At Minato JHS there are 11 teachers, 1 ALT, the principal (headmaster, or "kouchou-sensei"), the vice-principal (deputy headmaster, or "kyoutoou-sensei"), a secretary, a groundskeeper, and 1 part-time teacher. [Click here to see the photos and profiles of the faculty and staff.] The teachers are divided into year groups, and they work as teams to handle the affairs of each year level. Thus, the teachers' desks in the staff room ("shokuin-shitsu" - the homebase for the teachers) are grouped according to the year groups. This school year, the ALT is a third-year teacher (I have been with this particular group of kids since they were little first-years!), and as such, the ALT's desk is with the other third-year teachers. This system (emphasizing teamwork and group consensus) is pretty different from America, so it took a little while to get used to it.
You will team teach with 2 teachers, Mr. Hirata (3rd year lessons) and Ms. Yamato (1st and 2nd year lessons). Both teachers speak English fairly well, so no worries on that front. At Minato JHS, you will teach (at most) 10 hours a week, but most likely you'll be teaching maybe half that. Although the school has four classes total, this year they began a new system in which they've divided the 2nd year class into two sub-classes (A and B), just for English lessons! (Last year, this particular group of kids was a bit difficult to manage during English lessons, so we're now dividing them to make classes run more smoothly, and to give them more individual attention). Thus, as far as English teachers & the ALT are concerned, there are five classes total at the school; and the ALT teaches each class (at most) twice a week.
English lessons generally follow the New Horizon textbooks, although for the team taught lessons, I personally like to create my own lesson plans that are based only loosely on the grammar points from the textbook. Of course, fun is best! |
