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I'm being really underused at school. I'm always bored, and am starting to feel a bit depressed. What can I do?
Unfortunately, this is one of the most common complaints by JETs all over Japan. However usually you can help yourself by trying some of the following:
- Talk to your teachers.
Explain that you're feeling underused and would like to be involved in more classes. Are you in all the classes that you can be? Although some students don't have communication-based classes, you can still be helpful in reading/grammar ones. Tell them that you'd like to join more classes and usually they'll be delighted to have you.
- Make an English board or start an English club.
Your school will most likely have an area that isn't being used which you can take over as your "English Zone". Look for unused message boards or classrooms. Take the opportunity to introduce culture from other countries, music, movies, anything you like! Profile a certain student each week, run competitions, put up some "practical English" that the kids will really want to learn.
You could even talk to teachers about using an empty classroom as a place for students to hang out at lunchtimes or after school. Put up posters, have a CD player for music, that kind of thing.
Your students are usually really busy with clubs however there are always students who aren't doing anything in particular after school. It doesn't need to be every week, but you could try to have an after-school club where you can help students with English, have English conversations, listen to music or watch movies. If your school has a Home Economics department why not do cooking in English?
It would be a good idea to get this up and running before the new ichi-nen-seis arrive in April so you can poach a few of them before they join ikebana or rifle shooting ;)
- Study Japanese!
You might not think it's worth it if you're only planning on being here for a year but I really recommend learning a bit of the language. Even being able to read katakana makes your life here that much easier. If you learn a bit of Japanese you can increase your social circle and even inspire your kids to work harder in English if they see you're trying hard to learn their language too. Check out the "Learning Japanese" section of the Toyama handbook and the Japanese page in the Useful Links section of the website. There's also the CLAIR Japanese course which you can register for which should take up a little of your time.
- Do a distance-learning course.
If all else fails and you're finding it really hard to fill up your days at school, you could think about doing a distance learning course. Not only will it keep you busy but it might just get you an extra qualification which you can use after JET (there's life after JET???). Learn more about a hobby or do a TEFL course. There are loads of resources online, you just need to look for them.
- Join a club at school.
You might feel that your interactions with students during class time is less than fulfilling. Go around all the clubs and see if there's anything you're interested in. You don't need to attend every single time but it can really help strengthen your relationships with both students and teachers if you show that you're interested.
I hope that some of these ideas are useful to you. Be inventive! Show some initiative and you'll find that your teachers and students warm up to you and your life at school will get that little bit better.