ALT – ALT Training Online

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

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 / 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 / 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

ALT / life in Japan / personal experience / strategies

Becoming Proficient in Japanese: The Importance of Kanji, and a Shortcut to Acquisition for Adult Learners

Bio: My name is Daniel Pearce, and I am currently working as a teacher-researcher at Kyoto Notre Dame University. I was an ALT in several high schools of the Shonai region of Yamagata Prefecture between 2008 and 2013. During my time in Yamagata, I committed myself to studying Japanese and kanji…

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22 February 2022

ALT / CLIL / JTE / Team Teaching

The Tao of Team Teaching: Developing Integrative Relationships with Co-Teachers

The Tao originated in China in the 6th century BCE and has since become familiar to both eastern and western audiences. According to Tao philosophy, Yin and Yang are the two governing forces that are opposite yet interdependent, in constant flux but ultimately give balance to the universe. If we view…

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15 April 2021

ALT / Community / JTE / teacher training

Cultivating a Community of Practice for ALTs, HRTs, and JTEs

School-based Teacher Education Model in Professional Graduate School For the past 13 years, the M.Ed program at the Graduate School of Professional Development of Teachers at the University of Fukui has been working on cultivating an organizational learning community of teachers. Our aims are clear: to enhance the professional development of…

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18 December 2020

ALT / ALTopedia / ALTTO

End of an Era: ALTTO and Altopedia Split by Nathaniel Reed

Englipedia had been the go-to place for ALTs. A storehouse of seemingly limitless activities for every page of every textbook used in Japanese public schools. ALTs would simply click on the page number of the book they use, download the activity, make some photocopies, and head to class. And all was…

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18 November 2020

ALT / ALTTO

Working With ALTTO by Armando Duarte

My first encounter with ALT Training Online and Nathaniel Reed happened in early 2017. I had just finished my Masters of Art in Teaching with an emphasis on Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, or MAT TESOL to save time because the name is so long. As a newly minted…

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23 October 2020