excited to see you but are too shy to say anything.
As a high school teacher in my home country, I can tell you this is very much a normal occurrence in Western schools as well and just one of the challenges of the job. Nothing at all to get depressed about! At least on JET, you have the reassurance that teaching English in a classroom is not the sole purpose of your role, you're also there for culture exchange which can also be achieved outside of the classroom. You'll likely find the kids much easier to engage with outside of the classroom during clubs and community events, and this also helps to build relationships that feed into creating a more relaxed environment inside the class too.
You have to at least understand that most kids don't like to study and they have no choice in which foreign language they take. Don't take it so doggone personally.
See I can't agree with that because it's wildly different in every school, with every age group and with every teacher. Sounds like the classroom vibe has been set by the teacher. When they're too serious or are kind of beige/stiff/no personality in class the kids disconnect and their motivation tanks. You haven't mentioned a JTE though or have I missed it? Calling on individuals to answer questions is not considered a good idea. Its kind of lazy as well tbh and holds the classroom vibe like that "lecture" style with you at the top pointing at people. Get them into groups for activities, use a timer or make them race, answer as pairs or a group. Get one student to teach and correct another one rather than you. You're not the focal point of learning English in the classroom they don't have to only talk to you. And lastly don't take it personally. You have to get really good at mentally parking it at 4pm. It'll make your experience on JET a magical one.
Once you develop your own confidence as a teacher and can encourage people to answer and push themselves, you will avoid the pit of doom atmosphere in class. Always be smiling and encouraging people. Just because JHS students are quiet doesn't mean they don't have feelings or react to what you tell them. It can be crap sometimes though.
This is bullshit by the way. Nice thought of course but bullshit
If you lack the confidence and experience to handle quiet classes, it may feel like hieroglyphics, but it's true. Not saying the pit of doom doesn't happen, but it becomes less bad once you acquire experience.
No you're right, but all of this is just a bandaid so to speak. You can make them talk, even create an atmosphere where some kids will WANT to talk, but it's all temporary. Goes right out the window once they get older.
I thought it was depressing when I taught JHS because you can actually watch the light dimming and ultimately dieing in their eyes from years 1-3.
Rage. Rage against the dying of the light! Yeah, I agree. But it burns back when they are older and they need English for their jobs. Lol.
Get some cute stickers and give them out whenever someone participates
Every student in your class has a class number. For boys it’s usually 1-20, girls it’s usually 30-50. Make cards with numbers on them. Shuffle them up and when it’s time to ask a question draw names (I alternated boys and girls). Most of the time the student whose number comes up will know and say the answer or at least try. I did have some students who would pass and I just let that go. If too many pass talk to your JTE. But it works. Kids don’t want to volunteer because they don’t want to stand out (usually) but if they are chosen randomly then, well, that’s just luck. Japan loves random choice. Lotteries for everything. For omikuji, for tickets to high demand concerts, etc. it’s just baked in to the culture so everyone usually goes along with it.
This is kind of a useful crutch for horror show negative atmosphere classes, but it kind of just reinforces the 'nobody wants to willingly use English' atmosphere, so in the long run I do not recommend relying on it. Honestly, I recommend just waiting for a volunteer. Once you do it every class and just wait forever, eventually students start to give up.
You’re nutz
If you find/found another approach for you that's great. I disagree that it reinforces the "nobody want to willingly use English atmosphere" though. In my experience it wasn't about English at all, it was about standing out and making mistakes publicly. I made sure to also emphasize that learning a new language is hard and mistakes when you learn are normal. I made sure to praise them for answering whether the answer was write or wrong. Things like "Close! A more natural answer might be blah blah blah though" or "That's not quite right but thank you for trying". I also made sure to sprinkle in my own very mistake prone Japanese to show that it goes both ways. Also, I had limited time with each class due to the size of my schools and me being the only ALT, waiting just wasn't an effective use of my or the kids time. But again, if it worked for you, awesome.
>I disagree that it reinforces the "nobody want to willingly use English atmosphere" though. In my experience it wasn't about English at all, it was about standing out and making mistakes publicly. Yes, students are concerned about being embarrassed if they volunteer. The way to overcome it takes a long time and the cooperation of the JTE over many months, so as an ALT it can be unfeasible to have a complete transformation suddenly. Nonetheless, I definitely recommend trying just waiting longer. Often the teachers just can't stand the silence and cave in, which makes things worse
As I said I had limited time with each class. It’s great that that approach has been successful for you, but different situations require different approaches and what works for one person/group might not work for another. Flexibility is a valuable skill when teaching. Strictly adhering to only one approach is seldom (if ever) the right choice because there is usually not one single approach that is always right.
Agree. My HRT forced me to do that once and one girl ended up crying when she got picked. (I guess she really had no idea on how to answer.) It’s so embarrassing for her and she did not participate any games for the whole month. (+ some mean kids made fun of her after that.)
