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| Which type of school do you prefer ALTing at? |
| High School |
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23% |
[ 4 ] |
| Junior High School |
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17% |
[ 3 ] |
| Elementary School |
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17% |
[ 3 ] |
| Mixed |
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35% |
[ 6 ] |
| Kindergarten |
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5% |
[ 1 ] |
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| Total Votes : 17 |
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seklarwia
Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano
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 Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 10:23 am Post subject: |
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| Rezz wrote: |
Your situation sounds quite unique but a good balance of the two nonetheless. I can see how it might be a bit boring just being a human tape recorder and not having much excitement in the classroom. I think that's mainly the reason I enjoy teaching Elementary kids so much, they are enthusiastic and love to play games using some English phrases.
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I know many ALTs who enjoy ES... I'm simply not one suited to it. Whilst I'm enthusiatic, out-going and pretty energetic, it's not the clowny and entertaining (verging on ADHD) energy needed when teaching little kids. And my face would crack if I had to force a smile all day, every day.
Already the train journey home from my low level school is becoming quite tedious as that train is packed with the monsters from a nearby school. Of course now that they all recognise me, I don't get a moments respite. I get gifted with bugs that they pick up, have to say, "I'm fine thank you. And you?" 20+ times in a single journey, have to play interpretor for the kids who wish to talk with all the foreigners on the train (the line is used to get out to the big tourist attractions) and even had a little monkey swinging from my arm as I stood holding one of the over head handholds once.
My students always laugh and are amazed at my shift in demeanor when the last of the brats get off the train.
| Quote: |
| Do you still get much chance to interact with students at lunch or during sports/cultural activities at SHS? |
They don't sit down to lunch in their homerooms like they do in JH and ES. In one of my schools, lunchtime is 45 mins and 40 mins in the other. The kids eat everywhere and anywhere. I'm free to eat where ever I wish; sometimes I sit outside with students, sometimes in the corridoor with students (in the low level school, they really do eat anywhere) or sometimes I eat in the staffroom. I don't eat in homerooms to avoid arguements.
After, I'm done eating (and smoking) I normally head back to the staffroom because many kids like to come to chat or have me do other 'okaasan/oneechan' duties (including but not limited to painting nails, braiding hair, taking food our of hair and applying make-up). At the low level school, some of them come to visit several times each day (before school, during SLP, at lunchtime, after lessons when they are bunking off from cleaning with a further group dragging me out to catch the train... everyday without fail!) - It's this kind of confidence and friendliness outside the classroom that I enjoy at the low level school.
So yes, at lunch time or other non-lesson times you can indeed interact with students but you will have to make your own opportunities since no one is going to force them to do so; if they like you and can relate to you, they will; if they do not...
And depending on your school you can (and may even be expected to) participate in cultural/sporting events. I'm going to camp with some from the high level school this weekend, will be going to the theatre on one day and playing sports with the kids from my other next week, and the following week will be helping to prepare students to go on homestays next month. I've been lucky in that I was given the choice to decline these events, but as I said before, some schools will be telling you rather than asking you to attend. |
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Rezz
Joined: 26 May 2009
Posts: 95
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| Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:00 pm Post subject: |
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| seklarwia wrote: |
I don't eat in homerooms to avoid arguements.
After, I'm done eating (and smoking) I normally head back to the staffroom because many kids like to come to chat or have me do other 'okaasan/oneechan' duties (including but not limited to painting nails, braiding hair, taking food our of hair and applying make-up). |
Haha, that last part took me by surprise! Sounds like a nice atmosphere though. Are all SHS classes 65 minutes usually? You mentioned that your classes are a nice break from the JTE grammar classes, what do you actually do with SHSers? Follow a textbook or just hold conversation classes?
| TokyoLiz wrote: |
| I don't think this is a good job for a fresh, minimally-trained, non-Japanese speaking teacher. Go to JHS first, learn the ropes, and then move around once your Japanese fluency is up. Little people have a million questions, and the ES teachers don't speak English. |
My Japanese is...... pretty minimal but I do have 15 or 16 months experience teaching at Eikaiwa. I'm studying for the lowest level JLPT and can just about string basic sentences together but don't really get as much practice as I'd like to, with my current employer being an English only environment. This makes me worry a little, especially at the kindergarten and possibly ES where they may not speak any English 
Think I'm going to end up flipping a coin to make a decision at the rate my mind keeps changing at the moment! |
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fluffyhamster
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
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| Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 9:29 pm Post subject: |
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One thing I forgot to mention was that you should look into the transportation costs, Rezz (ask for the school or at least the city locations and look up the routes online using e.g. Yahoo Japan). The more schools you have to go to, and the more distant they are (especially if they involve buses part of all of the way), the more the commuting will add up, and if the employer isn't reimbursing any of it (likely), well, you'd probably be better sticking to the suburban areas (i.e. the HS gigs) for this year at least.
