Teaching in Japan - an elementary school visit

**Permission granted by this shogakko for posting on my page**
Usually I'm mobbed at recess after lunch when I visit elementary schools - the kids are eager to chat or have me draw something or ask me to play a game. But today my kids were busy after lunch rehearsing for their upcoming graduation ceremony, so I took advantage of the uncommon quiet and filmed a vlog talking about teaching at elementary school 小学校　しょうがっこう。

I enjoy my elementary school visits, but I wouldn't want to only teach at elementary school. The kids are great, but the lessons are limiting and unless you can teach with them on a very consistent basis, it's hard to see any real progress. But that will change for me in April, when my daily schedule will include many more visits to shogakko than I've had in the previous school year. (more about that in a future vlog)

If you have questions about teaching at elementary school (grades 1-6, ages 7-12), then leave a comment.

And maybe if you're all really good I'll give you the same quiz I gave my students in a future vlog! :D

-Jason

Category:

Education

Tags:

• 小学校
• ESL
• JET
• Program
• ALT
• Jason
• vlog
• Shimane
• Japan
• Japanese
• elementary
• school

[xMarta9]

Hi there! I love Japan and I think your channel is so interesting as I'm doing a school project about how the Japanese Educational System works. Would you mind if I ask you some questions about it?

Thank you so much and I hope you will update more videos soon! :D

Marta

[myargonauts]

@xMarta9 Marta - I was an ALT at public schools from 2004 to 2009, and now I work at a Japanese university, so I won't be making anymore videos about primary schools, but feel free to PM me here on YT with a few questions if you like.

[MiniSweet4]

how many students are usually in a room

[myargonauts]

@MiniSweet4 it can vary quite a bit. A typical elementary school has 25 to 30 kids per class, but I would often teach lessons with class 1 and class 2 combined, so I was teaching 50 to 60 kids in a larger room for 45 minutes. Of course, I also had a small mountain school with only 3 kids in one class.

[CrazyGirll13]

when they something is 100 yen does mean it's actualy 100 or 1 dollar.because we have a student who came from japan before saying 100 yen means 1.00$ is that true?

[myargonauts]

@CrazyGirll13 for many years, 100yen equalled $1 with the exchange rate. So it was easy to think of say, a Coke, which was 120 yen as being $1.20 But now the exchange rate is about 78 yen to $1, so they really aren't equal anymore. That same Coke that is 120yen is about $1.50 now.

[myargonauts]

@roxas006 not sure why - but it is rare here. My guess is that grass is expensive to plant and maintain so they just go with dirt

[roxas006]

why dont they have any grass in the soccer field?

[myargonauts]

@Cyrus150 Japanese language ability helps, but is not required, to become a JET ALT. If you plan to spend more than a year in Japan tho, it really helps to be able to speak at least a little. It will help in your lessons too, especially in elementary schools.

[Cyrus150]

How fluent in japanese do you need to be to teach, or specifically, teach english?