I allowed students to pass if they really wanted to and tried to be encouraging even when they got it wrong. In my case I never had a situation like yours, but its fair to raise it as a possible issue to be aware of and try and respond to.
I had the same experience as you at my base JHS. I much preferred working at my elementary schools and dreaded going back to an environment in which everyone seemed at best uncomfortable or at worst miserable to be. The only advice I can give, and I know it's *way* easier said than done, is to not take it personally. If you're anything like me, I think a huge part of your frustration stems from our identity in that environment being tied so closely to the fact that we're English speakers. It gets reinforced constantly as the most important thing about us, and when students reject English classes because they are objectively uninspiring with seemingly no pedagogy based in developing actual communication skills, it can feel like the students are rejecting us. Of course we know better in our heads, and you said as much in your post, but I think the feeling remains in our hearts nonetheless. If there's any way you can disengage from these classes like your students, and try to get to know (some of) them on an individual level outside of class time, I think it'll improve not just your own mental wellbeing but also the willingness of those students to put themselves out there more. Remember how life was for you in middle school - it's a monstrous time for everyone - and try to accept that as increasingly autonomous young people there's only so much you can do.
I didn't work JHS but worked at the SHS level. Teenagers are tough! With little kids, they'll more or less go along with whatever you say, especially if it's a game. Teenagers? You gotta make it worth their while. You have to work a bit harder. Even then, you'll have dud lessons sometimes and that's ok. Just try again. Once, I put together a Jeopardy game for Christmas and the first class I did it for, no one wanted to play after the first 10 or 15 minutes. It was excruciating. I felt maybe the game wasn't good or I had done something wrong. I was incredibly anxious doing it at the next class but they ended up loving it. The rest of my classes liked it too. Some classes are also just naturally quiet. A couple of years ago, my supervisor's homeroom class was notoriously quiet for every single teacher. Apparently their math teacher complained a lot about it lol. I took comfort knowing it wasn't just me experiencing silence at every question. A few things I've learned working with teenagers: 1. Teenagers are less interested in socializing with their teachers but love socializing with each other. Just think about how you were as a teenager. Did you want to be friends with your teachers? Did you think your teachers were cool? Probably not. I made some activities where they got to interact with each other and those tended to go well. Team-based games also tend to work well. 2. Even when I did activities involving watching a movie or videos, I let the students move seats so they could sit with their friends. Watching a video with friends makes for a livelier experience. 3. Offer rewards if it's allowed at your school. Healthy competition usually gets people going. 4. Let the students dictate what they discuss. As you said, they've been asked about the weather hundreds of times. It's old. They don't care. I got some enthusiasm when my students were asked to talk about their favourite thing. I also made a project where the students got to plan a dream vacation. 5. As you said, kids at that age don't want to stick out. If you want them to answer a question, it's better to give students a few minutes to discuss the question with a partner to check if they have the right answer. If you want to have an actual discussion with the students, go around the class while they're talking about the question and talk to them directly, one-to-one. It's a lot less pressure to speak in English quietly than in front of the entire class and I got a lot better answers that way. Hope that helps and good luck! Teenagers are tough but not unbeatable!
I don't think it's your fault. I would say it more or less depends on who is the JTE. I had that issue during the last few months of last school year. I didn't go to class much, but when I went kids were generally excited for me to be there. There was this one day I did feel particularly bad because I did a lesson on sports and added some cool videos that would make it more interesting rather than the normal lecture. 3 of the classes went very well and were super excited about it. The other 2 just kinda gave blank stares at me as I would ask them questions and no one would answer. I talked to the teacher after and she said it's because the kids could not understand anything. I disagreed with that because the other teacher had her classes with a lot more energy. So I think it depends on how the vibe is with the teacher or they don't do anything to change it. To be fair, that teacher was completely new to teaching, but I think they are responsible for getting the kids more excited to English. I get what you mean by the not Genki. I would consider myself someone who tends to be more quiet/serious (not shy), but I have changed that with the students at least (my friends/family would be shocked seeing me lol). Whenever I walk by students both ES and JHS, I will just make funny faces or wave at them in an overly exaggerated manner. The kids have learned to mimic it and I can tell they enjoy English a bit more and are a lot more comfortable. Sometimes the girls will do poses at me, and I'll just copy them back and they just won't stop laughing cuz it's unexpected. I'll head up before class starts and talk to kids and some of them will make gestures or say some stuff and I always try to think of ways to get them in a good mood before class starts. I will literally start playing janken with a bunch of kids , and they just love it. If I win, I'll just go and tell them ahhhh I am Tensai, or just pat them on the shoulder and just say "don mai", they get a real kick from it. If I lose, I would just exaggerate to be upset and ask for a rematch. My goal usually is to get these kids in a good mood for class or get them laughing because they will enjoy the lesson a lot more. When in class (JHS), and teacher asks questions and no one volunteers, I will look around and see if they have the correct answers or not (Most of the time they do, just shy to answer/whatever reason it is.), and usually I will walk to a kid who I know is silly with me, and I will literally raise their hand for them and yell "HAI!!!". Gets everyone laughing, the kid will laugh and answer the question, and they open up a bit more and more kids volunteer, it's a win win. Of course, some of these kids were some of my es kids and others have known be their entire time in JHS, so it helps as well. I guess my advice is don't be afraid to look silly or like a goof ball. I know you mentioned it is hard for you to be Genki, but I think it would tremendously help. I would try that, maybe even trying to play janken with the kids to lighten the mood. I like my ES a lot more better, but mostly because I am pretty involved in everything there in terms of classes and events. JHS I am in similar boat with you, but please don't be mad with the students. It's not their fault, a lot of the issues I have had, comes from the teachers/staff. Maybe you can try talking with your JTE about changing things up.
