Classroom Management
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Dress
Dress codes for teachers vary considerably. You will not be required to wear outfits quite as formal as you might wear to a job interview, but many if not most schools do require formal wear. A few schools let their teacher dress much more casually, but you should never assume this. Ask about dress codes after you've been hired--or before if it is very important to you. Below is a common formal dress code:
Men should wear slacks, a dress shirt and tie; avoid flashy colors or ridiculous neckties. Light-colored slacks and pastel shirts are usually OK; just use some common fashion sense. Do not wear jeans or T-shirts. You should also wear dress shoes; dress sneakers may be OK with some schools, but most will ask you not to.
Try to keep your hairstyles conservative; long hair, pony tails, dreadlocks and so on will not be well received. Beards are usually tolerated, but you really should shave when interviewing for a job, and if you grow a beard, do so on vacation (the Don Johnson look is definitely out), and keep it well-trimmed for school. Earrings and excessive jewelry are usually not acceptable.
Women have much greater latitude in what to wear; most dresses, skirts and pant outfits are fine. Stockings should be worn, and footwear should be formal (i.e., no sandals or sneakers). Earrings and jewelry are fine as long as they are not excessive (e.g., five earrings in one ear).
Composure
In the classroom, try not to slouch while standing or sitting. Make eye contact with the students, and be sure to smile. Try to bring a sense of energy into the classroom; try not to look tired, and do your best to move around the room. Sitting in your seat all the time and using a monotone voice can sink a class faster than a torpedo.
Do not sit on desks or anything aside from a chair; do not lean against a wall. If you rest one leg on the other while sitting, try not to point the sole of your shoe towards any of the students. When you are writing on the chalkboard or referring to something on a wall, try not to talk while facing away from the students. It is best to wait until you've finished writing; the students will take this time to copy down what you're writing anyway.
Manner
Do your best to put your students at ease. Smile as often as possible, speak clearly but gently, and do not frown or speak sternly to the students; many have very weak "language egos" and are already nervous and shy about speaking English, especially with a native. If you discourage them, you might be shutting them down for quite a while. If a student makes a mistake, don't tell them they are wrong; smile and tell them it was a good try. Modeling the correct answer (repeat what they said with the error corrected) is a good way to correct them.
Try to maintain a level of enthusiasm and energy in your classroom; I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. I have done team-teaching where the first teacher hands over a class to me, telling me the students are extremely non-responsive; every time, I turned up the energy and put everything I had into the class, and almost every time the class turned out great. Do your best to look genuinely happy and excited (not too excited) to be teaching the class. Try to act as you might just having watched an exciting sports game, and try to get your students into the same mood.
Image
For many Japanese students, a teacher a person of respect; you have to keep up with that image, in your dress, composure, preparation, and teaching style. You can be friendly with your students, but remember you are the "sensei," even if a student is much older than you. They expect you to know what you're doing, and to lead the classroom. It is very important that they maintain this respect for you. It's OK to have them call you by your first name (this is done in most classes), but the relationship should otherwise stay fairly formal.
Try not to shatter the illusion your students have that you actually know everything about English. If you are not sure of something, don't try to explain it. Your students will miss many of your errors, but don't give them the chance to catch you in the first place. If a student asks you a question and you are not sure of the answer, tell the students that their question is an excellent one, but there's not enough time to go over it, so ask after class. At the end of class, if the student's question was important enough for them to remember, excuse yourself to the teacher's room and try to glean the answer from fellow teachers or a reference book, and then go out and answer the question. If you still don't have the answer, then tell the student that you want to make absolutely sure of the answer and will get back to them the next time (be sure to get back to them, of course!).
Classroom No-nos
Do not come late to class, and do not end the class early or abruptly; you should be aware of the time, and wind down the class in the last few minutes. Unless there's an emergency, do not cancel a class without giving the school enough time to get a replacement. This looks extremely bad, and students are greatly annoyed they have paid a lot for the classes, and many will have traveled for an hour or more each way by train just to attend.
Do not touch the students except for handshakes; try not to shake hands unless a student initiates it, or it is called for in a role play. No hugging, kissing, or patting on the shoulder or back. Do not ask about a student's marital status, age, or which university they attend or graduated from (even though students may ask you the same questions). Do not ask personal questions. Do not point your fingers at a student; rather you should gesture with your open hand.
