MUST READ
What we will not let pass
Children have been using the iPads to watch YouTube during the lesson,
and tapping ⭕ without saying anything to farm points instead of practising.
This has been reported to the school.
The school treats this as a serious problem.
Watching every student is part of the teacher’s job.
The most common cause is simple: the iPads went out too early.
Watch for this
- An iPad showing anything that is not the lesson
- Tapping ⭕ without speaking — farming points
- Whispering with a friend instead of listening
- Going to the toilet again and again
Children do these things out of your line of sight.
If you see off-task behaviour, stop it calmly and immediately.
Keep moving around the room — be beside every desk at some point in the lesson.
What you do — every teacher, the same way
- Stop it there and then — calmly. Name the child once, then say what you want:
Pencils down. Look at me. English only, please. Do not let it pass.
- If it happens again, stop the lesson. Do not teach around it.
- Walk the child up to the School Manager on the 4th floor
and explain what happened — do not just leave the child there and come back.
The manager settles the child down.
- Say clearly that you are asking the manager to take it from here —
the follow-up, including speaking to the parents. You do not handle it alone.
- Write it in the feedback at the bottom of this page — every time. The name, and what happened.
This is not optional, and it is not a matter of personal style.
The standard is the same in every class. It does not change with who is teaching.
Children will test it. Expect to stop the same behaviour two or three times before it stops for good —
that is normal, and it does not mean it is not working.
Keep doing it. Every teacher, every time.
GUIDE
Before you start — read this every time▾
Why we teach it this way.
The children learn to speak by taking correct English in through their ears and saying it straight back —
not by understanding rules. That is why you fix the sound and never explain the grammar.
A child who can say it in one second has it. A child who can explain it does not.
The lesson is in English. You stay in English.
This lesson is English only. Do not use Japanese in the room —
not even when a child looks lost, and not to be kind.
There is no Japanese teacher in a CLIL class, and there does not need to be.
No school abroad would switch to Japanese for our children.
We build that same room here, on purpose.
- Not understanding is not a failure. It is the lesson.
A child who is lost has a sentence for it —
I don't understand. One more time, please. Slowly, please.
Give them the chance to use it.
- When they do not understand, do not translate — do these instead:
say it again more slowly · use fewer words · show it · point at it · act it out.
- If a child speaks to you in Japanese, answer in English.
Point at the sentence they should have used.
Remember who is sitting in front of you
These children are already tired when they walk in.
They have done a full day at school, and this is an evening lesson.
Their energy is low before you have said a word.
They are not lazy. They are not being difficult. This is simply the condition they arrive in,
and the lesson has to be built for it.
- Keep it moving. A child who has been listening quietly for a long time
has usually stopped listening already.
- Speaking wakes them up. Listening puts them to sleep.
Short bursts, everyone's voice out.
- If the class goes flat, make it faster and shorter — not louder.
Do not push a tired child harder; change the pace instead.
- Judge the lesson, not the child. If they cannot keep up at the end of a long day,
that is information about the lesson.
The room, before the lesson starts
These are school rules, not personal style.
They are the same in every class, for every teacher — Japanese or foreign.
A child must never learn that the rule depends on who is teaching.
- On the desk: the textbook and the pencil case — pencil and eraser out and ready
before the lesson starts. Nothing else on the desk.
- Keep the iPads with you. Hand them out only when the activity needs them,
and collect them as soon as that activity ends.
Not at the start of the lesson.
If a child is already holding one, take it in before you begin.
This week: keep the iPads with you for the picture block, then hand out at 12:00 and keep them out until 28:00.
After 28:00 the iPads are back with you for the rest of the lesson.
One iPad for every two children. A group of three gets two iPads, not one —
this rule is about the iPads, not about the size of the group.
- Water bottles go in the locker — never on the desk. No drinking during the lesson.
They drink before the lesson or after it.
- Toilet before the lesson. During the lesson, going to the toilet is not allowed.
If a child truly cannot wait, let them go — and write it in the feedback at the bottom of this page.
If the same child goes again and again, tell the manager — the manager contacts the parents.
Do not deal with it alone, and do not let it continue.
- Nobody waits. Everyone is speaking together, or working in a pair.
- Do not talk for more than 5 minutes at a time. A tired child cannot listen longer than that.
The rest of the time belongs to them.
- Do not explain grammar. Fixing the pronunciation is your job.
- You lead. You set the speed. Make it faster as soon as they can do it.
- Set the teacher name to YOUR name in the app (the Teacher box at the top).
Week 1's sentences 2 and 10 use it, and the greeting uses Week 1's sentences —
if you leave it, the children will greet someone else's name.
You teach alone. There is no Japanese teacher in the room, and you never need to read Japanese. All the Japanese the children need is printed on their screen.