Mike, I agree with Ellen. I would also add that not everyone would know how to do this reorganization. At the same time that doesn't mean it should be all left up to you; if I can scout out 1-2 others who can do this, then I will start doing so.

1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?    

As someone who has been working in an elementary school the past three years I have reached the conclusion that what needs to be done to develop a stronger relationship between JTE's and NEST's is the feeling that both are there to teach not to just be "human tape recorders" and on the other side that the HRT's are wanting to learn how to teach English instead of just trying to get through the lesson as quickly and easily as possible.

What this means is the NEST's have to be experienced teachers and experienced English Language teachers. NEST's have to be willing to bring this experience into the classroom to help get the HRT through the initial "OMG! I HAVE TO TEACH ENGLISH!" nervousness. And the HRT's must look at the NEST with respect for a fellow professional.

For the past two years, I have made it my aim to provide teachers with other ways to teach English other than just the "repeat after me" method. I have made attempts to show that student mistakes are not to be critically commented on but used in ways that make the student feel comfortable making them and learning from them. My feeling has been that I am not just the NEST but also a trainer as well. I am trying to teach both the students and the HRTs and learn from them also.

What I would say is needed is to start hiring qualified professional teachers who speak English and treat them as such. We are more than "human tape records" or "pronunciation correctors", we are teachers.

My two Yen.

 out of  found this valuable. Do you find this valuable?    

You've hit on a key issue here.

BOEs across the nation are jumping on the outsourcing band-wagon.

They are well aware of the fact that contracted teachers are less likely to participate in such things as weekend conferences (that would definitely not be paid for by those teachers' employers).

However, with the extremely high turnover rate of foreign teachers, I think the BOEs believe that such professional development isn't worth it - the teachers they have now will be gone in a year or two anyway (especially if they are brokered teachers getting paid much less than direct hires to do the same job)!

So it's a vicious cycle spinning faster and faster with every year.

Before the problem can be solved, BOEs and MEXT will have to be convinced that there is a problem with this way of running their public English education system.

1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?    

Sure.

When you are working on a server that blocks certain pages that you want to access, you can try accessing those pages through circumventor sites like https://copwedding.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi .

Just go to the site and type in the url you wish to access, and -viola- it will take you there*.


*Not all cites are accessible through such circumventors. Also, you have to put up with slow page loading and bombardments of pop-ups. Still, I successfully used a circumventor to read my gmail when I was working at my previous job which had an internal network that blocked access to email accounts.

2  out of 2 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?