Job Discussion Forums

[Chupiwa]

hello there.

i am currently a Junior High School ALT in Ibaraki prefecture.

my present job is not really interesting or challenging to me.

but i cannot complain due to the fact that job competition is so fierce plus with economic downturn i was lucky to get hired for any job in Japan.

but as a dedicated teacher, i find it hard to be stuck in the stereotypical "human tape recorder" role. but my japanese co-workers work very hard and i respect them a lot since i only have a TEFL certificate, a BA in History, and only 4 years of teaching ESL in Asia under my belt.

my question is:

Which is better? Junior High school ALT or Elementary ALT?

it seems that other ALTs i talk to that are more involved in their classroom or students` lives are the Elementary school ALTs. but i am not sure if that is the case everywhere in Japan. my contract is up in March 2010, and i want to stay in Japan just not in this prefecture. but i have to be realistic about my options since i am limited by not have a teaching degree nor am i licensed teacher. the nicer jobs are out of reach until i go to graduate school.

i was hoping to hear from other teachers on their opinions, and trying to factor in if maybe its myself who is lacking job satisfaction being an ALT or if i should something else?. i would love to work for a pre-school or kindergarten since my teaching background has given me a lot of experience in this area, but most employers in Japan seem to prefer females teachers and/or certified early childhood ed. degrees.

Sure my small town is boring and dull, but my school staff is friendly and polite. the teenagers in my junior high are mostly apathetic when it comes to english classes, thats not to suggest that they do no excel in other subjects like math or science or sports. there are few shining stars in my english classes but there is little opportunity for buidling a rapport due to the class scheduling and class cancellations for sports events, swine flu, national exams, etc. Out of all the Asian countries i have worked in, i find Japan to feel more comfortable. i have been making progress learn to read, write, and speak Japanese slowly by self-study, since i cannot find a tutor in my local area. i understand i am a still stranger here and this is my host country and i actually do enjoy teaching. Tokyo prefecture would be ideal, but the job market is choked it seems...getting another ALT job would appear to be the best option right now.

i don`t want to sound like a whiny, rude gaijin teacher, but i think i would enjoy Japan more if i could find a more challenging teaching job...

[gonzarelli]

I was never a regular at the elementary schools only made guest appearances there from time to time. It seems they would have beeen more fun than JHS but a whole lot more work. The big thing would be the generally lower English level of the teachers there. This would require more effort on your part in planning and teaching (as opposed to assisting) the lessons. Not sure how much of a human tape recorder you would be.

The students at the elementary school may look cute but they can be the biggest #@%$#% little brats, especially when they're constantly trying to stick their fingers in various locations in an effort to get a laugh.

[Chupiwa]

maybe its because i am short for my height, 5 feet 4 inches, but i always seem to have a better rapport with younger kids. sure there always be some "brats" in any given class. thats a worldwide concept. as for the low English level of the staff, true it might be an obstacle. that will only reinforce me to learn more than the basic Japanese i speak now.

i do expect to be a "human tape recorder" at times if i was an Elementary school ALT, but the chance to be actually involved in the lesson-planning or teaching would worth it i think.

as for the kids sticking fingers or pencils in other places..i did a 2-year stint in South Korea and fully aware of the "Ddung Chim" game where they try to ram their little digits whenever they think you are not looking. not sure how they deal with it in Japan, but in Incheon i was able to deal in disciplinary measures, the worst punishment being to send them to the vice-principal's office...

[Ryu Hayabusa]

You most certainly will not be a human tape recorder in elementary schools! It's a lot more work than most JHS ALT positions.

The ideal for me would be to work in a JHS or SHS where the JTE just sits at the back and mark tests or something during my lessons. I prefer solo teaching over team teaching.

I'll edit and add to this by saying that my ideal week would be to teach at a JHS or SHS like above for 3 days and work at an elementary school for the rest of the week. That way, if I am under-utilized at my JHS or SHS, I can get my teaching fix at my other school.

[Chupiwa]

ryu, lets trade schools!

i basically do almost nothing all da but surf internet and maybe teach at least 2 classes. and by teaching i grade papers and sometimes read a paragraph outloud in class...

[Ryu Hayabusa]

Let's assume that we actually could trade schools. I'd like to know some background info.

A lot of the time, when the ALT is under-utilized in class it's because the JTE doesn't trust the ALT to do anything more than "listen and repeat" type stuff. What has been done to try to persuade your JTEs to allow more of an active role for you?

[Squire22]

As mentioned by gonzarelli earlier, one of the big differences is in the level of English ability of the teachers, I've known of a few people who couldn't handle elementary school so well because they had little to no Japanese and felt as though they couldn't really communicate with anyone for large parts of the day. That said, I've also known some people with little to no Japanese skills that had no problem dealing with that at all. So that aspect is probably down to personal character more than anything else.

For me, one of the major differences is in the level of energy required, at JHS not much energy is required from me in classes, but at elementary school, the word "relax" doesn't come up too often. The kids are pretty much ready to go, all day, every day. This can also be a bonus too though as they can really keep you going through the lessons even if it's the 6th period on a wednesday.

Every school system is a little different, but I'll tell you a little bit about mine. The first through fourth grades I can basically teach whatever I want, however I want. This gives me a great deal of freedom to create/steal and use games/ideas, and also to make the materials for them too. This can, and does, occupy a lot of time, but in a productive way, no time for surfing the internet at elementary school. The teachers are all pretty awesome too in participating in the lessons. The fifth and sixth grades are venturing into the "Eigo nooto" schedule, where the teachers already have lesson plans ready for them, and we're supposed to follow them. We do this to a certain extent but still end up creating our own materials and deviating slightly from the plan. The homeroom teachers are supposed to be the main (leading) teacher, however it still seems to be the ALT running the show for the most part, backed up by the HRT. But again, teachers are awesome at joining in (this depends on the school and the teachers though).

At elementary school, when I have free periods, when I walk around the school to see what's going on, if I'm not going to interrupt a lesson the teachers more than welcome me to go into the classroom and see what's going on. They even ask me to join in PE lessons, calligraphy lessons, and watch whatever preparations their doing for mini events (dancing, acting, singing, making games, that kind of thing). I would say that I get to sit in on more lessons at elementary school than at JHS. So in that way I feel more of a sense of belonging to a community at elementary school than I do at JHS.

There's not so much tape-recorder stuff at elementary school either, but neither are you going to be using any spectacular vocabulary, and as mentioned before, there are always going to be "brats" occassionally, and they tend to be potentially louder and way more annoying than difficult students at JHS.

In answer to your question, I think that elementary school gives you much more scope for involvement in your students lives, but also that you should be aware that it will take way more energy than at JHS. It also affords you the opportunity to be a little creative and resourceful, but also bear in mind that it can put pressure on you because (in my opinion) the homeroom teachers don't really know how to teach English or what to do and are looking to you to lead the way, all the time (no real back up).

Hope this is of some help, I'm sure many others here can give you some great ideas of what it's like too from their experiences.

Good luck

[cornishmuppet]

[Ryu Hayabusa]

Wow, excellent post, Squire22! My experience as an ALT mirrors what you wrote to a tee!

[MrWright]

Being a noob, not sure what you mean about being a tape recorder. Does that just mean you occasionaly have to repeat or read something to the class? So as an ALT in the JH or SHS you are not really the main teacher, and you just follow the lead of the Japanese teacher? You don't lesson plan? THX.

[fluffyhamster]

[cornishmuppet]

[natsume]

[fluffyhamster]

Well, yes Natsume, I suppose I was painting a somewhat extreme picture (for "the purposes of discussion"), and doubtless on balance I have worked with more reasonable (and reasonably capable) JTEs than not.* The thing is though, if you get a particularly nasty JTE (indeed school, BOE, dispatcher - they often seem to complement each other), it can make for a not exactly pleasant year - and it has nothing to do with rubbing them up the wrong way (quite the reverse in fact); some JTEs really do take exception to your very presence, and no matter how polite you are, they will somehow grouch, take secret offence and complain about you behind your back if not to your face at every opportunity. But again, I should now make clear that it's more a case of "a few bad apples" (and doubtless there are some genuinely bad AETs too, spoiling it for the rest of us!).

*I will however try to tot up a rough total and get back to you guys with it - maybe we all should? It would certainly be interesting to know exactly how many JTEs and schools we've all each worked with (though the perhaps "high" humber in my case will simply be an indication of those JHSs or rather the dispatch employer and thus the BOE needing to be changed yearly as I could not but ultimately object to the way they were treating me and indeed the rest of their employees! (Anyway, repeat grumble over!)).

[fluffyhamster]

OK, here are my "vital stats": I've worked in 15 SHSs, 6 JHSs and 9 ESs. At those 6 JHSs there was a total of 20 JTEs, and dividing them into somewhat artificial "more good than bad" versus "more bad than good" groupings actually yields (if I'm completely honest and frank) an even split of 10/10 into those JTEs I didn't mind working with at all versus those that I'd've honestly preferred not to (ranging from a mild to "strong" dislike - never too openly expressed, of course, and I reckon I am pretty pleasant and polite generally! - for them and/or their methods). In comparison, I can wholeheartedly say that I had no real problems at all with working in SHSs* or even ESs (where JTEs are obviously absent and the homeroom teachers not any obstacle or even distraction, but usually very kind, helpful and a pleasure to work with).

Anyway, I've realized that I haven't actually answered the OP's question directly here, but I have made a few posts before, on other threads, about working as each different type of AET, and how the jobs compare (search for e.g. 'AET', with me fluffyhamster as author and perhaps the 'Japan forum only' choice highlighted).

*But that was on JET, which is a comparative breeze generally, and on which the JTEs are doubtless compelled by their superiors to actually be POLITE to the foreign guest who like them is DIRECTLY employed and therefore HAS SIMILAR RIGHTS (apologies for the caps but these points need stressing, what with all the dodgy dispatch work now around - you get cheated out of lots of stuff by the dispatcher, and then on top of that sometimes have to put up with BS from any nastier JTEs/schools, simply because they know they won't be called on it by anyone higher up and can thus get away with it more - there can be a case of them feelingthey have 'carte blanche' almost. (But these really nasty schools and JTEs accounted for "only" about 1/3 i.e. two schools and six JTEs out of the total JHS figures I gave above, which incidentally was all dispatch-type AET work, so I guess that isn't too bad a genuinely bad ratio overall). Obviously that shouldn't be on at all, that 'open season on the out-group dispensible "kick-me" foreigner', but then, it does help if you do all you can to avoid this sort of work/conditions in the first place! ).

Edit: BTW, it might help these discussions if people expessly state whether they had been and/or still were working dispatch versus direct hire; although we might assume, given the growth of dispatch, that most must be talking about being dispatch AETs, some or indeed quite a few of those posting generally only positive experiences could be talking about direct hire but simply not wanting to appear to "boast" about it by even mentioning the fact. Either way, it would be interesting to see if there were indeed the correlation, that one would assume there would be, between general hire and work conditions and job satisfaction (that's not to say however that good education can't and won't be a goal or achieved in dispatch situations - I think I can say that I, certainly in my ES postings, am evidence of that!