Job Discussion Forums

[Rezz]

Hi folks,

I'm soon to make the move from eikaiwa work to public school ALTing, and after a few interviews recently I currently have 2 options:

Option A is a few Elementary schools, 1 or 2 Junior High Schools and a Kindergarten in rural Japan. Option B is at 2 or 3 High Schools in suburban Japan.

I've taught all ages at my current school, albeit in much smaller class sizes. For me personally I find Elementary to be a lot of fun and usually Junior High classes are good. I've only taught a handful of High School students but for the most part we just treat them like adults, so I don't know how this compares to the situation in public schools. I'm really not too keen on Kindergarten teaching which is why I'm not going straight for option A.... Truth be told I didn't even realise that ALTs were sent to Kindergartens.

I've already done a bit of research on google and youtube and tried searching here but unfortunately the search function is just bringing up a blank white page at the moment.

How is ALTing in High School compared to lower schools? Does anyone have experience teaching at all levels? Which ones do you prefer and why?

Thanks for your time! Cheers.

[seklarwia]

I prefer JH so far. But I have never tried the younger levels and quite frankly don't wish to since I despise young children and babies.

In a comparison between JH and SH I would say JH is better, but how much better depends on your personality and the SHSs you are comparing with.

JH students tend to be quite responsive as they haven't yet had all their interest in English sucked out by years of boring textbook regurgitation that is often JTE teaching. But if you are afraid of work and potentially alot of prep then it's not for you.

SH may require not much in the way of prep as the kids are normally preparing for uni entrance exams so the ALT is little more than a glorified tape player; many people complain that they have so little to do (but I'll return to this point later).
And by SH the kids are often so out of love with English that trying to teach some of them is like trying to draw blood from a stone. They can also be so shy and lacking in self confidence that it can be near impossible to get them to speak out in front of their 40 or so classmates.

The reason I say that how much better JH is depends on the school is because I have 2 SHSs now; one is one of the best in the prefecture, the other is a school full of the rejects that couldn't get in anywhere else. The difference between the two is night and day.

In class, I prefer the best school's 1st grade classes, but out of class I prefer reject central.
In the best school the kids are extremely motivated and eager to please. I love the first grade classes because although there is a textbook which I should at least vaguely follow, for 65 mins they are all mine and eager to learn as my classes are a nice variation to the textbook grammar classes they have with their JTEs. I can't stand the 2nd grade classes because I mostly have to do boring as hell dictation tests with them.
Trying to teach the students at the other school can be quite painful. My students there have been split up depending on their plans for the future. I have one Joho class; these are kids that are not planning to go to uni and many of the students are going to end up in manual jobs or taking over their parents' shop, etc. These kids don't see the point of studying further so they don't. And their teachers have long since written them off as the lost cause class and don't even try anymore. But out of class, these kids are amazing if you can get them to warm to you. They are pretty confident and out going. They will approach you to talk eventhough they know very little English. And despite trying to act "hard", being full of holes, fake lashes and nails and so much hair product that they choose not to smoke for fear of igniting themselves, these kids get so excited and you can hear their cries of 'I did it!' when they are able to hold even the most basic conversations with you.

So I get on pretty well in both because I like aspects from both extremes of SH. I would probably go mad with boredom or eventually get driven crazy if I had one or the other though. On the other hand, I know that my predecessor didn't get on with either extreme as they came across as so relaxed as to be lazy in the good school and completely unable to cope with the more challenging behaviour in the low level school.

Back to the SH workload point: I average2-3 classes per day (the maximum I've had is 4 but I have had quite a few days with only 1 or even no classes) but I rarely have time to surf the net as so many report to do in SH. I have a heap of out of class work to do and some of it is not even related to my classes. I have very little prep to do, but I do heaps of marking (I'm currently marking almost 700 tests every 2 weeks!), lots of helping students with essays from their composition classes (I don't even know the JTEs who teach these classes), helping JTEs fully understand texts, test creations, etc. But at the good school, the JTEs have admitted to giving me many more jobs and responsibilities than to the last ALT because they feel they can trust me with them.

But regarding your choices; even though I do prefer JH to SH, I would never choose your option A. I really couldn't cope with ES students and would be hanging from the ceiling trying to avoid the kindie lot because even though I don't make my disdain for very young brats a secret, they seem magnetically drawn from the moment they set eyes upon me... kids obviously have no sense of danger. And Japanese mothers don't seem to understand that I'm good with babies because they are so simple minded and not because I secretly have a soft spot for them.

