I think the teachers here and the students are confused as well. I hear a good mix of "Megan-sensei" and "Megan-san" from the students. I don't mind. The staff knows that I am trying my best to motivate the students and plan lessons. I just had my review and it was better than I imagined, considering I thought I screwed up my first week of teaching.
Actually, let me share my experience of my first month here, and then I'll go back to why I'm not a "teacher."
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My time in the first week here was spent mostly on paper work and reading through my predecessor's previous lesson plans. The students had end of the term exams during that time, so I did some grading towards the end of the week. Note: Just because the students have end of the term exams, this doesn't mean they don't have classes after testing. The second week was the last week of classes before vacation. I worked hard on my O.C. II, 3rd year, classes and also on my O.C. I, 1st year, classes. O.C. stands for Oral Communication--its somewhat supplementary to their daily English classes, but not really because they have different books for the two classes.
When the second week came around, I was prepared for my very first lesson. The first lesson would be with my 3rd year students and I was looking forward to showing the 5 minute video clip I made of my friends answering various questions. The first class would also prepare the students for their next class, which would consist of their own video interview filming, and we also did a Secret Santa Clause lesson. HOWEVER, 5 minutes before the class starts, the Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) comes to my desk, as I'm preparing to leave, and she tells me that the video room, which I had reserved, was being used for testing. I had 5 minutes to change up my plans and so everything on my PowerPoint presentation would have to be written on the board. That was an EPIC FAIL for me.
Second FAIL came when I did my first O.C. I lesson and the Vice Principals and Principal were there to see it. I had way too much written content, not enough pictures, and I was boring the students with English above their level. I couldn't believe that I was being reviewed right away! But, its the scheduled time for all ALTs, so I came just in time. :T After those two lessons, I revised my lesson plans by shortening the content and creating back-up plans. Live and Learn and Laugh...Later (Much later).
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Anyway, back to why I am not a teacher. In addition to my lack of experience, the teachers here put in more hours and do so much more here. They are like the second parent to a student. My hours are from 8:20-4:15pm, but I usually stay a little later because I feel strange leaving so early when the teachers are still there. They are usually there from 8-6:30pm. :X
I've had some good lessons and some pretty bad lessons so far--mostly because the kids don't respond, but I will post more info on this later. Time to sleep.
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