Plus you don't really want to be out in the back of beyond (however scenic and lovely it may be) on a Friday night and facing a long expensive journey to get back to anywhere more socially exciting or happening or whatever!
One last thing is that you may be able to opt out of HS lunches (if you want to), but that probably won't be possible with ESs (the kids will probably really want you to eat lunch with them!)...and sometimes the kids (who dished up the food in the schools I went to) would get the number of meals and/or size of portions wrong etc (so you - and often a few others too! - might go a bit hungry even though you've paid for the meal LOL  ).
Oh, and another: the more schools you go to, the more social events you may be expected to attend. So the AET with only one JHS just has to attend the one sports day (usually held on a weekend), but the dispatcher may well (seriously!) expect you to attend however many sports days you have schools, which could (if you were actually inclined to go along with the notion) mean not getting a proper weekend off (i.e. two consecutive days) for a month or so...grrr... |
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seklarwia
Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano
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| Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 10:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Rezz wrote: |
Haha, that last part took me by surprise! Sounds like a nice atmosphere though.
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Well the kids at that school really don't appreciate the benefits of studying and mostly despise English. So I use all the skills that comes with being the oldest sister who is old enough to be two of my sisters' mother and the tricks I learnt to endear myself to troubled kids in my peer group councilling, youth club and dance days. And it's not just the girls that enjoy my antics either. One of my Joho class ringleaders wanted me to corn-row half of his head making him look like even more of a deliquent than normal... these days he helps me control that rowdy class.
| Quote: |
| Are all SHS classes 65 minutes usually? You mentioned that your classes are a nice break from the JTE grammar classes, what do you actually do with SHSers? Follow a textbook or just hold conversation classes? |
Sorry I haven't really made that clear.
At the high level school, on the days that I'm there, they have 5x65min lesson periods. But on the days I'm not there they have 6x60min lesson periods. So yes, my classes are always 65mins there.
At the low level school, they have the standard 6x50min periods each day.
For part of the lesson we often have to summarise the texts that they have read in their regular classes or cover some of the textbook exercises. But you'd be surprised how delivery of these boring bits can make a huge difference; when the JTEs do similar sections they have silent students but when I do it there are lots of smiles, laughter and kids calling out things in response or even simply telling me who my next "forced volunteer" should be.
Otherwise I get to hold discussion type lessons based around themes from their textbooks (they have 2 for English language classes) that get them to practice expressing their own ideas (both verbally and on paper). At the moment, with many nervous kids getting ready to go on homestays and me being queen of travel and living in foreign countries  and having had played host to many foreign students over the years (more than a few of whom were from Japan) I've been challenging them in teams to come up with ways to overcome difficult/sensitive situations, practicing paraphrasing and looking at the importance of NV communication.
| fluffyhamster wrote: |
| One last thing is that you may be able to opt out of HS lunches (if you want to), but that probably won't be possible with ESs (the kids seem to want you to eat lunch with them)...and sometimes the kids (who dished up the food in the schools I went to) would get the number of meals and/or size of portions wrong etc (so you - and often a few others too! - might go a bit hungry even though you've paid for the meal LOL ). |
There isn't any school lunch at either of my HSs. Kids bring their own or they buy from the local shops or visiting lunch lady/man.
Whilst under my last BOE school lunches were compulsory for ES and JH including attending staff - lead by example. I didn't have to eat with students in my JH, but even in the staffroom you were under constant threat of going without parts of your lunch. When students or the caterer messed up, students would normally head straight to the staffroom with big ol' puppy dog eyes.
| Quote: |
| Oh, and another: the more schools you go to, the more social events you may be expected to attend. So the AET with one JHS just has to attend the one sports day of a Saturday, but the dispatcher may well (seriously!) expect you to attend however many sports days you have schools, which could (if you were inclined to go a long with the notion) mean not getting a proper weekend off (i.e. two consecutive days) for a month or so...grrr... |
Never had a sports day on Saturday at my JH although we had two that occurred during the week; one for the entire school and one for only 1st and 2nd year students during entrance exams. There was only the city sports festival and one day of school festival on Saturdays. These times I was given a 3 day weekend with no pay penalties - my school would have Monday off following these big events to give students and teachers some much needed respite. Us disptachees would be offered the time off (although RCS would try to deduct for it). Some would still go to support their students but the JETs had to go.
