Pretend you're reading this on April 9th
(Disclaimer: And you think I'm bad about blogging. It's not the writing, it's the posting that's the issue! Okay, that's a lie. I'm bad at both. :-) )
The new school year is underway. Today was the welcome ceremony for the new 1st grade students (= 6th grade in U.S. terminology). Experiencing the change-over between school years here has been, well, an experience.
First, there’s the fact that new school years start in April. That’s a bit of an oddity to wrap my head around, especially seeing as how I arrived in Japan in August while the students were on the longest break they have during the school year (5 weeks from the end of July to the beginning of September), and started teaching in September, all of which corresponds pretty much perfectly with the U.S. school year that I’m used to.
The break between school years in Japan is only 2 weeks, which seems too short. I feel like I was just on Easter holiday or some much-needed mid-year break, not jumping from one school year to the next. I can’t even imagine how the Japanese teachers feel during this time. For those teachers who stay at the same school for consecutive years, in those two in-between weeks, they are having to wrap-up from one school year, prep for the next school year, possibly deal with a change in duties (say going from teaching 1st grade Science to teaching 3rd grade Science, being put on a new committee, being made the Head Teacher for a particular grade or subject, dealing with changes in coaching for one of the school clubs…everything I’m sure you teachers out there have to deal with in your respective countries), etc.
However…..Japan has an interesting system (that is not limited to the teaching profession) of allowing teachers to stay at one school for a max of only 7 years, but from what I understand, that is relatively rare. On average, it seems that any given teacher has to mandatorily move schools every 2-5 years. I was just recently told that there is an influx of younger teachers being incorporated into the school systems, although, it has been my experience that a lot of those younger teachers start teaching on a substitute or temporary basis until they are able to pass the teacher exam (which is said to be very difficult). As with most things, I’m making assumptions on this, but it is my understanding that teachers who have not yet passed the teacher exam can only stay at one school for one year. So,…younger teachers move around quite frequently.
At first I thought teachers could be sent anywhere in Japan when they were slated to change schools, which was just an outrageous concept to me on many levels. But I’ve come to realize that changes in teaching assignments are generally limited to a particular region so a teacher and their family aren’t uprooted every time a teacher changes schools (and usually towns). Their new school assignments generally aren’t outside of a reasonable commuting radius.
Can you imagine though closing out your tenure at one school, moving to a new school, trying to get comfortable with your new surroundings and co-workers, prepping your lesson plans and falling into whatever other roles the school/town demand of you, all in the span of only two weeks? It’s a whirlwind. And I was only sitting on the sidelines watching!
The new school year is underway. Today was the welcome ceremony for the new 1st grade students (= 6th grade in U.S. terminology). Experiencing the change-over between school years here has been, well, an experience.
First, there’s the fact that new school years start in April. That’s a bit of an oddity to wrap my head around, especially seeing as how I arrived in Japan in August while the students were on the longest break they have during the school year (5 weeks from the end of July to the beginning of September), and started teaching in September, all of which corresponds pretty much perfectly with the U.S. school year that I’m used to.
The break between school years in Japan is only 2 weeks, which seems too short. I feel like I was just on Easter holiday or some much-needed mid-year break, not jumping from one school year to the next. I can’t even imagine how the Japanese teachers feel during this time. For those teachers who stay at the same school for consecutive years, in those two in-between weeks, they are having to wrap-up from one school year, prep for the next school year, possibly deal with a change in duties (say going from teaching 1st grade Science to teaching 3rd grade Science, being put on a new committee, being made the Head Teacher for a particular grade or subject, dealing with changes in coaching for one of the school clubs…everything I’m sure you teachers out there have to deal with in your respective countries), etc.
However…..Japan has an interesting system (that is not limited to the teaching profession) of allowing teachers to stay at one school for a max of only 7 years, but from what I understand, that is relatively rare. On average, it seems that any given teacher has to mandatorily move schools every 2-5 years. I was just recently told that there is an influx of younger teachers being incorporated into the school systems, although, it has been my experience that a lot of those younger teachers start teaching on a substitute or temporary basis until they are able to pass the teacher exam (which is said to be very difficult). As with most things, I’m making assumptions on this, but it is my understanding that teachers who have not yet passed the teacher exam can only stay at one school for one year. So,…younger teachers move around quite frequently.
At first I thought teachers could be sent anywhere in Japan when they were slated to change schools, which was just an outrageous concept to me on many levels. But I’ve come to realize that changes in teaching assignments are generally limited to a particular region so a teacher and their family aren’t uprooted every time a teacher changes schools (and usually towns). Their new school assignments generally aren’t outside of a reasonable commuting radius.
Can you imagine though closing out your tenure at one school, moving to a new school, trying to get comfortable with your new surroundings and co-workers, prepping your lesson plans and falling into whatever other roles the school/town demand of you, all in the span of only two weeks? It’s a whirlwind. And I was only sitting on the sidelines watching!
posted by Mandy | 7:10 PM
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