Community Visionary: Nathaniel Reed |
Hi, I’m Nathaniel Reed and I came to Japan in 2009 to teach English – not tap dance, although I do like tap dancing. I was like so many others who have found that their teaching experiences in Japanese public schools didn’t match their expectations (and previous experience). So the team and I decided to do something about it. The title ‘Visionary’ is used as it best describes the future and ambitions of this free course. The course will evolve with social and educational changes, population shifts and ideological evolution. The vision looks forward, not to an end goal but to one of continual improvement – we hope you enjoy this journey with us. |
Graphic Designer: Miguel Mision |
Hi my name's Miguel I've been in Japan for 8 years and have taught English at every level from kindergarten to university. My main hobby is photography but I have some volunteer experience with design work. I'll (ideally) be making the site a little more easy on the eyes and more interesting for all our readers. I hope me and the team can provide you with a learning experience that is engaging and professionally appealing to all curious individuals. Please feel free to give us your feedback on the (un?)attractiveness of the site, we're always eager to hear how we can improve the ALTTO experience for you. |
Chief Administrative Officer: Alberto DiZoldo |
Community Media Manager: David Hayter |
Hey, this is David Hayter. I run the blog section of ALTTO. My goal is to provide you with up to date info and new insights that compliment the course. I've worked as an ALT in Japan since 2014 doing everything from training new ALTs to planning and running training sessions for elementary school and junior high school English teachers. If you've got questions or something you want to write about, let me know! |
Website Designer: Jake Whiton |
Howdy! My name's Jake Whiton, and I'm from the U.S. I've been an ALT for 6 years, most of it in junior high, with a little high school and general conversation classes mixed in there as well. I'm helping to build ALTopedia.org. I hope you'll be able to use it to find and share some great activities for your classes. |
Social Media Coordinator: Samikshya Bidari |
Hi, I'm Samikshya Bidari, I'm from Nepal and have been a teacher for many inspiring years. My role is to help us all connect, to tell our stories and share our experiences. Our abilities and those of the children we teach will grow much more from talking to each other. You'll be seeing me on the Facebook group from time to time and elsewhere - remember to say hi, I'm very friendly. |
Lead Content Designer: Nicholas J. Wilson |
Hi everyone, I`m Nicholas J. Wilson. I started my career as an English Instructor back in 2012 after completing my Cambridge CELTA course. In 2016 I moved to Japan and started teaching in elementary schools in Nagano Prefecture. I have a MA in English Literature and I’m currently researching how Westernization influenced Japanese Meiji and Taisho authors. |
Special thank you to our proofreaders without whom the module content wouldn't be the standard it is. In alphabetical order -
Alex Jones, Anna Sheffer, Caleb Moon, Chris Cooper, David Hayter, Farrah Hasnain, Huy Tran, Iris Riddell, Jordan Lambert, Laura Egan, Patricia Ferrete, Steve MacWhinnie, Veronica Dow .....
We are dedicated to making this course the most useful teacher training for ALTs and so we are in continual need for proofreaders to check materials and critiques them - for details on getting involved see here.
Are you an ALT in Japan? Thinking about becoming an ALT in Japan? If yes, this site is for you. The site provides a free teacher training course written by experts. Modules are being compiled by well-known ALT names from ALT insider, ALT Wiki and Genki English, in addition to the leading experts on language teaching in Japan.
As the course is not for profit, advertising about its existence is done by you sharing the word; tell other ALTs, put it on social networking, scream it from the hills!
The article about this site, in the JALT Postconceference Publication 2015, is here and the 2017 interview here. Read these to get more insight into the course: why it exists and how it is being put together.
As the course is not for profit, advertising about its existence is done by you sharing the word; tell other ALTs, put it on social networking, scream it from the hills!
The article about this site, in the JALT Postconceference Publication 2015, is here and the 2017 interview here. Read these to get more insight into the course: why it exists and how it is being put together.
The whole project is designed by ALTs', ALT researchers and specialists in their field. We ALTs all share the same teaching context and know how incredibly varied it is. This course/site is a place where we can shape our skills to be more effective together by reading the course material, commenting on the reflection questions, read others' comments and discuss on the various ALTTO social platforms.
There are 22 modules divided into 3 categories; Contextual, Training and Professional Development:
Each module has periodic reflection questions for you to consolidate your learning. Just click on the comment box under the questions to post your response, and to read others.
Recommended reading is at the top of the modules, reading these carefully selected papers gives you more insight into module content. Just click on them to open the PDF or webpage that stores them.
- Contextual modules: Describe and discuss our teaching context.
- Training modules: Train you how to teach effectively in our teaching context.
- Personal Development modules: Guide you how to make your teaching more educationally effective, and share your experiences with a wider audience.
Each module has periodic reflection questions for you to consolidate your learning. Just click on the comment box under the questions to post your response, and to read others.
Recommended reading is at the top of the modules, reading these carefully selected papers gives you more insight into module content. Just click on them to open the PDF or webpage that stores them.
This course/site brings together the best of the best for ALTs; ALT Insider, ALT Wiki and writers from the Japan Association of Language Teaching (JALT). Please browse through the modules to see their profiles, and throughout 2018/9 for their modules.
Year |
JET |
Non-JET |
Source |
1987 |
848 |
Zero |
Clair, 2016 |
2002 |
5,676 |
3,090 |
Kashihara, 2008 |
2006 |
5,057 |
5,951 |
Kashihara, 2008 |
2013 |
4,089 |
11,343 |
Kano et al, 2016 |
2016 |
4,529 |
13,955 |
McCrostie, 2017 |
2020 |
6,400 est. |
13,600 est. |
Clavel, 2014 |
Sources above you can access for free, read them to find out more about teaching English in Japan. For more accessible resources look in the Resources section, up next...
