Paxton Inc Introduces Website Devoted to Teaching Jobs in Japan
Kobe, Japan — (SBWIRE) — 03/15/2013 — Japan has long recognized the need to to educate its students in the English language, starting as early as Kindergarten with classes in English and continuing through the university years with instruction. In addition to classes in the scholastic sector, private companies hire English teachers to improve their employees’ business English. With this demand in mind, John Paxton, owner of Paxton Inc. has created All-About-Teaching-English-in-Japan.com, a comprehensive website that “puts together tons of useful information designed to answer your questions about becoming an English teacher in Japan.” Says Paxton.
The website is a complete guide to teaching as well as other jobs in Japan and answers questions about what to expect from life in Japan. According to Paxton, “Many people may consider teaching in Japan, but most find they have more questions than answers. We address as many of those questions as possible. People often ask, How much can I expect to earn? What’s Japan’s weather like? How do I get started? Can I teach in Japan without a visa? Do I need TESOL certification to teach in Japan? and How do I get a visa? Just to name a few. We discuss all of these and more.”
Paxton continues, “We probably get more questions about TEFL Courses than any other. Some people want to go to a brick and mortar class while others want an online tefl course. Frankly, there are literally tons of different courses out there. To make things even more confusing, there are different terms for essentially the same thing. TESL, TEFL, TEOSL and CELTA. Most importantly, is it worth your time and money to get a TESL certificate, if you’ll be teaching English in Japan? To help you get to the bottom of this, we’ve cut through the clutter and answered some basic stuff in our FAQ. Our readers seem to really appreciate our honesty and bluntness.”
“If you’ve been thinking about teaching English in Japan as a way of experiencing a new culture, learning a new language or just trying something fresh and exciting, this site is a must read for you. Working overseas is a major decision in a person’s life. Plus, there’s a lot of misleading information about teaching English in Japan on the Internet. Our goal is to present the facts about jobs in Japan, the good, bad and the ugly, so you can discover if teaching English in Japan is right for you.” Paxton concludes.
About Paxton Inc.
Paxton Inc. has created a comprehensive website designed to give readers the honest facts about jobs in Japan, both positive and negative, so the interested parties can make informed decisions about teaching English in Japan.
Bloomfield budget meetings announced
While Bloomfield Township’s special budget meeting, originally scheduled for this Saturday, has been postponed, the Bloomfield Board of Education has scheduled two special budget meetings.
With nearly 100 teaching jobs on the line, the board of education plans to meet at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Administration Building, 155 Broad St. A second budget meeting is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Bloomfield High School auditorium.
Both board of education public meetings could go into closed sessions, as the need arises to discuss specific personnel matters, according to Board Attorney Nick Dotoli.
Hundreds of parents and educators protested proposed teacher layoffs at this past Tuesday’s board meeting. Officials say the district would need an additional $6 million to keep the teachers.
The board introduced a $95.6 million budget that calls for a $66.5 million tax levy. It currently calls for a $278 tax increase for the average homeowner, with a home assessed at $276,900
The board plans to add two questions to the fall ballot: Restore 42 teacher positions for $2.7 million, and pay an additional $594,000 for district-wide repairs and boiler replacement. If both additional expenditures are approved, the average homeowner will pay $390.
Superintendent Jason Bing has said the district is looking at all options, including outsourcing some non-teaching positions.
In other news, the Bloomfield Township Council postponed its Saturday budget meeting. It’s been rescheduled for 8 a.m. Saturday, March 23, in the Mayor’s Conference Room at the Law Enforcement Building.
Email: frankel@northjersey.com
26 more jobs at risk at college – cambrian
26 more jobs at risk at college
STRUGGLING educational centre Coleg Harlech is axing its residential courses, putting the jobs of 26 staff at risk.
Bosses at Coleg Harlech announced this week that, from September, they will no longer be able to continue to provide residential courses, which bring 30 students a year into the town.
A consultation period is now under way and 26 jobs are at risk of redundancy, although it is hoped the final number of job losses will be less.
A Harlech councillor says the loss of residential long courses and teaching jobs at the college would have a serious impact on the town. Cllr Caerwyn Roberts, who represents Harlech on Gwynedd Council, said he is saddened by the news.
