Welcome to Hyogo! News From AJET

Welcome to Hyogo, the prefecture with the third most ALTs in Japan! Since there are so many of us, there are a lot of different events hosted by the Hyogo Association for Japan Exchange and Teaching (HAJET) throughout the year. The first event that will be held is the Welcome Party, which is on August 27^th.

HAJET is a group of ALTs that live in Hyogo prefecture who volunteer to plan fun events for you. The goal of HAJET is to bring people together. If you aren’t already connected to “Hyogo AJET” on Facebook, I greatly recommend it. I also recommend joining the “AJET Block 6” group and the Facebook group in your area within Hyogo (e.g. “Hanshin JET”). Other AJET related recommendations are to download the “AJET iConnect” app and the “Japan Life Guide” app. Lastly, you should check out the HAJET Google Drive account, which has a number of lessons and activities that you can download. You can access the HAJET Drive by clicking on this link 

This summer is the most free time that you, incoming ALTs, will have while you are on the JET Program. It is probably also the most stressful time. I have compiled a list of advice to help alleviate some of the stress:

1. Talk with your students and co-workers. I have found that participating and/or watching club activities is an excellent way to interact with students. Before participating, I recommend getting permission from the teacher who is in charge of that club activity.
2. Don’t sit at your desk all day.
3. Tour your school. Explore your school by walking around with or without a guide. Try to find the different buildings and floors that you will be teaching on.
4. Get an understanding of the environment at your school. You can do this by talking with students and teachers, walking around the school, looking over the lessons that your predecessor left for you, etc.
5. Look through your predecessor’s old lessons. What level are your students? What type of lessons did your predecessor teach? Do you want to do something similar or different? What can you learn from what they did? You can also ask English teachers who taught with your predecessor which lessons worked well and why.
6. Organize your desk. How will you stay organized in the future? How will you plan for the lessons that you will teach? How will you record the lessons that you have taught? Do you have all of the office supplies that you need?
7. Plan for what to do when you have free time. There will be other times in the future when you find yourself with nothing to do at school, so what will you do in the future?

I hope that you found some of these suggestions helpful! If you have any specific questions, please friend me, TC Eley, on Facebook and send me a message. You can also friend me if you don’t have any questions. This year, I am a new HAJET member. I am in charge of the HAJET website and the Google Drive account. I will also be a helper at Hyogo Orientation. I look forward to meeting everyone there!

Good luck and see you soon!

TC