EduCareer StaffBlog"Rinjin Blog" | "EduCareer"Supporting your career in English teaching in the Japanese school system

Self Introduction Lessons

2011/04/05

Many schools want their teachers to make a self-introduction lesson as their first lesson of the year. While it can seem boring, students are often far more interested in where a teacher comes from than the English he or she wants to teach. Some teachers do a very basic introduction by just showing some maps and pictures, but try to get students involved in a way they'll remember and challenge their expectations about having a foreign teacher.

One good way to do this is by using your intro lesson to break stereotypes. Challenge the students to a quiz- for example, when I made a quiz about America and asked True or False: All Americans own a gun, all my students said true, and were shocked to learn only 39% of Americans are gun owners. There are undoubtedly many things about your home country students think they know from having seen movies, but in reality they only know a stereotype. Another good introduction topic is to compare school life in your home country and Japan. Your students may be surprised that the things they think are normal are really very strange when looked at by another culture!

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