Glossary

1) Located in in City Hall, Building 3, Floor 7.

2) Formerly known as the the Guidance Division, the School Education Division is the current contracting organisation for JETs in Kobe.

3) From the beginning of the 2017 academic year, the full name for this department is now the School Education Division, Human Rights and International Education.

4) If you are wanting to send school mail to the School Education Division Human Rights and International Education, the adressee is (choose one):

(kanji) 学校教育課国際教育
(hiragana) がっこう　きょういくか　こくさい 　きょういく

(romaji) gakkou kyouikuka kokusai kyouiku

Please also include the name of the recipient (usually a CIR).

5) in case you're interested, the full name in Japanese (not necessary for school mail):

神戸市　教育委員会事務局　学校教育部学校教育課　人権・国際教育担当

こうべし　きょういくいいんかいじむきょく　がっこうきょういくぶ　がっこうきょういくか　じんけん・こくさいきょういくたんとう

koubeshi kyouikuiinkaijimukyoku gakkoukyouikubu gakkoukyouikuka jinken・kokusaikyouikutantou

The mailing system for official document(s) between public schools and government departments throughout Kobe City, called bunshou meeru 文章メール（"document mail"）. You can use school mail to send documents to other schools in Kobe, or to the School Education Division.

You can send school mail using one of the large A4 envelopes that's probably in your school office. (A photo of a sample envelope is included in this post.)

1. Put your mail inside the envelope.

2. Write the address & name of the recipient.

3. Write your school address & your name.

4. Put it in the outgoing mail box (usually labeled メール, but you can ask the office secretary to confirm.

School mail is typically delivered only a few times a week, so it can take several days to reach its destination. Thus, please be sure to send your mail well in advance of any deadlines.

***When sending in official documents, please address your mail to Nicole, Daniel or Kawase-sensei in the School Education Division.
To have your school mail sent to the School Education Division, you can address it to:

学校教育課 (CIR or Japanese supervisor's name here)

If you have trouble writing the address, you can ask your OTE for help. Please also include the name of the person (usually a CIR) it is intended for.

If anyone is curious, the long version for the SED is here:

学校教育課国際教育
がっこう　きょういくか　こくさい　きょういく
gakkou kyouikuka kokusai kyouiku

Note: The envelope is reused so a different address is written on each line.

Skills Development Conference

Purpose:

The purpose of the Skills Development Conference is to aid ALT(s) participating in the JET and KATE programs by giving them the knowledge and skills necessary to lead successful language study and English language activities. Further aims are to host discussions on various topics regarding the improvment of lessons, and to foster the development of effective teaching materials. These activities are undertaken with the goal of further enhancing English Language Education in Kobe.

Sponsors:

Kobe City Board of Education

Guidance Division

Participants:

Assistant Language Teachers, or ALT(s)

Official Teachers of English, or OTE(s)

Elementary Home Room Teachers, or HRT(s)

Special Needs School Representatives

A kind of leave for work-related activies. Most commonly for a KICP or DS. Usually needs to be approved by your Kyoto sensei and/or the Guidance Division.

If you need to travel for Shucchou you can have your travel costs reimbursed by submitting the travel reimbursement form at the end of every semester.

Paid leave that can be taken with a documented illness/injury/diagnosis from a physician, up to 20 days.

Sick leave includes non-working days (Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays). It cannot be taken in hourly or half-day units, only full-day. 

If you need to take sick leave, please contact your school principal and then visit a clinic/hospital/pharmacy. Get a receipt (dated from the first day of sick leave, and with your name printed on it), and include it with the Sick Leave Form. This form then needs to be stamped by both your Kyoto-sensei and Kouchou-sensei before being sent to the Education Division.

If you are sick for 5 or more working days, a medical certificate needs to be included as well.

Example 1:

John the ALT takes Thursday and Friday off for sick leave. He recovers from his cold and comes back to work on Monday. His sick leave counts as just 2 days. He only needs to submit the Sick Leave Form and his receipt. 

Example 2: 

Barbara the ALT takes Friday off for sick leave. Then she has to take the following Monday and Tuesday off. Since sick leave includes weekends and holidays, her sick leave is counted as 5 days, so she will need to get a medical certificate from her doctor. 

