Category: New Teachers

It takes a village to raise a child MY teacher

The first month of the new school year is over. New teachers are finished with their monthlong training and are now teaching classes on their own. I was in the same boat around this time last year, but it is only now that something became vividly clear to me – “It takes a village to raise a MY teacher.”

Looking back, one aspect of MY that significantly helped me get through the first year was the training and support from experienced teachers. It certainly took more than one person to ensure I was capable on my own in the classroom, which on some days felt like a battlefield and on other days the happiest place on earth (second to Disneyland).

It takes a team of teachers coming from varying teaching experiences and united by a shared goal to prepare a new teacher.

It takes a team of teachers coming from varying teaching experiences and united by a shared goal to prepare a new teacher. The way MY trains its new teachers is one thing that separates it from other English language schools.

Pre-MY training experiences bring to mind a three-day or a weeklong intensive training session, lots of handouts, roleplays…and then I was on my own. Occasionally, another one-day training session was conducted.

With MY, the training from the onset was immersive, experiential, and communicative.

With MY, the training from the onset was immersive, experiential, and communicative, to say the least. One of the things I learned early was MY’s principles, starting with “We start with questions.”

It wasn’t clear to me what “start with questions” meant until I saw MY teachers putting it into action during my training. Teachers I trained with all had questions. With Parisa, “What skills do we want them to practice during the lesson?” With Aaron, “How do you get the students to play with the language?” With Alina, “How can you make those pages into a task?” With David, “What language do you want them to produce by the end of the school year?”

Not only were the teachers asking questions, but the advisors as well. When planning activities for open lessons, then-Higashine advisor Yuki also asked me: “How can the parents be part of the activity?”

I knew that I could always approach any MY teacher and they would be more than happy to give a piece of advice.

April 2022 zoomed by so fast. The period with teacher trainers was over, and I was on my own. I don’t know how this year’s new batch of teachers feel, but, for me, it was a nerve-wracking time. However, I knew that I could always approach any MY teacher and they would be more than happy to give a piece of advice.

MY’s commitment to learning also helped. Monthly trainings organized by the Professional Development Team, rolling observation days, and external conferences were sources of ideas and learning opportunities.

The first month of the new school year is over. Once again, I saw a “village” of MY teachers raising…preparing new teachers for their classes. There will be “yay!” moments. There will be rough patches. Knowing that one can turn to any MY teacher for advice will surely help new teachers in their first year.

For past and present MY teachers, how was your MY training experience?  For teachers elsewhere, who is the village that raises your teachers?

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Struggling with letting them struggle

“Let them struggle.”

Three words. One sentence. A concrete piece of advice that I have heard one too many times from experienced MY teachers who observed my lessons and whose lessons I have observed.

Three simple words that I continue to utter to myself whenever I plan a lesson and as I enter a classroom.

Several months into teaching with MY and I found myself struggling with “letting them (the students) struggle.” Since joining MY in the spring of 2022, I noticed that one thing I started doing more often than before is to reflect on my lessons, whether it turned out the way I had planned or had gone astray from the path I had intended .

And one question that I found myself reflecting on was “Why am I struggling with letting them struggle?” Is it the big brother side of me? Is it because silence in the classroom makes me uncomfortable? Is it because my idea of an efficiently managed classroom is one where things run continuously just like a Broadway musical where one scene almost always moves seamlessly onwards to the next scene? All of the above I guess.

Towards the end of the previous school year, I noticed some tiny changes in myself: I consciously (and patiently) tried harder to wait for one student to figure the situation out and ask the question I was waiting for or say the target language we’ve been studying. I told myself it was okay to see the students have a confused look on their faces.

Students successfully overcoming a hurdle made me see that letting them struggle does more good than harm.

I started seeing how letting them struggle is a way not just to learn about English but also having that skill to think and to make a decision on what to do in an unfamiliar, uncomfortable situation outside the four walls of MY. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a class of elementary first graders or junior high third graders. Students successfully overcoming a hurdle made me see that letting them struggle does more good than harm.

Through continued conversations with fellow MY teachers, the monthly trainings, reading up on language teaching on my own, and consciously making the effort to let the students struggle, I’d like to think that I am getting more used to seeing the students in unfamiliar and, at times, uncomfortable situations where they are struggling. And as I start my second year of teaching with MY, I also hope that, in time, I no longer have to struggle with letting them struggle.

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New Teacher Voices

Editor’s note: John and Sam both started at MY English School in April 2021. They have graciously agreed to share about their first-year experiences at MY.

“Scary…wonderful”

by
John Lin

Joining MY after being an ALT for 3 years was eye-opening. At first, it was a little bit scary, trying to learn a new teaching method. Going from an ALT who usually was taught to give students templates and run a class strictly, watching the MY teachers let students run portions of a class by themselves while they prepared the next activity showed me the way to make English learning more fun and engaging. Every teacher was also more than happy to pass on their game methods to me, and took time to give pointers on how to help children become more independent learners.

