Working in Japan as an Emergency Online Educator

A Google Classroom banner

Since March 1st, schools in Japan have observed the government’s request to close, but in the last few days, schools in some regions have started to reopen. 

This is fraught with problems. Friends who are ALTs on the JET Program tell me they are deeply concerned about elementary lower grades. Even with staggered attendance, reduced class sizes, and social distancing measures, how will they communicate to the children that they cannot horse around, hug, or even touch each other?

I teach in a private combined high school. My students, many of whom commute in from neighboring cities, have not seen their classmates in months. How will we handle the social distancing when they crave time to talk and even hold onto their friends? I anticipate there will be some crying on reunion in our school.

Meanwhile, private high schools, English conversation schools, and cram schools have been abruptly pressed to provide emergency distance education for some weeks. Some schools have resorted to mass mailing of paper materials augmented by online lessons over various platforms.

As a student or parent or caregiver, you may find yourself learning a whole new way of interacting with schools and teachers. Though they present steep learning curves, the Learning Management Systems (LMS) are generally easy to use and have an amazing array of features.

Some LMS used in Japan’s Schools

Classi is a home-grown LMS that is gaining adoption in private high schools. It’s administered by Benesse, the educational publishing company, and Softbank. Teachers can post videos and correspond with their students.

Some colleagues in Tokyo have moved their instruction to Microsoft for Schools. Like other LMS, this one is free to schools. Teachers can collaborate for professional development and create virtual learning environments with their students.

For English lessons, Study Suppli is a source of practical English conversation, business English, and test preparation. While individual users can sign up for a fee, schools can provide this English language learning platform to all students. One of the selling points is that the drama episodes are written by screenwriter Michiru Egashira, who works on popular television programs. 

I’ve participated in Zoom meetings a few times to coordinate social and work-related projects. It’s powerful, with running chat, screen recording, and a Q&A feature. It’s great for English conversation lessons, informal chats, and webinars.

The school where I teach made the prescient decision to use Google Classrooms school-wide back in December. Learning how to use the apps and classroom management features has a steep learning curve, but fortunately, it’s an intuitive, and both teachers and students get the hang of it quite quickly.

Realities of Emergency Online and Distance Education

Like a lot of educators, I see what I’m doing is not real online learning. While I’m delivering a high-quality program, and engaging with my students in class-wide and individual communication through videos, quizzes, writing, and collaboration, I am not yet able to provide a rigorous course with the same volume of tasks that I did in the school. This is because I’m scrambling to not only build an entirely new syllabus on the fly, but also learning how to use the tools to do so. As one educator described it, this situation means teachers are flying a plane while still trying to assemble it. In order to keep up, and ramp up to a fully developed course, I’m working around the clock. Every day.

My students are troopers. In each class I’m finding that 90% of the students are able to engage with the LMS and complete the tasks I’m assigning. The benefit that stands out most for me is the direct, individual communication. This week, a student asked me in chat how to improve her English learning in this difficult situation. I could immediately send her a link to BBC Learning English at her specific level. For students yearning to join our school’s brass band, I could send them videos of performers paying musical tribute to the hard-working medical professionals around the world. The students, just like me, are amazed by the connections we are making with each other and the world.

And I’m cheering them on as best I can. I’ve created a YouTube playlist of the singers and artists they mentioned in their self-introductions. They’re listening in while they do their lessons.