Example 3:

lease note that if you take sick leave, then return to school, then have to take more sick leave again within a one-month period, the two periods of sick leave will be counted as one. For example, if Bob the ALT takes 3 days of sick leave, goes back to work for 20 days, then has to take sick leave again for another 2 days, his sick leave is added together and counted as 5 days. So Bob will need to get a medical certificate from his doctor. 

Playable audio files, embedded videos, and lyrics (original and translated) for use in song lessons.

View all songs

An online lesson resource for and contributed to by ALT(s). Lesson results can be filtered by many criteria, including;

• Grade level
• Duration
• Grammar points
• Resources needed

View all lessons here

A type of leave that is separate from nenkyuu. Comes in two major categories: paid special leave and unpaid special leave. Each category consists of many different subcategories, once of which is summer leave.

Sports Day (体育会、たいいくかい、taiikukai -or- 運動会、うんどうかい、undoukai) is a school event at elementary, junior, and senior school levels. The day has various physical performances and competitions.

Performances may include kumitaiso, (a kind of cooperative acrobatics - think human pyramids), dances, or others.

For competitions students are split into school-wide teams, crossing grade barriers. Students compete in many challenges ranging from the familiar running races/relays, to unique team based games.

For junior high schools, Sports Day is usually held in early second term. In the weeks leading up to the day students will likely be practising and school schedules changed to fit in extra practises.

ALT(s) may be asked to help, participate (teachers races are a possibility), or just sit back and enjoy the day. As ever, it depends on your school.

The purpose of Spring Seminars is to provide ALT(s) additional opportunities for professional and skills development during the spring holidays. Rather than desk-warming at their base schools, ALTs can make better use of their free time by interacting and exchanging ideas with fellow ALTs based in other schools.

Attendance is not mandatory, thus allowing presenters more creative freedom in content and format than at Job Training or SDC. Format styles typically include lecture, group discussion, panel discussion, tutorial, workshop, etc.

Spring Seminars are usually held in afternoons of the second week of spring break (typically the first week of April) in various rooms in the KEC.

Instead of being based in their own classrooms, teachers in Japanese schools are based at a desk in the staff room and make their rounds to various homerooms according to their daily schedules.

1. A type of special leave.
2. 5 paid vacation days that are granted only once per school year and may be used only during the summer vacation period. In the Kobe Jet guidebook the summer vacation period is defined as "the period of time following closing ceremony (some time in mid-July) to the day before opening ceremony (1st of September)".
3. Not to be confused with nenkyuu.

A special English immersion and activities event held every August for Kobe municipal junior high school students. It is held at Kobe Gaidai for 3 days, but students only need to go for one day to receive the full experience. The students typically try 5 different activities run by ALTs in the morning, and in the afternoon they listen to a presentation about other foreign languages (Spanish, Russian, and Chinese?) by Gaidai students.

A prep day precedes the event, in which ALTs go over the schedule, decorate the rooms, practice the activities, and help with any finishing touches.

All four days are official work days, thus attendance is mandatory and transportation is reimbursed.

In order to make the event a success, 3 things are asked of ALTs:

1. Get an OTE to agree to chaperone the students for at least one of the days.
2. Heavily advertise how awesome and fun the event is to the students, and get as many students to sign up as possible. (Note that students will be responsible for the costs of transportation and lunch, which may be an unfortunate but unavoidable deterrent for some.)
3. Volunteer for a summer school position! Positions and their descriptions are as follows:

• Room Leader: They are a team of two or more ALTs who are responsible for creating concepts for rooms that will engage the children's interest, but also encourage the use of English. The focus is to encourage interaction with ALTs while also making sure that students with lower levels of English ability can easily understand what's happening. Previously successful rooms include speed dating, video-game themed tasks, dancing, game show, and survivor-style English games.
• Decorator: They are a group of ALTs responsible for adding adding flavor and pizazz to the rooms and main hall at the venue.
• Videographer/Photographer: They are in charge of capturing the days' events on camera and film for future promotional purposes. They are also responsible for creating the Summer School promotional video for the next year.