Any teachers?

At this point I'm an assistant, contracted specialization teacher, so my answers are going to be not-ordinary or purely speculative. For reference, I have 2 teaching certificates, in my third-year of assistant language teaching (ages 4-16), and previously did roughly 2 years of varied pro-bono teaching.


1. Do you think it is reasonable to ask the kids to call me Mx.[Last name]? And if not, would simply 'teacher' be reasonable?
It really depends on your school board and principal, but yes. It is totally reasonable. Teacher is a great alternative too. All my kids just call me CJ; which I like although there are some power/control/authority aspects to take into consideration (along with age, frequency that you teach those children, etc.).

2. How would you accommodate in a classroom where the children require different needs? (mental disorder/personality disorder/health related/physical disability/learning difficulty/efl/no disability). 2a) I'm mainly asking about what to do when the needs of students clash with each other? 2b) What to do when the needs of one student makes it impossible/very hard for another student to learn? 2c) Who do you prioritize? 2d) How do you prioritize?
This one is very hard. No class will ever be homogenous, although for student that really struggle, hopefully the school will have assistance programs/teachers or other facaulties set up for them. In the class, structure, fluidity, and variation are very important. Each set of students will be different, you'll have to change certain things to accomodate, but of course you won't know that until you're there. Be observant, use your discretion to know when you need to push certain students or leave them be, try to keep communication lines open, be personable (tell them about things you struggle with, within reason). Some days, some times, you will find or create better opportunities to give individualized help to those who need it. You won't be able to do that all the time. You have to switch up your priorities just day-to-day.

I don't know what options are available in the UK in terms of discipline and other lesson options. Japan has horrible mental health recognition and care. Bullying is awful (and often blamed on the victim), school focuses on homogenity ("the nail that sticks out gets hammered down" so be like everyone else or pay), behavioural and mental health issues are either ignored or treated like something to lock up and throw away the key. We have the additional 'benefit' of the constitution basically saying that all students must have the same education. So, no taking disruptive students out of class, no special classes for students with lower learning levels or advanced levels (including EFL for students whose first language is English or who've already passed the Japanese English exams, that's fun), no punishment for bullies, and very very very few, if any, resources for any other kind of need. In this kind of situation, there's really very little I can do, and you have to work with the system. Hopefully you're system is better!

3. How much out-of school work do you to? a) in term time? b) in the 'holidays'? c) Is it reasonable of a school to ask you to do 5am-9pm on school days, 8am-6pm on Saturday and then only do urgent work on Sunday? (in perspective, I totaled I would be doing about 3,400 hours of work a year, only 222 hours teaching the students in the classroom)
As mentioned before I'm an assistant, contracted specialization teacher, so I don't have nearly as much of a workload. I work with a teacher (either Japanese Teacher of English or Homeroom Teacher) who is responsible for grading, reports, writing tests, and in most cases lesson planning and curriculm, and that's all just for English. They work a lot, but Japan also has horrible overtime problems (most teachers are paid for Mon-Fri 7-5 and work 6-9 and work everyday, even during holidays). So, with that in mind, in term, I do maybe 6 hours of work outside of school, during holidays I do none. What's reasonable depends on where you are.

4. How much 'set' work do you have to do? And how much freedom do you have to teach the children something that would benefit them/different opportunities?
This is again, up to the system you're working in. The government provides a curriculm for elementary and middle school here, and my prefectural government also has a variation for elementary school. I vaguely follow the prefecture's curriculm for one of my elementary schools, and follow the government's fairly closely at my other school. I do try to add one or two extras per unit, to either challange the students or just to give more cultural information. Do it when and where you can. Try and just constantly be prepared with something small, so if you finish a lesson early or have technical problems you can just pull it out.

5. How do you remove inequalities in the classroom if some of the inequalities are unavoidable due to structures? ('post code' selection/home structures/exam structures)

There is really nothing you can do about exams. They're shit and every teacher with a decent grasp of pedagogy will know that. :/ The best you can do is tell your students that exams aren't a good way of testing knowledge and try to keep your lessons varied enough that as many students as possible recognize their learning. (i.e.: writing focused, comprehension focused, communication/speaking focused, listening focused)
As for SES or class issues, I really don't have much experience in that. If any? Again, just keep an eye out and open lines of communication, so that you can hopefully be aware of any issues either in the class or in the students' homes.

There are a few good anti-bullying social experiments that work really well in class. One, that would be great in the beginning of the year, is to have every student crumple up a piece of paper, stomp on it, rip it, etc. Just go nuts. Then have them smooth it out and apologize. It's a nice visual lesson for bullying, even if you regret it afterwards, the damage is done. Another one is to quietly pick out students with some small difference, like eye colour or whether their ears are attached or not, and treat them better than everyone else. Make it obvious, for a day or so. Then ask the students about it, explain the difference, and have a discussion about it. Obviously the desirable outcome is that every student recognizes that differences are no reason to treat someone differently.

6. At what age is it reasonable [i.e. the child will understand and have positive effects] to talk about feminism, blm, lgbt and other activist groups and what they do? And to what extent?

Personally I think those conversations should start immediately. Children are far more capable than we give them credit for. Of course, all conversations need to happen at their level, visuals are very important, and encouraging good behaviour. Children need to have their motivations, actions, and the consequences of their actions explained to them; their critical thinking isn't up to the job just yet (hopefully it kicks in around adolescence, hopefully :|).

7. If you were the education minister [or similar to your country] what would you change about your education system? And why?
I have a huge bias against the Japanese system since I come from outside of Japan so that wouldn't even be fair. Instead I'll talk about Canada, even though I've never formally worked in the school system.
We do a really good job tbh. I would increase funding, because I think that's where a lot of issues lie. The system is very well set up for providing based on student need, anti-bullying programs, etc. but there's no money for those programs. I think how teachers are viewed in society should change, get rid of the "those who can do, those who can't teach" mentality because it does no one any favours. Probably my favourite thing in Japanese schools is school lunch, I'd definitely bring that in (free for students, very cheap for teachers, everyone gets a full, fresh, healthy meal, win win win). Lastly, I think more practical education is important (at the higher levels, 14+). In depth classes about sewing, basic home and vehicle maintaince, cleaning, taxes, cooking; things we actually very much need to know on a day to day basis (versus the Pythagorean Theorum and Trigonometry, which I have used approximately never. I did do a ratio the other day though!).

Honestly, I love teaching. I hope you enjoy it too! It's hard as hell, can be annoying as fuck, but so worth it.