Best School Events in Japan for ALT’s
As an ALT, most of your job is inside the classroom dealing with day-to-day tasks, planning lessons and grading tests. However, throughout the school year, there are some events that could use a special ALT touch. Some events are mostly Japanese, but sometimes English can be incorporated into the event. Let’s look at a few:
Entrance ceremony
The entrance ceremony is a vital event. The 1st graders celebrate their entrance into elementary school. Parent’s arrive with their children and listen to the speeches of the school staff.
In this, ALT’s can prepare posters that can be displayed outside the English Classroom. These posters can be designed to look fun and create a positive vibe for the future years. ALT’s can also take part in greeting the 1st years, helping out in the auditorium and saying hello to the parents. This is just a small gesture to encourage a positive impression!
Halloween/Christmas Party
Halloween is super fun, and even more so that you can dress up! Classes will have their own individual parties (usually at the end of the day). Christmas is also very similar and brings children into the Christmas spirit right before the winter vacation.
For ALT’s, this is a way to show your creative side. Come up with new and interesting games in English. You can make it one lesson, or even a full week leading up to the holiday. You can dress up in costumes, show off customs in your own country and explain the different cultural norms of both Japan and your country. Many ALT’s tend to use this time to just have fun with the students. It’s a great engagement for everyone and is a good send-off for the 2nd term.
School Graduation Cermony
This is the graduation ceremony for the 6th graders as they leave for Junior highschool. This event is a very formal affair and needs a lot of preparation for. 5th graders do a send-off ceremony, giving flowers and presents to their senpai. The 6th graders perform the ceremony detailing the path they’re going to take towards their new future. Parents are allowed to watch this ceremony and give flowers after the ceremony.
ALTs are usually allowed to attend the ceremony as requested by the school. Usually, you will sit with the staff member, teachers and the principal. You are there to support the students, give them encouraging smiles and listen to their roll-call as the students walk and receive their diplomas. This is a tear-jerker for sure, but with this, it can lead to a positive result in the students future study.
(The ceremony requires applause for every speech and student. Go easy from the start to prevent your hands from clapping strain!)
Throughout the month of May, you can also create a graduation poster with the students or by yourself to show appreciation and congratulatory merit.
ALTs may be asked to give a short speech at the ceremony. It is best to keep this simple and positive! Stick to easy English grammar and vocabularly to help everyone understand.
Game festival
The Game festival is a small game-based event where each class creates an activity. This usually happens twice in one week and can last from 1 school hour to 3 school hours. Most of these games are easily playable and don’t require much preparation.
For schools that have an English room, this is a great time to show off games from your home country! Easy games like BINGO, Hangman, Tic-tac-toe, I spy and Guess the word or any easy playable 5-min game will work well. If you wish, you can also be the evil villain boss they must defeat! This event requires little preparation, but extra the fun!
School Music/Drama festival
Students are tasked to play a musical piece for a concert available to the parents, and sometimes to the public. Another is the drama festival in which students in each grade perform a play of their choosing. Both the music and drama festival can be held in 1 day but some can last up to 1 week.
For some laughs, an ALT can take part in creating a speech in English or a catch-phrase students will memorize that can delight the audience. For example, if the school is doing a play about Momotaro, as a gag, sometimes he can spout his famous catchphrase “Defeat the demon!!!” in English rather than Japanese. It is easily understandable English and makes the audience laugh!
Junior High School Speech Contest in Japan
This event is targeted towards Junior High School. The speech contest is an English based contest where students are given a prompt/message/theme and students will write a passage in accordance to that theme. This event can take weeks of preparation.
An ALT or English teacher is vital for this event. ALTs help students write the contents, and check for grammar and spelling mistakes. This can be a daunting task, but a worthy one as it encourages more English speaking, writing and grammar understanding. Diction, pronunciation and intonation is also a major point in the speech contest. Most Japanese students tend to sound more robotic and expression-less when reciting an English passage. ALTs must also demonstrate how to use facial expressions and body language to convey the passion and meaning behind the words.
Students speeches can range in topics, from the [How to protect the environment} to [Why I love my cat]. This is an excllent way for ALT’s to work with students one on one, and learn more about their thoughts and feelings.
ALTs are often asked to judge local Speech contests. This is a fun event and a great way to meet other ALTs in your area.
Overall, there are many layers to an ALT job. One of the most important ones is to just have some fun. Fun is the core of English speaking in Japan. It’s pivotal that learning a second language is encouraging in its usage and inspires lingual freedom. More often than not, English gets lost after high school. But the years the students learn English should be remembered and thought of fondly.
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