He said: “There are currently 35 people based at the college in Harlech and I’m sure it’s a very worrying time for them all.“The fact that the town has now lost 30 students a year and 26 members of staff are facing redundancy is very worrying.
“The people who study and work at the college bring business to the town and it will have a negative effect once they’ve gone.” The college is facing a near £1 million shortfall.”
Click here for the full story, or see this week’s Meirionnydd edition of the Cambrian News
A big ‘no’ to Saudization of teaching jobs at universities
Dr. Haya Al-Manea
Al-Riyadh
An official source at the Ministry of Higher Education reportedly said the ministry was considering a plan to attract prominent university professors from foreign countries to Saudi universities by offering them Saudi citizenship.
In principle, I am not against any move that will improve the standards of our universities through employment of qualified foreign personnel. However, I have reservations on offering them citizenship, especially at this particular time.
Saudi students sent abroad for higher studies at some of the most prestigious universities around the world under the scholarship program of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah have started coming back armed with postgraduate degrees. I believe such graduates, some of them honors students, should be employed in our universities instead of foreigners.
Of course citizens should be adequately compensated so that they not only work in our higher education institutions but remain in their jobs for years to come.
Many distinguished Saudi graduates are often offered jobs in countries where they carry out research work. Therefore, attracting non-Saudis with lucrative incentives including citizenship will be unfair to Saudi students, the country and our universities who can only be developed at the hands of Saudis.
This does not mean that I am against employing non-Saudis in our universities. I would have been unreservedly enthusiastic of this move if it came before the start of the King’s scholarship program but there is a need, now more than ever, to attract our own sons and daughters who have completed their higher education abroad.
Many of universities pay large sums of money so foreign professors can come to the Kingdom for a few days and help the university obtain international accreditation. It is obvious that universities do not benefit from such fund-wasting moves. Of course there are positive sides to attracting foreign teachers especially when it comes to scientific endeavors as it enables both staff and students to benefit from their experience and knowledge.
Attracting qualified foreigners can be useful to higher education if it is done according to certain rules that will give priority to nationals. We should not focus on Saudization of foreign teachers as a strategic objective. Instead, we should focus on uplifting the standards of our universities by using the men and women we sent abroad.
We should offer incentives that will attract them and this means changing the current pay scale, which is not at all attractive. The ministry should itself undertake the task of appointing our highly qualified sons and daughters instead of leaving this task to universities.
24 Teaching Jobs get cut in the Moline School District
By: Christine Souders
csouders@cbs4qc.com
24 teaching positions are being cut at Moline schools, and Monday night teachers and parents weighed
in.
The school board announced their decision
during the school board meeting inside the John Deere Middle School Auditorium
to many of the teachers who got a pink slip.
“We were expecting them but the fiscal situation is
dyer,” said Ken Schneck, the Former Education Association President.
The District approved the money saving move to try to fix a
nearly $4 million dollar deficit for next year.
The district is laying off 17 teachers,
and librarians.
They also decided not to replace 7 teachers retiring this
year.
Moline Superintendent’s Dr. David Moyer said the District has
to make tough cuts because of the budget, most of the cuts will be at the middle school and high
school level,
He said fewer teachers, will mean bigger class sizes.
Parent Jennifer Moyer said she’s not happy her kids won’t have some of the same teachers,
“You have excellent teachers that you want your other
children to have, and so it’s kind of sad.”
Teachers jobs aren’t the only ones on the chopping
block,
there will be a meeting in April to discuss cuts to
extracurricular activities.
From concentration camp to a success in business
She dedicated 5 percent of her restaurant sales to reducing the federal debt. Shen, a Chinese immigrant, described it as a pebble, which added to other efforts, would make a mountain of difference.
The U.S. could use such a mountain now to reduce the debt, which today dwarfs what had concerned Shen when I wrote about her in a 1993 column. What got my attention again about the 73-year-old was her 2011 book, The Uncrushable Rose: A Memoir from Concentration Camp to Becoming a Free Woman.
Until reading the book, it was difficult to imagine that Shen had endured so much yet enjoyed a life filled with success, travel and happiness. It took some courage to tell all without some sugarcoating, said Shen, who had co-owned the Golden Palace Chinese Restaurant.
She said her goal for the book was to give women the courage to succeed and get over those things that challenge us. One of her greatest obstacles was her mother. Chinese culture then placed greater value on males. Since I was not the son my mother wanted, time and time again she reminded me that I was her greatest disappointment, Shen wrote.
