Job Discussion Forums

japanman · Joined: 24 Nov 2005 Posts: 281 Location: England

Don't think that this comparison has been covered. I've often seen it when a teacher is sick and the class is left alone all day with the next door teacher just popping in every now and then to have a look.

canuck · Joined: 11 May 2003 Posts: 1921 Location: Japan

japanman · Joined: 24 Nov 2005 Posts: 281 Location: England

I'm using the schools computer at work, so i'm careful what I click on you see.

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

Canuck, lighten up, we'll give you holler when we need some serious commentary Cool

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Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

furiousmilksheikali · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:07 pm Post subject:

cornishmuppet · Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 642 Location: Nagano, Japan

For those who think ALTs have a pointless job....

Yesterday the trainee Maths teacher at our school, who seems nice but a bit of a whipping boy, doing all manner of seemingly random tasks, hit a new height, he was required to sit roll a dice 6000 times, and record the results into a spreadsheet, to find out which number came up with the highest frequency. And he wasn't just tallying it either, he had put a 1 in the number box next to each number, ( 5043 000010 if he rolled a five on roll 5043, if this makes sense ) to see if there were any streaks. He was rolling 10 at a time and getting those numbers tapped in pretty quick, but he was seriously there all morning doing it.

He's well on the way to having no life. He lives about an hour and a half drive away and is putting in 12 hour days for his 17man trainee wage or whatever it is. Still, he seems happy enough, so good luck to him.

sushi · Joined: 28 Aug 2005 Posts: 145

Cornishmuppet it would be interesting to know how somebody qualifys to teach in in a Japanese public school. I would assume that there would be a lot of applicants for teaching positions in any subject. Is there a national exam that applicants have to take and pass in order to teach. If so what might the pass rate be. I am suspecting that there might be a 5% to 10%
pass rate with many applicants repeating the exam several times over a period of 5 years until they finally pass.

c-way · Joined: 19 Nov 2004 Posts: 226 Location: Kyoto, Japan

cornishmuppet said

dove · Joined: 01 Oct 2003 Posts: 271 Location: USA/Japan

Because he was told to.

cornishmuppet · Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 642 Location: Nagano, Japan

Exactly as Dove says. No, I'm not kidding. I went over to ask how he was getting on every hour or so. I didn't see when he finished, or indeed when he started, but I saw from about 2000 to 5000 and that took him about three periods. And from what I saw of his results each number was coming up about 15-17% of the time. As you'd expect. I wasn't really interested in that though, only in what he was doing.

There's a teaching faculty near me. As far as I know they have to study for four years, pass an exam, then do a year of some sort of probationary period. A new teacher in my last school told me she was on 18man as a probationary salary. And guess what? She was doing the usual 12 hour days, plus weekends etc. I don't know a lot about it, though, I imagine some of the old timers on here have a bit more detailed information.

starteacher · Joined: 25 Feb 2009 Posts: 237

Given recent posts, I wonder how many BOEs have or are looking at this thread, it's been a while.

Shiggy · Joined: 27 Jan 2004 Posts: 86

2007?

I wasn't looking at it until now. Good job.

gwynnie86 · Joined: 27 Apr 2009 Posts: 159

I just wrote a massive reply but the school computer deleted it!!!!!! Argh!!!

In summary. JTEs vary from being infuriating (correcting my English with weird, incorrent pronounciations, i.e. saying "haggered" for "hugged", "uss" for "us", and telling me to say them too) to being lovely (enthusiastic about all my ideas). I do sometimes wonder what I'm being paid for... but isn't it ridiculous to complain?? I'm being paid twice what I was back home (for 9 hours a day of manual labour, pretty much!) for 4 or 5 hours a day of standing in a classroom repeating English sentences, all the while being allowed to live in Japan... oh no!! Poor me!! :p.... get a grip, people.

Objectively, though, it does seem like a waste of money if the JTE doesn't utilise us properly. I have friends who work for jukus and eikaiwas and get to teach the entire class themselves, which entails a lot more preperation but a lot more control! Strangely though, working as an ALT and then going on to do this doesn't seem to be so popular (I know AEON staff who have transferred to Interac) and they actually get paid less!

wayne432 · Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 255

It's somewhat of a no-brainer. At eikaiwa, you will get worked for all that you're worth usually. At a school, it depends on the school and the teacher, but classes can be very similar.
For example, I have a bunch of 1st year classes. I talk with the teachers, and we plan the same basic lesson for all the classes. Repetitive, sure... but not exactly difficult.
When I worked for eikaiwa, I had to work on over 15 different types of classes and then also take into account for makeups, etc.

Not to mention, alt work is usually 9-5 (for full-time), while eikaiwa is usually 1-9... I love waking up at 6 am and finishing so early. It makes me feel like I have tons of the day left Smile