Do not eat or drink in the classroom. If you have to blow your nose, try to be as surreptitious about it as possible without looking silly. Be aware of your body odors, especially your breath; do not eat anything that will give your breath a strong garlic or other disagreeable smell. If you exercise at a gym before class, shower well. Sorry if some of these sound obvious, but people sometimes forget.
Do not try to correct every error a student makes. Correct only the important or recurring mistakes. Try not to correct a single student in front of the entire class; instead, make notes of errors, and write them on the board at a later time, not attributing the mistake to any one student. Do not interrupt a student, even if they are mangling a sentence; wait good-naturedly, praise them for their effort, and then worry about correction.
If a student asks about the meaning of a swear word, use your judgment; it is usually better to tell the student that the word is "advanced vocabulary," and should be covered at a later time. If a student is being troublesome or disruptive, do what you can to control the outbreaks with good humor but do not try to swat them down or humiliate them. If you can make it to the end of the class, inform a Japanese staff member of the trouble immediately afterward and have them talk to the student. If you cannot continue with the class because of the disruption, announce a "5-minute break" and try to talk to the student privately.
Make sure you do not pay too much attention to any one student in the class. Sometimes male teachers will pay too much attention to an attractive female student, or the teacher may know one student better than others and so call on them more. Be sure to spread out your attention evenly among the students.
Shy Students
A problem often encountered in Japanese schools is shy students, especially if the students are of different proficiencies. There is often one student who has little confidence, never speaks up, and takes a long time to answer when spoken to. The best way to deal with such students in my experience is to gradually but relentlessly try to build up their confidence. When practicing a drill or role play, do not call on them first. Lob easy questions to them, increasing the frequency until they find themselves talking a lot; just that will break some of their shyness. You can increase the difficulty when you feel they are ready.
Be sure to be liberal with praise, but not obvious or condescending; it should not be too much more than you give other students as well. Try to get them to answer with something if you ask them a question; for example, you can tell them once in a while that if they don't know the answer, all they have to do is ask another student for help. The main idea at that point is to get them to speak, the more functionally the better.
Outgoing Students
Because many of the students are shy, it is easy for one gregarious student to dominate the class. You should of course encourage an outgoing nature, but you must do it in a way that does not take away from other students in the class; often the other students will even be happy to have the spotlight taken away. If possible, you should try to use the outgoing nature of one student to benefit the entire class. Pair work and using the enthusiastic student as a model might help satisfy the everyone's needs and desires while still giving everyone the chance to practice and learn. You might use the outgoing student as a 'group leader,' getting that one student to elicit speech from the others.
Pair / Group Work
A good way to allow students to speak more in class is by using pair and group work. Research has shown that having students practice speaking with each other does not lead to problems some thought it would, like miscorrection or learning each other's errors. Instead, it provides students with more speaking opportunities, very important in large classes and EFL environments.
There is a caveat, however: do not go overboard. One of the main reasons students come to private schools is to speak English with native speakers; if students are speaking to each other most of the time, this defeats the whole purpose.
When assigning pair or group work, be sure to outline the task the students must accomplish. Make sure they are aware of the objective, the reason for doing the work. Go through a dry run with one of the students to give an example of what you want them to do. Tell the students to change roles after finishing the first time, so they can experience more than one side of a dialog. Do not just sit in your chair waiting; stand and circulate around the room, taking note of important errors made (do not interrupt the dialog, rather save the notes for later review). Only step in if students hit a snag or stop altogether. Do not object if students speak some in Japanese, unless they do so too much. After the pairs/groups are finished, you might ask one or more groups to perform for the whole class. Go over errors on the board without identifying who made them, asking students for corrections.
Take the opportunity, if possible, to move the students around. You don't want them to be with the same partners all the time, and having them stand up and switch seats adds movement to the class, and gets the students' circulation going a bit more.
Evaluation
Methods of evaluation will often be set by the school. Some schools, however, do not even have evaluation, or just have you write an unstructured, nebulous "grade" for the students. Grades in Japan are a more private matter than in other countries, so keep any evaluations private and, if handing back graded assignments, make sure the grades are not visible to others.
Outside of Class
You should never date students (though some schools are reputed to be "meat markets," this is not a desirable atmosphere). You should never go out alone with a student of the opposite sex. Check with your school about policies concerning student parties and get-togethers.
What you do in your own life is fine, but when you are in or near the school and therefore possibly in view of the students, conduct yourself accordingly.
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