Aoki, M. (2014, January 2). Schools fret about assistant teachers ahead of 2020 reforms. The Japan Times. Retrieved from http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/01/02/national/schools-fret-about-assistant-teachers-ahead-of-proposed-2020-reforms/#.VoC2_7Z9601
CLAIR, 2016. The council of local authorities for international relations. (2016). Number of JET programme participants (1987-2015). In The Japan exchange and teaching programme; History. Retrieved from http://jetprogramme.org/en/history/
Clavel, T. (2014, January 4). English fluency hopes rest on education overhaul. The Japan Times, Retrieved from http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/01/05/issues/english-fluency-hopes-rest-on-an-education-overhaul/#.WCpjhdJ97IV
Kano, A. et al. (full reference directly below) reports data from MEXT that there were 15,432 ALTs teaching in 2013, 26.5% of which were JET ALTs - the distribution of ALTs from other hiring bodies is unclear.
Kano, A., Sonoda, A., Schultz, D., Usukura, A., Suga, K., & Yasu, Y., (2016). Barriers to effective team teaching with ALTs. In P. Clements, A. Krause, & H. Brown (Eds.), Focus on the learner. Tokyo: JALT.
Kashihara, T. (2008). Globalisation and linguistic competencies: Responding to diversity in language environments. In 12th OECD-Japan seminar. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/41521944.pdf
McCrostie, J. (2017, May 3). As Japan's JET programme hits its 30s, the jury's still out. The Japan Times, Retrieved from http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2017/05/03/issues/japans-jet-programme-hits-30s-jurys-still/#.WRfODVOGPOa
Aoki, M. (2014, January 2). Schools fret about assistant teachers ahead of 2020 reforms. The Japan Times. Retrieved from http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/01/02/national/schools-fret-about-assistant-teachers-ahead-of-proposed-2020-reforms/#.VoC2_7Z9601
CLAIR, 2016. The council of local authorities for international relations. (2016). Number of JET programme participants (1987-2015). In The Japan exchange and teaching programme; History. Retrieved from http://jetprogramme.org/en/history/
Clavel, T. (2014, January 4). English fluency hopes rest on education overhaul. The Japan Times, Retrieved from http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/01/05/issues/english-fluency-hopes-rest-on-an-education-overhaul/#.WCpjhdJ97IV
Kano, A. et al. (full reference directly below) reports data from MEXT that there were 15,432 ALTs teaching in 2013, 26.5% of which were JET ALTs - the distribution of ALTs from other hiring bodies is unclear.
Kano, A., Sonoda, A., Schultz, D., Usukura, A., Suga, K., & Yasu, Y., (2016). Barriers to effective team teaching with ALTs. In P. Clements, A. Krause, & H. Brown (Eds.), Focus on the learner. Tokyo: JALT.
Kashihara, T. (2008). Globalisation and linguistic competencies: Responding to diversity in language environments. In 12th OECD-Japan seminar. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/41521944.pdf
McCrostie, J. (2017, May 3). As Japan's JET programme hits its 30s, the jury's still out. The Japan Times, Retrieved from http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2017/05/03/issues/japans-jet-programme-hits-30s-jurys-still/#.WRfODVOGPOa
Resources
The resources are an ongoing collection of papers (academic, mass media) and videos that focus on language education in Japan in reference to ALTs. Responses from an ALT survey from 2015 are there too - read these to find out what other ALTs say about their job.
Copyright remains with the publishers and authors. Permission for use of full texts has been granted from the authors themselves, the Japan Association of Language teaching (JALT), The Asian EFL Journal and Au service de l'éducation et du français dans le mon (CIEP).de
Copyright remains with the publishers and authors. Permission for use of full texts has been granted from the authors themselves, the Japan Association of Language teaching (JALT), The Asian EFL Journal and Au service de l'éducation et du français dans le mon (CIEP).de
JALT Conference
Hi all, this site is all about providing better education for our students and for you to grow professionally as teachers. JALT is the biggest association for teaching professionals in Japan. There'll be a JALT group local to you - a great place to meet like minded people and share ideas. There are lots of conferences and workshops around Japan all year, but the big one will be in November, from the 17th - 20th. Click on the logo for details, and see you there! (come and watch the presentation on ALTTO it would be great to meet you in person!).
Seema BansalAlthough Seema Bansal is talking about how to 'fix an education system without money' in India, a lot of what she says relates to the Japanese context too: especially the non-teaching duties teachers have. Supporting each other and improving education are our main roles as ALTs. This talk could inspire us all. From TED.com
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Summer campDo you have summer camp? The number of cities that put them on on is very few, but if you do maybe you could get some inspiration from this incredible teacher: Koki Shimazu.
MOOCALT training online is a Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC. For those unfamiliar with this movement, or those who want to keep up with developments, here are some presentations to keep you posted.
Click on the images for links to the talks.
In under 2 minutes Tim Rose clearly explains to us what a MOOC is. From You Tube.
These next two talks come from TED.com
Anant AngarwhalRecorded in June 2013, this innovative speaker reminds us why 'Massive Open Online Courses (still) matter'.
Dr. Daphne KollerDr Koller talks about some incredible developments in online learning, and more visions for the future, in 'What we're learning from online education'.
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