Job Discussion Forums

Shiggy · Joined: 27 Jan 2004 Posts: 86

Right. I didn't expect to receive a free vacation. Thanks for the clarification.

Except when you work in schools over here, you know, the hours are typically 7 or 8 to 3:30 PM. No Saturdays and Sundays.

At AEON, the hours were 12:00 - 9:00 PM, with some Saturdays and Sundays. Actually, the hours were more like 11:30 - 9:30 PM, because they wanted you to arrive early and stay late.

For travel time, that would leave me, at least, 1 hour of travel per day, roughly, 30 minutes to work and 30 minutes home. I may be exaggerating a little, but not much.

So, in actuality, if I included travel time, the day would be from 11:00 - 10:00 PM.

I've worked long hours before and I'd really like to avoid the feeling of always being at work: waking up, going to work, going home, sleeping, waking up, going to work, going home, etc.

I honestly don't think this is considered a normal schedule, but I may be wrong. Are there "normal" schedules?

LaniB · Joined: 28 Jan 2010 Posts: 35

Bread · Joined: 24 May 2009 Posts: 318

Shiggy · Joined: 27 Jan 2004 Posts: 86

Thanks. I've heard of Reach to Teach.

I'm just wondering if there are actual jobs in public schools, rather than these eikaiwas?

Bread · Joined: 24 May 2009 Posts: 318

ShioriEigoKyoushi · Joined: 21 Aug 2009 Posts: 364 Location: Japan

Shiggy · Joined: 27 Jan 2004 Posts: 86

ShioriEigoKyoushi · Joined: 21 Aug 2009 Posts: 364 Location: Japan

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan

That schedule also sounds a lot like mine when I was working in eikaiwa. This is Japan we are talking about- apart from JETs perhaps Smile

, everybody works hard here (or at least they put in long hours), and you can be sure that the Japanese staff at the eikaiwas are doing longer hours than the teachers, and for less pay.

I did burn out after a few years of that, but I don't really think eikaiwa was ever meant to be a long term career. I still had two days off a week to do what I pleased with, and I tended to get a lot done in the mornings too. I also travelled outside Japan 3 times a year- between the 10-11 paid holidays, one week off at New Year (also paid), and shift swaps with other teachers, it wasn't hard.

There are plenty of Japanese people who work 16 hours a day, 6 days a week, so you wouldn't get any sympathy from them if you said you thought an eikaiwa teacher's schedule left one with no free time!

Shiggy · Joined: 27 Jan 2004 Posts: 86

Cultural differences, I guess.

Work to live, don't live to work. That's my motto.

I plan on applying to JET for 2011. I think I'll take some Japanese courses to show that I'm motivated.

In hindsight, I probably should have stayed in school. By now, I would have had a teaching certification, an endorsement in ESL and a Master's in Teaching. *sigh*

Anyway. Thank you for your comments and good luck in your future endeavors.

LadyK · Joined: 25 May 2009 Posts: 55 Location: USA, FL

I agree with Shiori- this is a VERY different job from working in the States in some public or private school. Companies like AEON actually don't want people with too much experience, because they want to teach you their own methods. It's up to YOU to adapt to the world of conversation English. But you can do it!!!!! Use student names and A LOT of GESTURES. Repetition of vocab is good too, but remember, you're teaching beginners, so don't explain. Show, don't tell. Good luck!

CarolinaBen · Joined: 22 Nov 2010 Posts: 78

I am trying to decide what part of my lesson plan to include in the 5 minute teaching demonstration next week. I was hoping to get some good feedback.

Lesson Topic - Do You Like Animals?

The Intro\WarmUp = A song I wrote about different animals, haha. I will be playing guitar and having the students repeat the lyrics back to me. One of the students will flip through flashcards with different animal pictures.

Example
Do you like monkeys?
Do you like monkeys?
Yes I do
Yes I do
No I don't
No I don't

Middle Activity - A Karuta style game where the students sit on the floor in a circle with flashcards of different animals on the floor. Each student takes turns passing around a toy microphone asking

Do you like (animal name)?

If I say No I don't then they pass the mic
If I say Yes I do then all of the students attempt to grab the card of the animal that was mentioned.

So my question is....................which should I do for the 5 minute lesson demonstration?????????????

Do you have any other ideas that could make my lesson even better.

All help will me greatly appreciated.

Piri-Piri · Joined: 23 Mar 2010 Posts: 24 Location: Osaka

Paul RVA · Joined: 26 Oct 2010 Posts: 11 Location: Richmond, VA, USA

I have an interview with Amity next weekend and was planning on doing an alphabet flashcard game for my lesson plan.

It goes like this.

2 students stand up from the group. I show the card with the letter, and the first to say the correct letter gets to move up to the next student while the other one sits down. After the student says the correct letter, I ask the class as a whole to say the letter and continue the game.

Should I use the alphabet or would a noun or adjective game be better?

Piri-Piri · Joined: 23 Mar 2010 Posts: 24 Location: Osaka

If you're going to use the alphabet, use just a smaller number of letters.

I'm UK based, so the approach I use is based on "Letters and Sounds" which is the phonics curriculum for UK schools. It splits the alphabet into groups. If you were going to use something like that, you could teach one of the groups (s,a,t,p,i,n) or (since all your "students" will find that quite easy in the demo!) you could teach some of the combined vowel sounds (ou, ai, oi) or consonants (ch, sh, th).

As long as you don't try and do 26 in one lesson, the alphabet should be fine. Try and include a stage where you're teaching them what the sounds are before you ask anyone to stand up and tell you the answers, too.