Musical Teaching Positions

I’ve written entries explaining how Japan doesn’t always make sense to me before. Prepare for another of those.

So, last March I was preparing for my trip home for Spring Break. The final week of school before I left, I was informed that one of my English teachers would be transferring to another school. She had just found out. Four other teachers and the principal were also transferr
ing. It seems that the normal stay at a school is only 3 years. Then you are
 transferred to another school.

At my other Jr. High school, the teachers did not know who was going to transfer and who was going to stay by the time I left. I was not happy to hear this at all as, a) I would be unable to say goodbye to anyone who was transferring, and b) it meant my other English teacher could trans
 fer as well.

I was very worried as to what I would find when I returned to school. I was worried I would have to relearn how to do my entire job all over again (and just when I felt I had it pretty much down, too!). Remember, the school year here ends in March and then begins again in April. So all of these transfers were taking place in time with a brand new school year.

 When I returned I was relieved that my English teacher had not been transferred. The principal and three other teachers (including the art teacher I really liked) had all moved on to other schools. At my Board of Education, two of the three people who worked there had been transferred out and replaced, including my supervisor. I had no knowledge of this before I left. I learned that my old supervisor was now working as a School Lunch lady for one of my schools.

Both of my elementary schools also brought a mix of old and new teachers. On top of that, none of the returning teachers were teaching the same grade anymore. The first grade teacher was now teaching sixth grade. The third grade teacher had moved up with his class to fourth grade. The old fourth grade teacher now taught second grade. And the fifth grade teacher was teaching third grade.

This confused me greatly. Teaching first grade is VERY different from teaching third grade, let alone sixth grade. This system is apparently in place to give everyone a chance to experience all of the different grade levels. I could maybe understand it when transferring schools, a new school means time to work with a new grade level, but changing every year? I was very sad to see the first grade teacher move to another grade level, as she had been fantastic with the younger kids. I didn’t need to worry as she is just as great with the older kids. But not all teachers can be as amazing as she is.

I know in America to teach elementary you get a certification in Elementary education, and then, in theory, you are able to teach every grade. But my teachers almost never changed grades, and when they did it was highly unusual. When they did change, it was a change for several years.

It also just doesn’t make sense to me from an experience point of view. The first year of any job is a huge learning curve. Getting familiar with what you are doing, as a teacher learning what the kids need to learn and the most effective ways to teach that. But here, it is almost like you could be changing jobs every single year.

The new teacher I got last year had a problem because even though he’d been an English teacher for a while, our school uses a different textbook than his old school. So all of the old handouts he had made for the students were useless. He spent the year making entirely new ones for our book. Next year should be better because he’ll already have all of that done and will be familiar with the material in this book, but this year was really stressful for him.

This year when transfers were approaching my Jr. High teacher who was not transferred last year was anxious to find out if he would be moving. Because Goshoura is so small, we have housing reserved for the various teachers who get transferred here. But this is not the normal case. Normally teachers have about one week in which to find a new apartment and get moved in before the new school year begins. And since they have so little time and their new job may be quite far away they must use their vacation days in order to do all of this. It all sounds very frustrating to me, and not the way I would like to start off a new job.

The news came last Friday and he is in fact being transferred, along with pretty much all of my favorite teachers at that school, the Japanese teacher, the math teacher, and the new art teacher. Basically, everyone who could speak a little English and tried to talk to me at parties is leaving. I’m really sad because I highly enjoyed working with all of them and now they are all going back to Kumamoto City, except for the art teacher (we think she’s moving because she’s getting married). Right before my JTE found out that he was moving I asked him if he wanted to leave. He said, “No. I really love Goshoura and want to stay here. But I may have to move back to my hometown.” That made me even sadder. If they were all being transferred because they wanted to be transferred that would be one thing, but he’s being transferred even though he’s really like to stay.

I’m also more concerned this year with the transfers in elementary school. This year was the first year that English was mandatory for 5th and 6th graders. We had a textbook for the first time, and it took a while for the teachers and I to get used to how the book worked and how we would work together in class. But now that a new year is coming I will probably have to start all of that over again. I will likely be with teachers who have never seen the English book before. They won’t be familiar or comfortable with the material and may not be used to working with me.

It may be interesting to note that being on one of my islands seems to guarantee that your next transfer be to a big city. So some of my teacher’s have mixed feelings when leaving. They will miss the kids, but it’s just how things work here, and now they will be in a city and probably closer to their families.