[Rezz]

Great information, thanks a lot seklarwia!

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.

I guess it all depends on how often I have to visit the kindergarten, I'm still waiting to hear the full details of the contract hours at each school. Maybe if it's only once a month or something I won't go totally insane.....

Do you still get much chance to interact with students at lunch or during sports/cultural activities at SHS?

[fluffyhamster]

Do a search for e.g. 'ESs' with me as author and you'll find at least a few threads where I discuss my experiences of ESs versus JHSs versus SHSs (I've taught at all three levels).

The short story though is that I think I came to prefer ESs the most, if only for the curricular freedom they afforded me, and the fact that I didn't have to deal with (certainly, the bad/worser/more neurotic of the) JTEs and HS syllabuses, tests etc anymore. But of course there are some things in the J~SHSs, e.g. the sports clubs, that one will miss or miss out on a bit when working in ESs, and there are actually some good and/or cool JTEs in HSs that it can be fun to talk to and even hang out with (that is, the social dimensions with the teachers seem more constrained in ESs, mainly because the teachers there are busier and get more tired I guess!). Overall it would probably be easier for most people to work a year or two in HSs before considering taking on any ESs, but if it's only a couple of ESs a few times a month with the rest of the time based at a HS or HSs, then it shouldn't be too tough a schedule in terms of the work demands involved (provided you are willing to be more creative/imaginative than the average HS AET has need to be, and to have some fun with with the ES kiddies!).

Edit: Ah, there's a kindergarten involved too. The only time I went to a kindy was on a one-off visit on JET, and I recall being relentlessly thigh-kicked by a wannabe K-1 fighter whenever I stopped running round the hall with everyone LOL. Eventually the kindy staff spotted him and hauled him off shortly before the visit came to an end. Ah, and then there was the nightmare time that an eikaiwa had arranged a multi-age class in a juku - kids from kindy age all the way through to almost JHS packed into one small room for a good hour of a Saturday. Phew, that wasn't fun (often total chaos in fact!). But if there are kindergarten staff involved, again it shouldn't be too difficult to manage. (You'll need almost some non-ideas for this one though - you know, the K.I.S.S principle. Actually, the first grade or two or ES can be the same, before their brains and social skills have developed sufficiently to do much more than play snap or do TPR or whatever).

[Rezz]

Thanks fluffy...... the kindergarten situation sounds exactly as I would expect it to be

Still, I think I am kind of leaning towards option A at the moment because it does offer a bit of variety. High School only might get a bit boring I guess. Though again it really depends on how often they want me to go to the kindergaten with A.

[Pitarou]

[wayne432]

I guess one of the good things about teaching at an eikaiwa school is that you often get to teach students of all the different levels.
Having said that, I went the way of SHS (though I would have been fine with JHS as well). I choose that older kids, because I realized that I relate more to the older kids (or at least I think I do)... and I don't have the super energetic behavior that is often associated with ESs.

As seklarwia mentioned, it's often hit or miss with SH schools. teachers, and students. If you manage to get a good JTE and a majority of good students in a class (or at least 1 or 2 popular ones that have many followers), classes end up a lot of fun. And when you connect and have little conversations with your students, I feel that they really light up in a way that you don't get with ES students, because they have a higher understanding of what they might have accomplished. Just the other day, I was very surprised, but happy, because one of the girls I teach asked me some boy advice. It may sound silly, but I really enjoy moments like that.

[Rezz]

Pitarou: I still haven't received full details of either contract (which is worrying me slightly) but you make a good point. I guess having to go to more than one school in one day would leave anyone feeling a bit exhausted if done on a regular basis.

wayne432: Yeah I can definitely see that being one positive aspect of SHS. I don't really have as much over the top crazy energy as some people associated with this profession seem to have either, but I still love teaching ES kids. I use my own game ideas and things that I used to enjoy as a kid around that age and they love it usually, amazing enthusiasm. How much of the lessons do you actually plan and teach completely by yourself at your SH?

[wayne432]

Completely by myself? Hmm... well I always have the jp teacher there (for liability and translation purposes).