Throughout my life she often told me she cried for weeks after I was born. The nearly constant reminders of her non-acceptance gave me much to overcome in my self-image.
Shens birth was near the start of World War II. Her mother often said, How inconsiderate could you be?
Worst of all for a girl, mother saw me as all wrong because she considered me to be very ugly my face was too round, my eyes too small, and my skin too dark.
Shen was the daughter of a Chinese diplomat in French Indochina, now Vietnam. He encouraged her and made her feel exceptional. Shen studied French in school and speaks Chinese, French, Spanish and English fluently. A scholarship enabled her to go to college in Kentucky.
But during World War II, she and her family lived four years in four different Japanese concentration camps in Vietnam. The Uncrushable Rose reveals a lot about Shen and 20th-century world history from a non-Eurocentric view.
Shen gives readers an idea of what world events were like for Asians. She shared how they endured the Japanese occupation, the horrors of that war, how Vietnam was divided afterward, Chinas rise as a communist superpower and the trauma people suffered during the U.S. war in Vietnam.
In the concentration camp, Shen focused on rosebushes. She explained to her father years later: I will never forget the lesson you taught me while we watched those bushes grow.
You told me that they, too, were in the concentration camp, but it made no difference to them their nature was to bloom, and they would do so no matter where they were planted. You said that we needed to learn from them, that we must not allow our outer circumstances to keep us from being what we were born to be.
You told me I must learn to bloom wherever I am planted or even transplanted. The lesson I learned from you was to face difficulties in my life with uncrushable courage.
She needed courage to deal with her first mother-in-law who was bigoted and hated her because she was Chinese. Courage carried her through a divorce with two children after learning her husband was gay.
Courage enabled her to get teaching jobs to support her family with child care from her mother-in-law. Courage got her through a second marriage in which her spouse also was a closeted gay man.
Courage led her to become a successful businesswoman, to value and care for her aging mother, to fall in love and marry again, to work as an interpreter and to lead tours to China and other foreign lands. Her book, now printed in Chinese, English and Spanish, as well as her story, enable her to be an inspirational speaker at battered womens shelters, sororities, college campuses and international conventions of women writers.
She wants women to recognize their worth and strive to be the uncrushable rose that she has become.
Obama uses sequestration threats for fundraising
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By Garth Kant
In a campaign that appears to come from former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s playbook of “never allowing a crisis to go to waste,” President Obama’s “Organizing for America” is using the president’s dire warnings of the consequences of the sequester to raise money.
A new fundraising email asks for donations in the face of massive layoffs, a greater risk of terrorism and the loss of police, firefighters and food for seniors, women and families.
“On the chopping block are 10,000 teaching jobs, more than 70,000 kids’ spots in Head Start, $35 million for local fire departments, $43 million to make sure seniors don’t go hungry, and access to nutrition assistance for 600,000 women and their families. That’s just a few of the things we’ll lose,” the email says.
It ends with a pitch for money.
“Let’s finish what we started. Chip in $25 or more to Organizing for Action, the grassroots movement that will get the job done.”
The administration predicts dire consequences if sequestration goes into effect Friday.
“If congressional Republicans don’t act by tomorrow, we’re going to be hit by a series of devastating, automatic budget cuts called the sequester.”
Obama has insisted the looming sequester boils down to deciding whether to “close funding for the disabled kid, or the poor kid” or “this Navy shipyard or some other one.”
The president also threatens “hundreds of thousands of jobs, are currently in jeopardy because of politics in Washington.”
Attorney General Eric Holder has upped the ante, warning the country will be in greater danger of crime and terrorist attacks.
He told ABC News: “If you don’t have prosecutors and agents doing what we expect them to do, and we won’t if this thing actually takes place, we are going to be a nation that is going to be less safe. And that is simple fact.”
The email from Organizing for America has the solution. Raise taxes. Target the rich, again. It blames Republican lawmakers for not giving in to the president’s demand for a tax increase.
“So far, congressional Republicans are refusing to compromise – all because they don’t want to close tax loopholes for millionaires, billionaires, vacation homes, and corporate jets.”
Taxes are the sticking point because, at first, Obama didn’t include a tax increase in the sequestration deal made with Republicans.
Then he reversed himself, as documented by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, who said that when the president “asks that a substitute for the sequester include not just spending cuts but also new revenue, he is moving the goal posts.”
The White House didn’t like that.
Woodward says a senior Obama administration official sent him an email in which he said “very clearly, you will regret doing this.”
CNN reports, according to a Democrat aware of the situation, the official was Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council.
Now, a former Clinton administration official says the White House threatened him, too.
Lanny Davis, a longtime close adviser to President Bill Clinton, said in a radio interview he received similar threats for newspaper columns he had written about Obama in the Washington Times.
Davis says his editor, John Solomon, “received a phone call from a senior Obama White House official who didn’t like some of my columns, even though I’m a supporter of Obama.”
“I couldn’t imagine why this call was made,” Davis said.
He said the Obama aide told Solomon “that if he continued to run my columns, he would lose, or his reporters would lose their White House credentials.”
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CCSD hopes to recruit 6000 applicants for new teaching jobs
CCSD hopes to recruit 6,000 applicants for new teaching jobs
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Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) — Hundreds of new teaching positions in Clark County could be filled both locally and nationally.
The Clark County School District announced plans this week to hire roughly 1,700 new teachers by the 2013-2014 school year, which includes about 700 new positions, said district spokesman Michael Rodriguez. Roughly 1,000 positions are expected to become vacant through attrition, he said.
The district would like to have a pool of about 6,000 applicants by Aug. 31, Rodriguez said. So where will the candidates come from and which schools will they work in?
For starters, the district hopes to recruit many candidates online through a revamped human resources website, Rodriguez said. The national search will likely focus on states like Arizona, as well as California and Utah, where teachers were recently laid off and would have a shorter move to Nevada compared to states that are farther away, Rodriguez said. Local candidates are also encouraged to apply, he said.
“If we get more teachers, that’s certainly going to be much more conducive to a better work environment for the teachers and better learning situation for the kids,” said Jerre Moore, principal at Doris Hancock Elementary.
The additional teachers are expected to help reduce congested classrooms by an average of two students, the district said. At Doris Hancock, the school said it has enrolled 54 new students since the start of the school year including seven in the last week. Overall, the district expects to add about 1,500 new students by the next school year.
“The kids keep coming and the class sizes keep increasing,” said Moore.
Local recruits could come from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, which graduates about 200 teachers each year. Randall Boone, chair of the department of teaching and learning, said many of his students are from the area and want to stay in the valley.
“Our folks like to stay here,” said Boone. “We’re a local campus.”
Teach for America’s Las Vegas office said it also hopes to fill some of the open positions, but won’t know an exact number until the end of March, said executive director Victor Wakefield.
The district said it will use roughly $23 million in savings from a recent arbitration ruling to pay for the positions.
Teaching prospects eye positions at job fair
HANFORD — People looking for teaching jobs got a chance to present their qualifications to hiring school districts on Wednesday.
Brandman University held its second annual Teacher Job Fair at the campus. Representatives from six districts, including Hanford Elementary School District and Hanford Joint Union High School District, were available to conduct interviews and accept résumés.
More than 30 positions were up for grabs at the event. The districts also took résumés for future reference for positions not currently open.
“We saw that there was a need for teachers in the community,” said Shelsy Hutchison, the organizer of the event. “These districts need to fill positions and they aren’t finding the qualified candidates they need. This is a good way to achieve that.”
Hutchison said last year’s event came together within a two-week period, but they had more time to prepare this year.
To make sure that only qualified job-seekers were allowed, the university required attendees to bring a copy of their teaching credentials, show they will receive their credential by the fall or show proof of being in an internship. Attendees were also advised to wear professional attire, bring multiple copies of their résumés and be prepared for on-the-spot interviews.
“We’re trying to weed out people that aren’t eligible and that the districts won’t be interested in,” Hutchison said. “Several people got hired on the spot last year, so we hope we can continue that precedent this year.”
Job-seeker Amy Walker is looking for any position from all the Kings County districts. Walker is just starting out and is trying to nab her first teaching position.
“I want to make sure that I would be able to stay in Kings County, because that’s where my family is,” she said.
Walker said she was a little nervous about the prospect of interviews, but said she practiced beforehand.
“I think I’m prepared,” she said. “I studied really hard for this.”