I know the schools in my area all did pretty much the same, so perhaps it is something that varies from BOE to BOE. |
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fluffyhamster
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
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| Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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Hi Sek, sorry with my catch-all 'HS' that I didn't clarify the difference between JHS and SHS (in that in the former, lunch has to be provided for at least the students, whilst in the latter, there is no statutory requirement so everbody just brings or goes out to buy their own). All I meant was that it is a bit easier to get out of eating JHS lunches than it is ES ones.  |
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Rezz
Joined: 26 May 2009
Posts: 95
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| Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 2:30 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks all for the input on this, very much appreciated. I have decided to accept the mixed position at Kindy/ES/JHS. I'm not sure if I've made the right decision or not but either way I finish eikaiwa and start at the end of this month!
Woo |
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fluffyhamster
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
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ghostrider
Joined: 30 May 2006
Posts: 147
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| Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 8:03 pm Post subject: |
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| I think SHS is the easiest unless you get a really bad school. I agree it can be a bit boring, assuming your class isn't full of disruptive kids. If you're energetic and like doing games and kids stuff, then definitely ES. I always felt JHS was the worst and most teachers, foreign and Japanese, seemed to agree. They're at the age where they're challenging authority, still hyper like kids, but want to start showing how tough/adult they are to their peers. Out of JHS, I think 2nd years were the most difficult. 1st years tended to be easy and fun the first half of the year. 3rd years get progressively easier to teach as the year goes on. |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 3:57 pm Post subject: |
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| ghostrider wrote: |
| I think SHS is the easiest unless you get a really bad school. I agree it can be a bit boring, assuming your class isn't full of disruptive kids. If you're energetic and like doing games and kids stuff, then definitely ES. I always felt JHS was the worst and most teachers, foreign and Japanese, seemed to agree. They're at the age where they're challenging authority, still hyper like kids, but want to start showing how tough/adult they are to their peers. Out of JHS, I think 2nd years were the most difficult. 1st years tended to be easy and fun the first half of the year. 3rd years get progressively easier to teach as the year goes on. |
I had SHS before. It was cake, even the bad schools. I beat all the bad kids at arm wrestling(that is to say I crushed them bad) and the guys were kinda afraid of me. So they listened to me when i told them to be quiet.
ES can be fun, but the cad schools/classes are painful. Got one class where the JT either just leaves, or she sits down and holds her head like she has a migraine. I have gotten kinda good at pulling the bad kids aside and scolding them. Seems to work., kinda. |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:16 am Post subject: |
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| fluffyhamster wrote: |
| the same teacher has the same class all day every day all year long, and has to teach all the basic Japanese, math etc pretty much single-handedly. So there are no separate subject classes and teachers like there are at the high school (UK secondary school) level. Which is why there are no JTEs (=Japanese Teachers of English)at the ES level. |
Yes, there are. Many elementary teachers are qualified to teach at either elementary or junior high school. It isn't until senior high school that they have a different certification (and even then, it allows them to teach at senior high as well as junior high). So there are homeroom teachers at elementary schools who are JTEs. They just aren't teaching English most of the time. There are also JTEs who have jobs very much like roaming ALTs at the elementary level in that they go to several school, or have one school that they stay in, and they teach nothing but English all day (and tend to not get paid anything like what regular homeroom teachers get paid, even if they are at the school all day every day because they are often classified as part-time [and elementary schools can be very anti-outsider, and that includes a Japanese teacher of English who isn't a homeroom teacher- I know someone who has been dealing with this for years now]). There have also been teacher training programs specifically to train elementary JTEs for several years (I knew a lady who had that qualification 6 years ago- a second person). It's just that it's not a very common qualification. (They weren't very clear as to whether or not they could ALSO teach at the junior high level, or maybe it was that they could, but they just hadn't done the test).
They also use elementary JTEs to teach JSL (Japanese as a Second Language) in locations with large numbers of immigrant students (IME mostly Spanish and Portuguese speaking, though some Tagalog native speaking children as well) who don't speak Japanese.
So I think it's more accurate to say that they DO have elementary level JTEs, they just aren't quite sure what to do with them because there aren't enough to go around. And besides that, they have the main problem with introducing English in the elementary schools- they don't want to change what they do at the junior high level as well [even though it should be obvious that that's what they do need to do] because that would mean a huge amount of work and the government knows that almost every time they introduce change in the junior or senior level, the teachers all say 'yes, yes' and then don't do it (or else say that the government has no idea of what's actually going on in schools - an odd thing for a teacher to say in a state mandated, top down curriculum which gives teachers very little freedom to do as they please). I've known senior high JTEs at private highs who quit when they were told that the textbook that they've been teaching from for the last twenty years or whatever was no longer going to be used at the school and they'd have to get used to using a different one.
If the same thing happened in Canada- not enough elementary level teachers of French and so they started demanding that grade 4 teachers with undergrads in psychology or whatever had to teach kids French, and taking the few actual French teachers and calling them part-timers thereby allowing them to force the teachers to teach at a bunch of different schools AND pay them much less than other elementary teachers- I think it's very likely that elementary teachers would go on strike.
ETA: I find teaching senior high the most rewarding because of the language level the learners have {I'm a big fan of discourse level English, and not sentence grammar manipulation}. For an individual day, I find elementary the most fun, though (but if you are only there a few times a year, then the kids are all happy to see you, if you're always there, then they aren't- and you get exhausted as well).
| ghostrider wrote: |
| I always felt JHS was the worst and most teachers, foreign and Japanese, seemed to agree. They're at the age where they're challenging authority, still hyper like kids, but want to start showing how tough/adult they are to their peers. Out of JHS, I think 2nd years were the most difficult. 1st years tended to be easy and fun the first half of the year. 3rd years get progressively easier to teach as the year goes on. |
I agree. |
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seklarwia
Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:43 pm Post subject: |
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| GambateBingBangBOOM wrote: |
| I find teaching senior high the most rewarding because of the language level the learners have |
I guess this really depends on the schools. At one of my schools, many of the kids have a higher level of English than some English kids their age (not hard I suppose when you consider how many kids are leaving school without even managing a G grade pass in GCSE English Language). But at the other school, my 2nd graders are learning 1st and 2nd year JH English... and only the easy bits at that. I made the discovery that a huge chunk of that year didn't know the names of the months. I taught one class the months then asked some students when their birthdays were. I was told May 1st, March 1st, October 1st... and when one boy told me April 1st (I think the 6th I asked) I must have had my BS face on by that point because he shouted, "April fool!" Turns out they didn't know ordinal numbers... not sure why I was surprised by that when only a few weeks earlier I'd learnt that they didn't know cardinal numbers either:
- Some of them think they are 19 or 90 years old (I know that there is only one 19 year old in the year; the others were 17)
- 6x2=twenty
- There are about 5000 students in their school.
There is only one number that they all instantly recall with confidence; my age (48... don't ask!) |
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fluffyhamster
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
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| Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 4:36 pm Post subject: |
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| In ESs, I've known/been aware of or worked with a few assistants and/or "JTEs" such as you describe, GBBB, but given their rarity, the ever uncertain status of English in the ES curriculum, and the various other disclaimers or qualifiers in your own post, I don't think it is too mistaken a generalization to say that 'There aren't ((m)any [enough?]) JTEs at the ES level'. One thing's for sure, there aren't going to be anywhere near many as there are at JH and SH level to help with, or indeed relieve the AET of much of if not all, the actual teaching responsibilities. |
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yamanote senbei
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 435
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| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 1:38 pm Post subject: |
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| fluffyhamster wrote: |
| But it gave me something to reflect and build on a few years later, when Borderstink (oops sorry, Borderlink) said I'd be teaching just JHS and then changed the offer at the last minute to four ESs only, in order to give the guy who'd been at them the year before a break, to which I could only really agree (and I'm glad I did!). |
That is just so typical of Borderlink. Are you sure that the guy you're referring to actually existed? |
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fluffyhamster
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
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| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 3:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Well, even if he didn't exist (I guess we'll never know unless we visit the dark creepy sanitorium where burnt-out ES ETs go to recuperate), I'm glad I was offered and took that job rather than some boring and/or potentially troubled~troublesome JHS again. But I can see how a sudden change of position like that could put a less experienced or willing teacher a bit on the spot (to put it mildly). Anyway, I was relieved (thankful?) that at least the job was in the same city that the original JHS job offer had been. |
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yamanote senbei
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 435
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| Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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That's good to hear. It would not have been very good if they ended up doing both the school and city bait-and-switch on you.
Only when teachers start understanding and asserting their rights will employers start behaving responsibly. Employers who make offers of employment are binding are bound by those offers. If they later change their story because they lost whatever contract, that's too bad for them. |
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