Being an ALT does not always mean teaching

I would like to say that this week has been the most eventful, jam packed, exhausting, thrilling and exciting that i've ever had.

The key word here being "like".

Unfortunately for me for the second half of last week and the first half of this week it has been mid term tests. The good thing for me is that it means i have no lessons to teach...the bad news is i have no lessons to teach.

Let me explain. As an ALT you assist teaching, when you dont have any lessons you are not teaching. If there are exams then that means you pretty much sit at your desk all day. You cant even go into the gym to play a game of basketball, go on to the field for soccer or sit at the back of a class because there are no classes...just exams.

You would also think that you would have a day at home what my company likes to call a "work day at home". But these only happen if the school is closed and so because the school isnt closed i got to spend my days at my desk enjoying the marvelous views or the teaching room.

Luckily for i have an ipad...so i downloaded some games and trasnferred some films and have finally caught up on Doctor Who and Star Gate Universe.

There was only yesterday when i was able to have a break between films and internet that i actually did some proper work which was marking papers.

I was given the answer sheet and happy went along marking and completed the task in no time at all...in the afternoon i was given another classes papers to mark with the answer sheets and noticed that these answers were similar. The sheet was different though because it actually had the questions on...i asked the tutor from the morning, whos papers i helped marked, whether the answers were suppose to be the same. Turned out that his English was as good as I thought it was and he had made quite a few errors and the students were in fact correct.

You see here in Japan generally to be an Japanese English teach you have to be able to understand English, be willing to teach English and speak some...this is why there are many jobs here in Japan for ALTs.

Marking the papers made me feel so bad for the students because they actually know more then they think...every lesson i am told by the tutor that the level of my lessons were too high. i am now starting to think that the level is ok for the student its just that he is not to sure.

Again unfortunately for this school they are dropping me as an ALT (my other school is now having me for 3 days instead of just 2). But this will mean the school that is dropping me wont have a native speak and so the students will struggle due to the level of the japanese english teachers.

However, even after a week of bordem (and a day where i was ill and stayed in bed) i will get to have fun for the next 2 days because its a one of my schools sports festival...pretty much we sit around doing nothing and occassionally play a game of something...im sure it will be more fun and i will write about it...i also have another sports festival next week that is more of the traditional format...hopefully i will have pics and videos too.

• teaching
• TEFL
• Japan
• Asia
• alt
• jlt