For Trish Starling, this was not her first time looking for a teaching job. Starling was a teacher for 12 years in Cutler-Orosi before she was recently laid off. She is looking for a position teaching single or multiple subjects.
“This isn’t my first rodeo,” she said. “I’ve never been to a fair that’s just focused on teachers before, though. This is great because there are a lot of laid-off teachers like me out there looking for work. It’s truly a great opportunity.”
Attendee Pablo Lerma, who lives in Visalia, is seeking a position teaching English at a high school, but said he is looking for anything that’s available that would fit his skills.
“I feel really confident,” he said. “I’ve done job fairs similar to this before in Tulare County.”
Lerma said he likes the idea of a job fair focused on teaching positions and said it was very appropriate given the current economic climate.
“If a district is trying to find the best people, they need to participate in events like this to find the right people to fit the positions,” he said.
Hutchison said the event is unique because it’s the only one available in Kings County that just offers teaching positions. She said Tulare County offers a similar job fair.
“This is really something that needs to be focused on,” she said. “There’s a lot of people out there looking for jobs.”
The reporter can be reached at 583-2429 or by email at jluiz@hanfordsentinel.com.
Job market compromises teaching positions
We’ve all heard it. We’re in the midst of one of the worst economic slumps in decades. Along with increased prices and decreased job opportunities, recent college graduates are stressed about being forced to take multiple part-time jobs just to afford a tiny studio apartment and a used sedan. While living paycheck-to-paycheck isn’t ideal, it is the situation that many college graduates are finding themselves in.
However, earning certain degrees can result in even lower rates of employment after graduation. Specifically, people hoping to put their education degrees to good use are most likely going to be disappointed.
Recent statistics show the number of people searching for a teaching job greatly exceeds the number of available jobs. While this seems to be common knowledge, there are many factors that make up the difficult situation.
Due to the recession, there is less money being put toward programs revolving around education. The government cut hundreds of millions of dollars out of the state budget for education. As a result, classes are getting bigger and teaching jobs are being cut.
Also, our government and our culture doesn’t stress the importance of a quality educational system. We are far from leading the world in education. This is because education is one of the first aspects of our society that loses money.
Statistics aren’t the only thing that shows how desperate the situation is getting. I’m sure we all know someone who is on the hunt for a job at a local elementary school.
My step-mother is a third-grade teacher. She is constantly being berated by the administration about how much money she’s using, whether it’s on textbooks or the paper he or she uses to print out tests.
In fact, this year the school stopped using textbooks altogether and have been relying on one book and the use of media to teach children everything. The lengths they are going just to save money proves just how desperate the situation has gotten.
My sister went to SUNY Cortland and earned a physical education degree in hopes of becoming a physical education teacher and coach at a local high school. She graduated from college in 2009. She had an impressive GPA and was a collegiate athlete. However, she has spent the last four years trying to find a teaching job to no avail. She recently decided to give up all together and take a job as a salesperson for a small company. She devoted her entire college career to becoming the best teacher she could be and had to give up her dream because there weren’t any jobs available. So, like many other people her age, she chose a job with a salary that may be a little less satisfying than the one she grew up thinking she would have.
On top of having a shortage of available jobs, there is also a shortage in teachers certified in specific areas of teaching. For example, students within the education major can concentrate on special education or a specific subject. Instead, a great number of students are choosing to concentrate in elementary education, a degree that wouldn’t allow them to teach at the middle or high school level. This, on top of budget cuts, are greatly diminishing the probabilities of getting a job within the first few years after graduating.
It’s the university’s job to better prepare students for their post-graduation endeavors by making sure they know what will give them the best prospects. It’s important the institution that is getting paid tens of thousands of dollars per student to educate students is taking responsibility for the readiness of these students when it comes time to start combing through her job market.
As someone who witnessed a loved one watch her lifelong dreams slip away because of a lagging job market, it’s important to stress how necessary it is for these students to mold their dreams to fit reality. When it comes time to start paying back loans in addition to monthly rent, car and phone bill, any job at all may be worth explaining.
The fact of the matter is you are going to be spending 40 hours a week doing something so it might as well be something you enjoy. Finding a balance between realistic opportunities and enjoying what you do is the most important and hardest thing you will do after graduating.
There’s a difference between compromising and settling. The hard part is knowing the difference.
Sbrow7@brockport.edu