Does anyone know if it’s an official thing that the homeroom teachers should be teacher 1 in elementary school?
I’m at a Japanese school in Germany and it’s a bit different, because we get new teachers from Japan every few years. Ever since MEXT raised the number of required English hours for elementary school, I haven’t been teacher 1 for grades 5 and 6 ( which is 2 lessons each a week) and sometimes not even for both grades 3 and 4. Last year, i was only lead teacher in elementary for grade 3. I was under the impression that MEXT wanted the homeroom teachers to lead ( even if they dont speak English that much). Anyway, i teach conversation classes alone to grades 7, 8, 9 a couple times each a week and am T2 in the elementary (aside from the one or two I’m T1)and for regular English classes in middle school. As you know, being T2 means you just show up to the lessons for the most part, but T1 does the lesson planning as well as executes all the activities etc, so alot harder. So we got a new Kochi Senseii who was slated to teach grades 3-6 (as teacher 1). I assumed, right after speaking with him, when his first words were ‘a long time ago, i taught English’- assumed, i’d lead a couple of those grades, but now i think he’s gonna try to put it all on me. So im wondering what my best strategy is to not just take on all that extra workload for the same pay. It would be like doing his job for him. I was thinking of bringing up that i think MEXT wants him to lead the lessons. Or just saying it’s too much and i wouldnt be able to do it all. The homeroom teachers get paid three times as much as me , but i won’t say that. Or should I just take on the extra work? For me, it’s just the point of suddenly having to do so much more work for the same pay. I’m contracted for a certain number of lessons pet week, but doesn’t distinguish between T1 and T2. Other than that, the Kocho sensei seems really nice and like he doesn’t have a big ego or anything, so i think he would be reasonable. At first, he was having me make the decision of who leads what grade and we agreed at first, i would do 3 and 4, because it’s harder with the ‘let’s try’ books and you need a lot of extra material compared to ‘new horizon’. Stupid me, i went back after and said i forgot that grades 5 and 6 are 4 lessons a week (2 for each grade) vs grades 3/4 which would be 2 lessons. I thought we would split it evenly at least, like i do grades 3 and 6 and he does 4 and 6. That’s when he started to try to have me lead all of them. I didn’t agree to that and we left it at, he will think about it. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to proceed. Tomorrow, i will say, ‘Good news! I found lesson plans in Japanese for all the grades and their respective textbooks!’ (You better believe, i combed the internet for those.) Feel like that’s a good opener. Any other ideas? Sorry this is so convoluted.
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To get a bit more technical- the real question is, do you have any sort of teaching license?
Homeroom teachers are all officially licensed teachers, even though the subject usually varies. At JHS level, the T1 is also officially licensed and generally qualified in English. This is why- for public schools at least- anytime there’s an ALT involved, they aren’t supposed to be leading the lesson- they’re not officially licensed to do so. Not that this stops some of the HRTs and occassional JTE who isn’t well-versed in English, but THAT is the official (and legal, IIRC) stance of MEXT.
Or to put it another way: at some schools, even though the native English speaker isn’t actually licensed, they’ll have you do the responsibilities because you’re the “native English speaker, so we’re just going to push it onto you anyways”
Nope, I don’t. I have an M.A. in English (Lit) and a CELTA (which is specifically to teach adults). The school is considered a public school in Japan (and is funded as such) but a private school in Germany, so the German teachers don’t have specific credentials either. I mean we all got observed by the German equivalent to the MOE and it’s perfectly legal on the German side to lead the lessons. But yeah, the last couple years I was T2, I thought because they want the homeroom teachers to do it. It’s strange at my school, or in general because this Kocho is supposed to be an English teacher like that’s his subject, but he acts so reluctant. Then there’s the new middle school teacher for the regular English class who today at the ceremony introduced herself in Japanese to the students and everyone else telling us she’s embarrassed to speak English. She already was asking me to teach present perfect in her lesson and seems to have no clue. I have to think she’s faking it somehow because she’s closer to retirement age and must of been teaching English this whole time. I’m also stressed because i feel like she’s going to expect me to do her lessons too. Thanks for listening… I get so triggered sometimes and ruminate ha
But yeah, I will also throw it in that I’m not really licensed and i will act unconfident that I’m able to teach that much. Maybe i acted too capable.
In Japan, nothing is enforced it is strongly recommended.
An ALT should never be in a class without a licensed Japanese teacher; however, if you teach here long enough it will happen to you sooner or later.
Not on topic sorry, but that really interests me.
Japan has really outdated approaches to language education, and Germany doesn’t. So, I find it interesting that Japan is exporting its pedagogy bubble far away instead of taking advantage of training their teachers in the (arguably) superior local pedagogy.
It seems crazy to me, when there is such a push in Japan to have J-national english teachers with international skills. Mext can’t find enough, and there are some seriously unqualified ossans teaching E in Japan.