"team teaching" has been a major buzzword in much of the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) propaganda ive received so far. team teaching is pretty self-explanatory - multiple teachers join forces and plan, teach, and grade lessons together AS A TEAM. from the very beginning we are told to believe in, embrace, and utilize team teaching as much as possible in our classes. unfortunately, after just a few weeks i feel its safe to declare that team teaching, at least in my situation, is completely impossible. team teaching for the lose.

its almost fun to watch such a good idea, like team teaching, hopelessly fail before my very eyes every single day. every class ive had so far falls into one of two categories: i either do (a) all of the teaching or (b) none the teaching. so much for working together as a team, eh?

as an assistant language teacher (ALT), it blew my mind the first time i saw the real teachers get up and leave the classroom.. for the entire class. go team, go! ive even had teachers fall asleep during class. yay team! oh, and what sweet irony to work with "english teachers" who speak/understand little or no english. because team teaching is just so successful when the teachers cant even communicate with each other. team teaching minus the team. i would say that about 75% of my elementary classes end up with me, the assistant language teacher, acting as the full-time teacher and running the entire show from start to finish.

the other scenario is when i do absolutely nothing in the classroom. team teaching in a team of one. it seems my purpose, in these situations, is to show kids what a foreigner looks like. these classes are usually taught by the english teacher speaking nothing but japanese which is OBVIOUSLY the best way for kids to learn english. in these situations, the teacher usually doesnt even tell me what their lesson plan is before we get into the classroom. surely, this is team teaching in its finest.

the idea of team teaching sounds so good. students could learn BY EXAMPLE how a japanese speaker can effectively communicate with an english speaker. kids could get completely different but equally important perspectives on english topics. one teacher's strengths could compliment the other teacher's weaknesses. the list of advantages makes this method of teaching so appealing. but oh, the irony to be instructed to use team teaching in situations where the other team member doesnt understand the meaning of the word "team."

fail.