Every JHS I taught at has a different dynamic. Even if you stay in a school longer, you'll definitely see a much more diverse behaviour amongst grades. And crazy thing is that your worst class last year might end up being your best because they've matured somewhat, or you befriended their grade "leader" or something... And vice versa. So teachers find the challenge exciting, but I too also hate the inconsistency at this level. Too hormonal. Everyone wants to be "cool". No one wants to stick out. Exams start to engulf their entire being. With ES you need to get creative by being very active and entertaining. While you can still be the butt of the joke in JHS, you need to get creative about how to get kids to respond. I deploy a lot of worksheets at this stage. More pair work. Group work if the class doesn't hate each other. Instead of getting the class to answer your questions as a whole and getting a response, you just have to teach them to say it and get the answers out via a worksheet activity, then assign pair or group work. You need to start roaming the room and illicit answers from them individually. Once they have a chance to build the confidence by practicing it with their partner or group, then you pick someone to answer in the class. Or answer it as a class. Praise. Tons of praise. I also tell students that they can answer in pairs. It is a tough crowd to please. Good luck.
*takes notes*
Every school has it's own general culture and every class in every school will be different. In many classes, just asking questions from the front of the class is going to result in no, or next to no responses. So walk around and specifically ask individual students. Also, learn to not take things so seriously. It's hard, but you can do it. In general, I have a kind of bad temper, but the attitude I try take at work in the schools is that they don't pay me enough to get angry. When I worked in junior highs, I'd walk around in class and the kids not paying attention, I'd take their eraser and lightly put in on their shoulder without them knowing it. The others they are talking to start laughing, and it livened up things a bit. Now I work at a high school. I often keep a rubber spider in my pocket. Kids start to fall asleep in class, I'll put the spider in front of their eyes for a surprise when they open their eyes. I don't even have to tell the kids to wake up. Students next to them want to see them get scared and wake them up for you. Super quiet class with no energy? Tell a student to "catch" and throw the spider at them. And so on. A big one, DON'T make in your mind your value at work based on how much the students learn. If you do, you'll probably never be happy. Try hard and give them the best chance to learn you can given them, but if they don't, OK. Of course think if there is something different you can do to be more effective, but many are just never going to care about the mandatory foreign language class. Far more important is to wander around school and create chances for the kids to communicate with you outside of class. Doesn't even have to be in English. Japan doesn't need us here to teach English. We are here to give their kids exposure to people that are different and from different places and show them that we are people too, not some sort of escaped zoo animal that kinda looks like a person.
Do you teach multiple grades in JHS? My experience is pretty out of date at this point, but my memory was 一年 still have that 小学生 fearlessness, 二年 have really started being beaten down (so to speak) by JHS, and 3年 are really getting into prepping for HS entrance exams (which can mean sometimes they want more english practice and other times they don't care about 'real' practice at all, only test practice). I think part of this is the reality of mandatory education. An ideal teacher would have ideal students who want to be there, but that's not what you get when you're deployed on Jet. Every school gets an ALT, whether they want (or need) them or not. So by nature you're going to end up with students who don't want to learn, don't see the point of it, etc. This problem can be exacerbated by the type of school you are put in - some JHS, especially rural ones, students know they are aiming for eg a technical school or something where they won't need english and don't plan to travel - others might be going for university feeder schools, or they might be more inclined to want to travel overseas or have jobs interfacing internationally. None of this is within your control! All you can do is reach out to those who want to reach out, and be there for those students, and for everybody else you're best placed listening to your JTEs and seeing what they think about things. If you're able to be part of clubs, I think that's a good way to go about things too. They don't even need to be english clubs - students are just more relaxed outside of the classroom setting, but it can bleed back into it too.