The many training days throughout the year also helped me keep track of my progress. It was also possible to not only socialize with colleagues from other schools, but to share ideas on how to improve lessons. After learning about the ball toss activities in the first training session, the second training had other teachers offering suggestions on how to make the activity more interesting for older students. Outside of the lessons and trainings, teachers will also meet up for some games or sports, bringing a sense of friendship to the staff. All of that comes together to make MY a wonderful learning and teaching experience for both the students and staff.

“I have been able to come to work happy”

by
Sam Todd

Joining MY was one of the best choices I have made in my many years in Japan. Having worked for many different places, I have always felt that the focus is misplaced in the majority of schools. MY has a very clear focus on the student and the teacher. I believe that it is easy to see how this is beneficial, not only for them, but for MY. It has been a long time since I have been able to come to work happy because I feel that I am making a dramatic impact on students’ futures and greatly enjoy working with my teammates.

As a new team member, it can sometimes feel overwhelming to be amongst a group of people that already know each other well. Having to experience some growing pains in a new company is to be expected, but the always available aid, support and welcoming nature of my coworkers, has made the transition into something interesting and enjoyable.

We, as teachers, have a very important job to do, and MY understands that there are many different ways to get to that end goal. MY allows teachers (and students) the freedom to use their skills and abilities to reach the goal and always aids in setting up the next one. It must be said that it is also fantastic to be surrounded by like-minded coworkers willing to share their experiences, so that we always have the opportunity to improve. The experience of working in an environment in which everyone works hard and is not content with mediocrity, while maintaining motivation, is truly fulfilling!

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Changing my mindset – Silence

(Me)                    – “What is it?“

(Students)         –
(silence)

(Me)                    – “Do you know what is it?“

(Students)         – (silence)

A very familiar situation, isn’t it? Regardless of the situation, whether it’s a language school classroom or our day-to-day life, not getting an answer to your question is upsetting, annoying and, truth be told, sometimes infuriating. Especially in a teacher-centered classroom not receiving an answer can be seen as straight up disrespectful and rude, or worse – as a sign that your students are absolutely clueless.

Or are they? That’s what I noticed when I joined MY. Sometimes,
after presenting a new topic I realised that instead of a wave of different
responses and answers I got only silence. And, as human beings, we hate when
silence falls upon us. Have you ever been on a date that suddenly went silent
and you wished that you were anywhere but there? At first, that’s exactly how I
felt. Thinking that this grammar target is the easiest in the world I hadn’t
been prepared for my students’ silence. Upon encountering this, our first
instinct is to avoid the situation – scrap the activity, move on to something
else, hoping that the second attempt later in the class would me more
successful.

However, after several months at MY I noticed that sometimes I
used to get a different kind of silence. Not the desperate, students trying to
avoid looking in your eye’s kind of silence (“not Slytherin!”). No, there was
something special. This was a curious, hungry silence of someone who knew
exactly what was going on, but wasn’t sure how to express their feelings.

Allow me to give you an example.

In one of my elementary school 2nd grade classes we started to study occupations, and the first question we were supposed to learn is “What do you do?”. Excited, I sat down with my students and “accidentally” asked them “What do you do?”. Being MY’s loyal students, my kids immediately asked me “What do you do, Alina?”, to which I proudly announced “I’m a teacher! “.

And then silence fell upon us.

Concerned, at first, I felt that maybe they didn’t understand the
question, and maybe I should either make myself clearer or do another activity,
allowing them to think over this new mysterious grammar point. But a few second
later I saw that students, instead of avoiding my eyes, were actively looking
for answers by looking at me and at each other curiously. That second a very
simple truth for an experienced teacher suddenly hit me.

What if they don’t know how to say “student” in English?

What I did was I gave them several examples. Smiling
mischievously, I asked my students

(Me)- “What’s “hon” in English?“

(Students)- “It’s book”.

(Me) – “Hm, I see. What’s baggu in English?”

(Students) – “It’s bag.”

(Me)-” Hm, I see. What’s….“

(Students)- “ALINA WHAT’S GAKUSEI IN ENGLISH??”

And at that moment I felt badass like never before. And, because this knowledge was obtained through a hard thinking process where students were allowed to think things through, and got the answer only after asking other follow-up questions, I realised several months later that this knowledge was retained by them. Even last year, when I just joined MY, some of my classes didn’t keep this knowledge and we had to recycle it way more frequently than I’d wished, and yet with this class even after a long time they were still able to ping-pong “I’m a student” to your “What do you do?”.

Becoming more comfortable with silence is one of the most
fundamental changes I’ve experienced since joining MY. In fact, I might say
that I Mia Wallaced myself – now I’m able to shut up for a minute and
comfortably share silence knowing that my students are figuring out the answer,
making sure that this knowledge gained after some elbow grease will stay with
them and go into their long term memory.