Job Discussion Forums

[Thereandbackagain]

[Vince]

When I was at ECC, they were good about the 29.5 hours. If nothing else, they've learned from experience that teachers will get vocal about regularly working more hours than the contract states. There's also union scrutiny, and ECC has been challenged by lawyers for other matters. I think they have their system arranged so that a 29.5-hour work week serves their needs. I'm sure there have been cases where they were in a pinch and asked a teacher to chip in (for appropriate additional pay, of course), but I saw no evidence of an ongoing plot to bilk teachers for extra time.

As far as arriving early for a shift, it's good professional practice in any job to arrive 10-15 minutes early. During that time, it's hardly backbreaking work to look over a kids lesson plan for a few minutes.

Once while making small talk with the director, I showed her some stickers I had bought that I thought the kids would like. Right away she asked if I had the receipt, then insisted on reimbursing me. She made it clear that the school paid for that, not me. That isn't the attitude of an organization that is trying to get over on its teachers.

[jgmodlin]

[Glenski]

Feel "cracked up" or not, jgmodlin. I openly admit I've never worked at ECC, and as much as I appreciate learning about their teaching prep format (or lack thereof), I would hope that the teachers are at least considerate or professional enough (yeah, I know the word professional doesn't usually coincide with "eikaiwa") to look at those books before they go in the room.

Being totally clueless about the book is inexcusable, and I would imagine that this is not the case. However, even if you don't know who is coming to class that day, a teacher should still have some idea of the level about to be taught. That would mean making an educated guess where in any textbook one should start. Or is there something I'm missing here?

Regardless of that, I personally think it's pretty poor for a school to have such spontaneity in the lessons. Maybe it's good for the clients/students to be able to show up and get a lesson with different classmates (teacher, too?) every time because it accommodates the student's schedule, but it makes for poor/zero planning on the part of the teacher. And, I think there is probably zero to little teacher training that goes on to prepare ECC teachers to leap into any spot in a textbook on the spur of the moment, right?

Just more sad state of affairs at eikaiwas. ECC is one of the biggies, too, so they must be doing SOMEthing right, at least in terms of survival.

[Thereandbackagain]

[quote="Glenski"]Regardless of that, I personally think it's pretty poor for a school to have such spontaneity in the lessons. Maybe it's good for the clients/students to be able to show up and get a lesson with different classmates (teacher, too?) every time because it accommodates the student's schedule, but it makes for poor/zero planning on the part of the teacher. And, I think there is probably zero to little teacher training that goes on to prepare ECC teachers to leap into any spot in a textbook on the spur of the moment, right?quote]

ECC offers many types of classes, kids classes, junior high school classes, Free Time Lessons, adult group classes, and of course private lessons.
Teachers that teach Kids classes and junior high school classes are provided with lesson plans for each lesson which are taught sequentially. Adult group lessons are taught from an assigned textbook. Lessons are taught according to a set schedule. The teachers for these classes (adult group lessons) are give a copy of the teacher's manual for the text which is assigned. For these three types of classes, the classes meet on a regular schedule. The teacher teaches the same group of students each class. Most teachers will need to prepare for these three types of lessons before class.

Free Time Lessons are different. There are a maximum of four students per class and the classes are forty minutes long. Students can take Free Time Lessons anytime they are available and at any school that offers them.
There are ten levels (5b, 5a, 4b, 4a, 3b, 3a, 2b, 2a, 1b, 1a). There is a different set of ten books for levels 5, 4, and 3. Levels 2 and 1 use a combined set of twenty books.

The books for all five levels change about once a month so that the students aren't being taught the same lessons again and again.
Teachers teach from that month's book using set procedures which vary by the lesson format but not the month.
Once you have memorized the set procedures (and you quickly do), Free Time Lessons are the easiest to teach.

Students bring a log of which lessons they have been taught. Teachers write comments and record whether the lessons' targets were mastered or should be reviewed. At the start of each lesson, the teacher collects all the students' logs, compares them, then selects a lesson that they will teach.

New teachers go through approximately two weeks of training before they start teaching. There is also training before each new academic year. I hope the above explanation is helpful. Of course this is not all, just a quick explanation.

[cornishmuppet]

[Ryu Hayabusa]

@cornishmuppet

ECC pays 252 000 yen per month plus transportation costs. Standard eikaiwa salary I guess. 5-10 years ago, ECC used to give raises of up to 10 000 per month! In recent years, I've been told that a 5 000/month raise is the max anyone gets. Peanuts really...

It's a pity that the golden years of working in Japan are over. I met two ECC teachers who have been with the company since the early 80's. Their contracts are fantastic! 20 hours a week, Mon-Thurs, 100 000 yen every two years to fly home or do whatever with. Factor in the amount of paid days off that they've accumulated over the years and all the pay raises and I'd say that they're making about 350 000-400 000 yen/month and have about 20 ALPs (paid days off) to use in addition to the regular ECC vacation periods! Crazy! Of course, teaching at an eikaiwa for so many years must be tough on the old noggin' not to mention the fact that, coming to Japan in those days, they could've have easily been teaching at universities by now.

It's useless to compare our situations to the past, but still...

[cornishmuppet]

I think it just suits some people. There was a guy in Nagano who worked at a real sh&t-hole eikaiwa here for seven years, only leaving because he got married and went home. No one else could stand it and most people quit within six months. My girlfriend did a stint there and I had several friends who braved it, and phrases like monkey-house and evil management kept cropping up. He must have been quite the golden boy.

That's not a bad salary for the hours, if indeed you're either not expected to prep or prep is included in that time. And with the exchange rates as they are I don't think the situation is as bad as people make out. Less jobs and bonuses, maybe, but the money's still there if you want it and are prepared to do a bit on the side.

[Glenski]

[starteacher]

[cornishmuppet]

[Glenski]

[starteacher]

Never mind.

[Speed]

[Glenski]

Speed,
It's not meant to be arrogant. I was making that amount in far less time than that (and I have a family here). I also have colleagues who are actually scrambling to make ends meet with a kid or 2 and that kind of salary.

To each his own, and it depends on one's lifestyle and location, but I still stand by my statement, mainly because people with families know what is needed to survive and more than survive (thinking: retirement, schooling, trips back to the homeland, mortgage, etc.).

And, it's very puzzling to me to see that you wrote such short hours (20 per week, 4 days per week). Who actually manages to do that and support a family (even a spouse alone, no kids) after 25 years, especially on a mere 300,000 yen/month? Something is missing from the equation here.