I’m an elementary school only ALT. I started this year teaching in 2 elementary schools. I have 26 classes a week. I can’t attend 1st period in my visit school because of an awkward bus timetable to a rural area. That means I would actually have 28 if not for the awkward bus schedule twice a week. So far I’m only T2 but I don’t know if this could be subject to change later.
Is this number of classes normal for Elementary school ALT’s?
Is it the teaching staff or the BOE who usually determines the number of classes?
8 comments
Sounds about normal for elementary school. When I was teaching elementary school I had 5 classes a day as well.
Sounds normal for elementary. Recycling games and songs is useful, I keep it very light on planning.
Yeah, i had one big school and had a full schedule for two years, maybe only 5 lessons on Monday and 5 on Friday but the other 3 days i had 6
Fellow elementary school ALT – it’s common. I have 27 or 28 on a usual week.
>So far I’m only T2 but I don’t know if this could be subject to change later.
It can, but depends on your teachers and your schools as well as your confidence. You can also try to find out if your predecessor was expected to be T1.
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>Is this number of classes normal for Elementary school ALT’s?
ESID, but it’s definitely not unheard of (as everyone here’s mentioned). Some elementary school ALTs have 15, I know a few that have 28-30 per week.
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>Is it the teaching staff or the BOE who usually determines the number of classes?
Usually the BOE and the school will coordinate that.
Are you feeling overwhelmed or something?
ESID, as always.
I’ve known dispatch ALTs who had more classes than you, and they’re obviously paid much less.
I personally have had from 25 to upwards of 34 during my time at elementary schools, especially some that had attached after-school play areas. On the bright side, most of the lesson plans can be found online if you know where to look. You may need to change things to meet your needs, but once you get everything set up, you’re just making one lesson for each of the classes in the grade. Then, if you’re sticking around for more than a year, when you get downtime, you look at whether anything needs to be updated for the next year.
If you do become T1, at least you can decide everything, which is nice if you want more control. You may need to be on top of your T2 to make sure they’re not just reading a book at the back, though.
I had 28 classes at the start of the year. Meanwhile most other JETs in my city had 3 classes a day. It’s ESID depending on the needs of your school.
However, if it’s too much you can speak to your CO. They realised they had overbooked me (they had two classes at the same time and I’m the only ALT in my school) and made it so I have a free period almost every day.
Again, that depends how you approach things (don’t stomp your feet and say it’s too much work). In most cases, they would rather help you out than burn you out (and have to deal with replacing you).
I’ve got about 18/week between 4 schools. I’m very rural and have to drive.