English teacher (kids, adults, private and small group lessons (expired)

CHEERS has been in Sendai since 2001. We started as a small English school and expanded to working with the Miyagi board of Education doing teacher training seminars. In 2009, we published our first high school English textbook, which was approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education. Since then, we have published 19 other English textbooks, all approved by the ministry, which are being used in hundreds of high schools around Japan from Hokkaido to Okinawa. Thus, CHEERS has two sections, the textbook section and the English teaching section. This job offer is for the English teaching section.

CHEERS has always been committed to education and pedagogy. We are very proud of the work we have done so far and are looking for people who can complement our goal of providing high quality English lessons. We want someone who is friendly, energetic, and creative, who can teach kids and adult lessons, and who takes their job seriously. Although we have a full curriculum for adults and a lot of material for kids, we encourage teachers to make original lessons. By contributing to the curriculum, teachers will feel more included and will improve their lesson-making ability and overall teaching ability. Also, although some of our kids lessons are group lessons, we are mostly looking for people who are good at teaching one-on-one kids lessons. From our experience, these types of lessons are more challenging than kids group lessons, where the energy of the group often carries the lesson. In a one-on-one lesson, the teacher must lead the student from start to finish, and this often requires special teaching ability.

We will provide full training and help the teacher to integrate quickly and effectively in our system.

The students at CHEERS range from kids aged 3 to people in their 80s. Many of the students are doctors, pharmacists, nurses, dentists, university professors, researchers, and business people. Of course, we also have many elementary - college students, homemakers, retired people, etc. The students who come to CHEERS are very nice and friendly. Many of them need English in their jobs. Thus, the students are motivated and want to learn English.

CHEERS can sponsor visas and help teachers through the process.

CHEERS was started and is run by an American teacher from Los Angeles. There is no Japanese middle management. Since the owner is also a teacher, the employer and employees can communicate more easily and understand each other better regarding what is best for the students, etc.

Our system is one where lessons usually continue from week to week. This means that students can do homework, and teachers can check the homework in the next lesson, build on it, and expand the lesson topics. This is more rewarding for both teachers and students.

We offer vacation time (the standard government plan).

CHEERS has an at-home atmosphere. It does not look like an office, and there are no white, florescent lights. The school is located on Jozenji Street, which is one of the most beautiful streets in Sendai. The street is covered with Zelkova trees and in the winter, we have the Sendai illumination festival right outside our windows. CHEERS is about 7 minutes on foot from subway stations.

The salary is based on the following:

Teaching experience
Lesson portfolio (Have you made lessons during your teaching career?)
Japanese language ability
Understanding of English grammar and ability to explain it in a communicative and easy-to-understand manner
Schedule flexibility (for example, being able to do split shifts)
Ability to teach both kids and adults, communicate well with parents, and teach a wide variety of lessons such as culture lessons, grammar, the tests mentioned above, etc.