He he, I think the vocational college where I "teach" three days a week has really ballsed things up this term!
Two years ago a new head manager was brought in and inevitably one or two changes in the curriculum came with him, or were coincidental to his arrival. Whichever. Out went Second Year English Communication classes (2 x 90 minute sessions per week) and in came "Seminar" courses, in other words, three hours straight with a smaller group of second years.
Here's how things have progressed in the Seminar classes:
2023-4: 5 female students. Four friends, including our top student, a super-confident and capable half Chinese woman who was three or four years older than her classmates and already a mother. The fifth student was a strange case who was retaking the second year - something that hardly ever happens since it is almost impossible to fail to graduate from a Japanese college unless your try very hard to fail.
Needless to say, the retaker didn't fit in at all and skipped several classes, and as far as I am aware, never did manage to graduate.
Of the four pals, the only one I was really able to teach was the Chinese student. One girl regularly slept in the corner of the class. I don't mind sleepers since that's one less to worry about. The other two would try for a bit but then give up as any attempt to run a "SEMINAR" was simply out of their depth.
In the end, we'd do one 90 minute study session, and then play chess. Strangely enough, the Chinese student sucked at chess compared to her three chums.
2024-5: 3 female students. Two quiet friends, and one student who I had taught in the first year and who wanted to communicate, but was often absent.
This was the most studious class, but with two out of three students who would simply stare at you from behind their surgical masks if you asked a question, it was also rather dull.
Actually, the second term was much better as the topic for the whole term was Alice Through the Looking Glass and we read the whole book together and also tracked Alice's progress through the garden on a chess board, and then did chess problems and played chess together. One of the two quiet girls turned out to have quite a good eye for chess because, although they were all beginners, she was always the one who would find the answer to the chess problems first, and also outplayed the other two every time.
This Term Is The Easiest Ever
For the first two weeks of Seminar classes, students can try different classes before choosing which class to take.
Week 1: I sat in my class and waited for students to show up. Nobody came. I think I got on with some chess study that afternoon. Nice to be paid to study chess!
Week 2: Nobody came to the first 90 minute session. Then ONE girl came to the second session and was immediately nervous at the idea of being the only student. However, I gave her the introductory lecture (no way was she capable of studying seminar-style) about Intercultural Communication. At the end of the session she asked some questions about how to study and I pointed out that if she were the only student we could adapt the whole course to suit her needs. Needless to say, I never saw her again.
The following two weeks there were consecutive national holidays, so no classes.
On Monday of this week one of the managers shuffled up to me and said rather sheepishly,
"Ah, about the seminar class... there are no students..."
I did not protest. Then he said,
"Maybe... you can help the speech contest students with their speeches."
I replied,
"Yes, that's fine."
We nodded, and that was that.
2025-6 0 Students!
So there has been a balls up, and as I expected, I am sitting here with no students. Very peaceful and productive!
I came into college today, ran a very slow speech class this morning, which finished at 10:30am. Had a double break after that, so went into town to do some shopping. Came back for luch. And here I am in a nice empty classroom - getting paid to blog about my empty classroom!
I will leave college at 4pm and head to my second teaching gig for a 90 minute session, which will consist of 30 minutes pretending to "prepare" (the boss pays a nominal fee for prep time), followed by a 50 minute class with one junior high school girl, who is diligent but ... not very communicative (though getting better in recent weeks).
So, from 9am to 7pm, I will have taught a total of 2 hour and 20 minutes in spite of being "in school" for most of that time!
Could this be the easiest teaching job ever?
And could this situation continue for two terms? (We usually have the same seminar students for two terms!)
I hope so!
Now, some foreign teachers with an inflated sense of their own importance in the scheme of things might protest and generally kick up a deplorable stink, but this old dog who has learnt the ways of Japanese managers and to "read the air" to some degree, is quite happy to go on as if nothing has happened, stay in college and not complain - and make good use of the sudden expansion of "free time" - or should I say "paid time" - to get on with his projects... and also not to say a word about it to the other foreign teachers. (I doubt any of them will see this blog post LOL!)
The managers will probably be grateful that old Hurley-sensei didn't cause them to lose face by kicking up a stink. Old Hurley-sensei never kicks up a stink and certainly never gets stressed out by this teaching-in-Japan lark.
But if you are wondering whether I haven't been put out to grass and might not be long for the knacker's yard, the old president rushed up to me today with the summer special police course schedule and expressed the hope that I could do more of those classes this summer than I did last summer. So it seems my services are still in demand! LOL!
And the wonderful thing is that even if this blog post gets zero upvotes and earns no Hive or HBD, I'm still getting paid to post it!
Cheers!
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus