Working for NOVA

I haven't run into many problems working for nova yet. Everyone I've met so far has been extremely helpful and fun to talk to. A lot of guys come from Australia and England. I have met a few Americans here, but we seem to be the minority.

My OJT (on the job training) finished about a week ago, and I've been teaching at my home branch in Hakata Youme Town since then. Training was a little nerve racking because I'm not very good at doing things on the whim and being creative, but I've been managing to squeeze by. Nova has various students ranging in age, from junior high to grandma age, and students ranging in ability from fairly fluent, to sign language communication. Most of the students I've taught thus far have been fun to talk to. They are very enthusiastic about English, and have fit NOVA classes around their busy schedules to come and learn. You also have the ones who don't seem to want to be there, and it can be frustrating to deal with, but just pray that you make it through your lesson in one piece. One of the interesting things I've noticed in the discussion group setting has been the hierarchy asserted in the classroom. A lot of the younger kids (about 12-15yrs old) are very bashful and shy about speaking up in class while in the presence of adults who are in their 20's or above. They probably feel insecure, and think that there is a form of disrespect if they were to speak in class.

Writing up brief student evaluations after each lesson and trying to choose a lesson for the next class in 7 minutes can be troublesome. Sometimes the students are forced to do the same lesson 2 or 3 times because of the lack preparation time.

Here's the basic outline of a lesson. It's very flexible for manipulation by an instructor.

1)Warm-up: Get students to feel comfortable, introduce lesson plan
2)Picture speculation: Have them look at a picture in the textbook and ask questions about it.
3)Listening Comprehension: Read a passage out of the text and ask questions.
4)Listen and Repeat: Say some sentences, and have the students repeat them.
5)Application: Have the students apply what they've learned through a role play or game of some sort.
6)Summarize:Give hw and comments about how everyone performed overall.
7)Write student evaluations and then plan for the next lesson.

I heard a lot of crap about NOVA before coming over here, and I do see where the flaws in the system are. NOVA is a huge organization, and can't accomodate easily to the needs of a few, whether it be students or teacher's needs. With a lot of different teachers teaching lessons everyday, it may be hard for students to feel comfortable with each teacher and learn effectively. And on the other side of the coin, if teachers have to teach different students all of the time, it may be hard to remember the weak points of a few individuals and strategize how to cope with those weaknesses specifically to help them improve their English. The turnover rate of teachers is also high; teachers may quit to go back to their home countries, be fired for fraternizing with students, or fired for hitting a student(yes it does happen). To cope with the lack of teachers, new teachers from all over the area come in on different days to make up the absence of the missing teacher. Sometimes, things are in complete chaos.

But at least everytime when I go into a classroom, I want to make sure that someone learns something! They pay a lot of money to speak English and I just hope that I'm helping in some way. Most of the lessons are about future tense, past tense, present tense or the time progressive tense. I can only think of so many scenario's for what they're going to do tomorrow or in the future. But anyway, this is my current impression of NOVA. It will probably change as the year goes on, but at least I'm on record now of saying that it's not too bad so far. There are some really good teachers out there who can help students a lot...I think I'm kind of in the middle right now because there are some students I do help out, and some who give me the blank stare for all 40 minutes of the lesson.

Well whatever the situation, everyone's experience in NOVA is dependent on an individual's circumstances. I have have no rooommates, I live in a cool area, the cost of living is reasonable, the teachers I work with are awesome, and I'm having a fun time. The best thing to do is be open minded and not so negative on your surroundings. Take everything for as it is and don't try to force the situation into one which you think is appropriate.