Teaching Materials
I brought a lot of grammar and game books with me when I first came to Japan and for the most part they were a waste of space in my suitcase.
You will be teaching from a textbook (which not many Japanese teachers are able or willing to stray far from) most of the time and most of the lessons are fairly straightforward.
After awhile you will collect a bunch of lessons that you can use. When you arrive in Tokyo you'll be given the Resource Materials Handbook which has game ideas and teaching tips. You'll also be able to attend lots of conferences in Tokyo which will talk about what you can do with your students.
There are also several AJET publications which were developed by JETs, like Team Taught Pizza, which has lots of games and activities explained in English and Japanese (to help you explain them to your teachers).
Aichi AJET also prints lesson plans in it's monthly publication, The JetStream.
Finally, if you are still short of ideas or materials, you can go to Maruzen in Nagoya. They have a full array of textbooks, workbooks, gamebooks, flash cards and theme posters.
To drive the point home even further, chances are you will not teach at all during the month of August. Japanese schools are on vacation from mid-July to early September. Of course, the kids are all still at school doing club and working on special projects, but there are no classes. The most I was asked to do was help them practice for an English convention and speech contests for 'speech season' in the Fall.
What you should bring are items for your self-introduction!
Such as:
- Photos of your family, home and friends
- Photos or postcards of your hometown and the area around it (in all seasons, if possible)
- A map of your country and your province/state
- Pins from your country/province/state/city
- Popular music from your country (they like English songs)
- Traditional music or costumes from your cultural heritage
- Information on professional sports teams in your country or area
- Food from your country (I brought maple syrup. Canucks be forewarned, many Japanese don't like it! They do LOVE smoked salmon, though.) Remember that you will be in VERY HOT Tokyo for a few days, so anything that can't stand heat or crumbles easily is probably best saved for when your family or friends come to visit you.
- Anything that appeals to kids!
Remember that you can send stuff to yourself rather inexpensively by seamail before you leave, or have materials sent to you later by the folks at home.
It takes about 2 months to get there from North America (sorry, I don't know about other places; contact your local post office.), so if you send stuff now, you should receive your boxes in September or October. This allows you to have some original stuff from your home country on hand for prizes, activities, games, etc.
Ideas: keychains, stickers, postage stamps, rubber stamps with English words, pens, pencils, postcards, playing cards with your hometown or a special animal on the back, rub-on tattoos, pennies, etc..
Don't invest in anything expensive! (Dollar stores are goldmines!)
Pins, flags (real, life-sized ones or minis), crests, pamphlets and activity booklets from you home country/province/state. These are often free if you call your local governments, heritage bureaus, national holiday committees, city halls, etc... I hit all of the above and I still haven't exhausted my supply of pins (I actually take them on my travels throughout Asia now to give to little kids instead of money).
A little more labour intensive, but worth it if you can swing it, is a video of your family, your home, your friends, your town, etc... (my advice, if you do this, is to keep the dialogue to a minimum, if you have any at all. You can always narrate live in front of your kids, plus you can use it for more than just your self-introduction!)
Also, videos of TV programs, commercials (these can be really fun for kids to figure out), music videos, etc... (but, your family and friends can send you stuff like this throughout the year).
Movies from, about or made by/starring people from your country/province/state.
Kids books about or by people from you area. My recommendation is to get the thin, cheaper paperbacks with LOTS of fun or interesting pictures and not too much dialogue. Books targeted towards 3-6 year-olds are ideal.
'I brought a lot of grammar and game books with me when I first came to Japan and for the most part they were a waste of space in my suitcase.'
Do you remember reading this before?
You did, at the beginning of this page.
We just want to drive home the point that you won't really have a good sense of what you will want and use in the way of materials until you are actually teaching!
Try to bring stuff that is fun and unusual (and light!) for your kids and communities to see!