Iain, thanks for your message. I think sharing PPT files to help future instructors is a really good idea.

I think another very good (and realistic) idea would be to allocate time during Westgate training for lesson preparation and PPT slide creation. With the style of teaching we’ll continue to use moving forward, I think having good, manageable PPT files is one of the most vital things allowing us to do our jobs. In particular, I often find myself working late in the evening or weekends, trying to get the 90 minute lessons planned for the following day, because I just didn’t have time to finish them in the free time between private lessons.

I think allocating 1-2 days during training for creating PPTs would not only ease the burden for teachers for the first few weeks, but also, other teachers could check each other’s files and give constructive feedback or changes. 

Some of the existing PPT files on the Sharepoint are okay, but many of them (writing and TOEIC ones in particular) would not result in a fun or engaging lesson, if kept as they are. They are hard to teach with. 

Just to give an example, each new and returning teacher could be allocated a week’s worth of lesson slides to work on. They could edit/recreate them to be more easily usable.

I feel that we have mentioned this on several occasions during our Yokohama PC meeting, but there is never any acknowledgement or understanding. The point is ignored and dismissed. I think this would really enhance the training and make it more helpful, so I hope this can be at least taken into account.