By Nicole McCoy

It would happen about five times a day. A niggling feeling at the back of my mind, reminding me that there’s something I needed to do, something I’d been putting off.  I’d be working at my desk, my eyes would wander to that stack of papers, and I’d lose focus.

I’d been putting off signing my recontracting papers. I waited until the last possible moment to submit them.

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 Teaching as an ALT 

Scott Tamaki

This post is for any ALT who has teaching in their sights as a career path. Maybe your goal is to become a better teacher, maybe it’s to gain teaching experience for something post-JET, or maybe it’s just to find out if you like teaching. I try my best to revise and reevaluate the goals I have for teaching each day.  I ask myself, “What do I want my students to gain from this?” and question if my actions are aligned with my objective. Often times my judgement wanes, and mistake after mistake has me reflecting on how I can do things better.  Every now and then there are moments of teaching frustration, but there always seems to be small things that keep me motivated as a teacher.  Here are my thoughts and observations, highs and lows of being an ALT to junior high school students.  

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By Hogan Gill

Kia Ora my fellow Mikans,

I recently worked myself out of a pickle and thought it worth sharing on the chance anyone else out there was suffering similar sorrows. When I arrived, I was told that along with a Junior High School and three Elementary Schools, every second Wednesday I had two 90-minute Eikaiwa classes at the local community center. The classes were mostly made up of retired folk and housewives who were interested in improving their English ability. But with absolutely zero teaching background, I had no idea how to run these classes. 

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Struggling with teaching in Japan? Finding communicating a little difficult? Bored? Well you're not alone! Teresa Crane came to me with an article about guiding educators to be great and…