I teach at 4 schools at the moment. Depending on school and the teacher I work with, there are 4 basic situations I have.
1. The JTE plans everything and tells you what will happen.
2. The JTE talks things over with you and you decide what you will do together.
3. The JTE gives a topic that the class covered and asks for some activities relating to them.
4. The JTE walks up to you before class and asks what you have planned.

At the moment, 2 of my 4 schools are a mix of 1 and 2. Usually the teacher has the lesson planned, but we discuss and alter things based on my suggestions, etc.
I have another school that gives me a vague topic like "Feelings" and maybe a random page from the OC textbook and asks me for a lesson.
And my last school gives me the OC textbook and tells me to do whatever I want and just let the teacher know what you will do before class.

Luckily for me, the last 2 schools give me a lot of time to plan for those lessons.

[rxk22]

I have taught at em all. HS is the easiest. While ES can be fun, but when it goes bad, it's a disaster. When the kids are bad, they tend to be be proper little $%&#s, and it's pretty miserable. HS is always the same, which makes it kinda boring.

[Rezz]

Doesn't the homeroom teacher control the kids when they start acting up in ES?

One thing I've noticed is there seems to be a lot more ideas and support for JHS ALTing around the web compared to that of HS ALTing, I guess this is because of the (kind of) standardized texts at most JHS's.

How does a typical lesson at a SHS go? Make a few worksheets and practice specific grammar points? Do you usually follow a textbook?

Thanks all.

[kahilm]

I can only speak for elementary school ALT-ing but let me tell you... it was the catalyst that led to me leaving Japan.

I was placed in 4 different elementary schools by a big dispatch company. They had me teaching 4-5 classes a day, everyday, from 6 year olds to 12 year olds. I had very little training and very few resources to work with. The JETs didn't speak English (except for one) and my Japanese was only at a JLPT 3. They expected me to lead the classes. Most of the JETs tried to participate in whatever activities/games I came up with, but some just sat at their desks working on other things and ignoring me (and the kids that acted up).

This was after 2 years of teaching at an eikaiwa to adults only. I wanted a change, and boy did I get it. It was seriously overwhelming and it made me reconsider my career path. I ended up quitting after repeatedly asking for help from the dispatch company and not getting any.

To be clear, the kids were great. I really liked most of them and it was fun interacting with them in the schools. The issue was the amount of classes, the lack of any help from the JETs (the "A" in ALT was a lie), and the lack of help from the dispatch company.

[rxk22]

[fluffyhamster]

(@Kahilm re. AETs and "JETs" (=JTEs; JET is usually used for 'Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme')): Elementary schools in Japan are like primary schools in the UK, in that 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. Which is sort of why it is a misnomer to call the foreign English teachers who work in ESs 'AETs' (they should really just be called ETs LOL).

Anyway, sorry to hear about your experiences, Kahilm. Dispatch companies indeed provide little or no real/useful assistance, and I think most people will need more than just a few year's experience teaching (especially if it was primarily or only to adults) before they'll be even halfway-equipped and ready to switch to teaching children. I know that the first time I had some ESs along with my base JHS (via Interac), I wasn't really committed enough to it and did some pretty middling lessons as I recall, despite having over five years' experience in TEFL. 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!). This time I was going into it with my eyes open, and really committed to it, and if I say so myself did a much better job of it the second time around. So don't write your first experience off as a complete failure just yet! And I don't think whatever problems you had were really due to a lack of basic Japanese - JLPT3 and presumably a fair way towards level 2 isn't bad! (I mean, I have never taken any formal lessons or tests in Japanese, and I could seem to manage fine...mind you, 3 years on JET and then several more years in various JHSs and ESs had helped me pick up a fair bit of Japanese classroomese e.g. instructions etc).

[TokyoLiz]

I've been teaching since 1994 to foreign grad students, refugees and newcomers to my homecountry. I'm a JET Program alumnus, and I've tuaght Oral Communication, reading, and writing to Japanese JHS and SHS students for nearly eight years.

This year, I've been assigned to three ES for the first time and I'm smitten.

I realize that my Japanese fluency, familiarity with Japanese culture in general and school culture in specific make this year easy for me. The kids are so eager and focussed that lessons are easy to teach. School activities are fun, too - calligraphy class, running the track at break time, endless games of onigokko and dorokei. Even the kids that many people would classify as problematic,"special kids" developmentally delayed, autistic kids, are fun.

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.

Good luck!