ALT / ALTTO / Japanese Private School / Japanese Public Schools / JET / junior high scool / professional development

ALT Training Online: Free Courses for ALTs, Designed by ALTs

ALTTO is a free platform offering training courses for Assistant Language Teachers in Japanese school system. It provides practical, context-specific professional development in areas like classroom management, lesson planning, teaching listening/speaking skills, and supporting special needs students.

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25 July 2025

ALT / ALTTO / Community / Japanese Private School / Japanese Public Schools / JET / life in Japan / personal experience / professional development

A conversation with Real Gaijin

about the genesis and realities of Assistant Language Teaching with an experienced Japan hand You know the proverb, "Two heads are better than one"? Japan has its rendering, 1/3 better than the English expression: 三人寄れば文殊の知恵 San nin yoreba Monju no chie In other words, when three people come together, they achieve…

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15 August 2025

Activities / ALT

Side Jobs & the ALT Hustle – Why Fluency Through Conversation Works Outside the Classroom, Too

Let’s be honest. Most ALTs don’t just teach in public schools. If you’ve been around the ALT community for even a few months, you already know the real deal. Side gigs aren’t just common, they’re practically an ALT rite of passage. Maybe you’re picking up extra shifts at an eikaiwa, running…

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2 April 2025

Activities / ALT / teens

The Power of Questions: How ALTs Can Build Rapport, Teach Grammar, and Thrive in Japan

Happy spring! ALTTO hopes you are feeling refreshed and ready for a new school year in Japan. Nathaniel Reed, the founder of ALT Training Online, gives us valuable advice about asking our English learners the right questions. This is sneak peek of his new book, Fluency Through Conversation available on Amazon…

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26 March 2025

ALT / Bilingual / Community / JET / JHS / JTE / personal experience

Warm Words about Crossing Linguistic Lines

Let me first say to the people responsible for ALTTO / Agora: what you have put together is impressive and bodes well for EFL instruction in schools.  Many thanks.  For ALTs who have been in Japan for a relatively short time, what follows may not exactly be what you want to…

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11 December 2023

ALT / ALTTO / Community / professional development / skills development / Uncategorised

Start a New School Year with ALTTO Courses

With the start of the 2023 school year right around the corner, it's a good time for veterans to refresh their knowledge and skills and for newly recruited ALTs to learn about their new roles. To support you in your school experience, ALTTO offers course modules that provide insight into the…

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28 March 2023

ALT / Cultural Education / Uncategorised

Commandment 10 – Connecting Language and Cultures

ALTs are a diverse lot, not all coming from majority English-speaking countries and many cultures. When it comes to teaching about culture, you can draw on knowledge of your own, cultures you’ve encountered through travel, or stretch your own understanding of the English-speaking world. Engaging and Informing A simple and time-efficient…

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27 January 2023

ALT / skills development / tips for teaching / Uncategorised

Commandment 9 – Increase Learners’ Goal-Orientedness

Happy New Year 2023! Have you made new year's resolutions? This is the perfect time to look at Commandment 9 - strategies to increase your learner's goal-orientation. Teachers Setting Goals Every year, teachers pore over guidelines, revise syllabi, and schedule units and tests as part of course goal setting. A syllabus…

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10 January 2023

ALT / teaching tips / Team Teaching / Team-Teaching / tips for teaching

8th Commandment –  Personalize the Learning Process

Hey ALTTO Community! How's that humidity treating ya?! The first term of the school year may be ending soon, but that doesn't mean we can't take some time to reflect and plan ahead for how we will do things after the summer. This next Commandment is brought to us by Elizabeth…

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28 June 2022

ALT / High School / PBL / skills / skills development / Team Teaching

Commandment 7 – Promote Learner Autonomy

I hope you're all settling in to the new school year. It is the perfect time to try something new in your classroom! This Commandment comes to us from Alex, an ALT at a high school in Kyoto. He and his co-ALTs and JTEs have been doing some fantastic things to…

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14 May 2022