[jasonbvr]

Since I am an ALT and not an eikaiwa teacher, I was able to look at the work of my predecessor and figure out roughly what I could and couldn't do. For most ALT's it is actually a lot easier because you get an English teacher who can tell you what you need to do or focus on the lessons, but the first teacher I worked with was only a temporary teacher at my school. ALT's learn a lot about what works and what doesn't from other ALT's. Plus, on the upside of things if you screw up as an ALT you just blame it on the Japanese English teacher you work with because afterall, as the name assistant language teacher implies, you are not the one supposed to be leading the class.

However, generally speaking your very few first lessons are going to always be introducing who you are and where you are from. I always suggest that new ALT's make a basic level 45 minute lesson with pictures from home. Twenty minutes to introduce yourself, twenty-five to divide them into groups and play a jeopardy-like game reviewing your intro. Your next class is going to be making them introduce themselves. There are lots of different ways to do this. Say partnered interview sessions followed by the each student introducing the other to you. Or you can do a speech contest where each student writes a short self-intro and gives it in front of the class. That would take about three to four classes. First they write in Japanese and translate as you correct the English(2 classes), next they practice (1 class), and then they give the speeches (1 class).

And there you have it, you have just made it through your first month of teaching English at junior high.