A while ago I wrote about my experiences
moving from Aomori, a quiet region of northern Japan, to the world-famous city
of Tokyo. Needless to say, there have been many changes in my life since coming
here. Although I’m still teaching English, my work life has changed quite a lot
as well. Previously I was working as a teaching assistant in public elementary
and junior high schools. Now I’m teaching solo, primarily in private high
schools. I believe it’s been a really nice progression for me as I’ve gained more
responsibilities, new challenges, and substantially more respect in the process.
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| Discussing an argumentative essay on the ethics of zoos |
I’m working for a relatively small teaching
agency based in the Tokyo metropolitan area. From my understanding, teaching
agencies have traditionally been a middleman to help teaching find and secure
good teaching jobs, I suppose like what recruiters do. My employer is a little
different in this regard, as it’s basically like a permanent middleman rather
than a recruiter. The agency has various connections and relationships with a
number of schools. The agency hires part- and full-time teachers to work in
these schools under agreements between individual schools and the agency. As
for my situation, I’m working full-time for the agency and am sort of based at
one school along with some less frequent, short-term teaching assignments. In
addition, I do a little work in the agency office on top-secret projects
(that’s sarcasm, but I still can’t actually discuss any details of this part of
my work).
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| One of the awesome classrooms where I often teach with a great outdoor space |
So far, I have thoroughly enjoyed my new
job. I’ve had very positive experiences at all of my schools and agency office.
Sure, I’ve had to work pretty hard and I’ve ran into a few challenges here and
there. I’ve had some pretty lousy lessons at times, and had to deal with some
troublesome students at one point. But I just try to have a positive outlook
every single day and try to be a good, friendly teacher. As long as I do that, I always
feel truly satisfied with what I’m doing.
The vast majority of my students are really great kids. And over the years I've learned that even when you have some "knuckleheads" in the classroom (usually immature boys who try to be funny), as long as you are a cool teacher with a good attitude you can make them behave and get them to learn something from you. In my first few months of teaching in Tokyo, I've taught at schools with both strict and liberal atmospheres. I respect both systems and don't have any problem teaching in either. But I still say teaching at my more liberal school has lead to some pretty interesting times. Given the extra freedom, it sometimes takes a little more effort to get the kids focused on the current task. But by the same token, it has lead to some pretty fun times!
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| Halloween at one of my schools, kids are allowed to and love dressing up! |
*Needless to say, in the above picture, I'm holding a toy gun--just to be clear ;-)
