My Experience at AEON Initial Training

Note: This was written in July 2017 right after my initial training. I'm posting it now, in 2021, because I no longer work at AEON. I'm leaving it as is to show you what I thought at the time.

You won't be reading this post until after my time at AEON has come to a close. Because of that, I can't guarantee that anything in this post will accurately reflect your own training if you come to work at AEON. This is even more true as I have been given the impression already that there can be a number of differences in training between regions. (I was in the Seibu region for reference.) That being said, I know I was anxious before I arrived in Japan, so I hope I can provide some information to set you at ease if you're going to work for AEON and are nervous about what to expect.

Friday: Arrival in Japan

I arrived at Kansai International Airport on a Friday. (Note in March 2021: For some reason I didn't write about this, but to my recollection, I received my residence card while going through immigration at the airport as well, so that picture, which was taken right after getting off multiple international flights, was on my first residence card that lasted for three years, so be warned of that.)

After making it through immigration and customs, I had around a half hour to walk around the airport before an AEON staff member arrived to pick us up. He was friendly and immediately helped me ship my luggage to my branch school (as only my carry on would be going with me to training in Okayama).

Two other trainees arrived at the airport that day, but both were going to different regions from me. Because of this, the AEON staff member was going with them while I was given a ticket, taken to the train, and put on it by myself. After days of flying, I was exhausted but determined to stay awake for the entire trip out of fear that I would miss my stop.

When I got off that train, another AEON employee was waiting to get me from the regular train to the bullet train. It was on the bullet train that I really had to struggle against sleep. I think that I dozed of once or twice (which was much easier to do on the train than it had been the plane for some reason), but luckily, I didn't miss my stop, and I was greeted by one of the trainers at the station.

We met the one other trainee in my training group at the station as well, and we were taken back to the dormitories, which occupied a building around the corner from the training center itself.

We each had our own bedroom. (If there'd been more trainees, we'd have had roommates. There were two beds in each room.) There was a common room with a kitchen, ironing board, etc. There was also a washer and even a dryer (rare for Japan), though we were also given racks to air dry our clothes in our rooms.

Enough about the living conditions though, onto the training itself:

We had two trainers, and since there were only two of us trainees, there's a lot of focus on you individually. Both of our trainers were nice. (I've already heard some things about trainers in other regions not being as nice, so I'm thankful for that.)

Saturday: First Day of Training

On the Saturday after we arrived, our training lasted from 10 AM to 1 PM. After that, one of the trainers took us to lunch, with AEON footing the bill. After lunch, he gave us a bit of a tour of the area and then left us on our own. (We ended up walking to the castle, which was a sweaty experience to say the least, but the rain held off, so we were lucky in that sense.)

The Rest of Training

Sunday was a day off, but Monday was the only other day where we began at 10 AM. (Every day after we would being at 11 AM.) Each day lasted until 7 except for when we taught our lessons, which would go until 8 with feedback from the trainers afterward.

Each day was packed; there's no denying that. We had to learn a lot, including the entire structure of AEON's lessons which we then had to teach to students the next day. Without a doubt, make sure you are prepared to do reading every night and practice, practice, practice your lessons. You will, without a doubt, screw up. They don't actually expect you to have everything down 100% after having learned the lesson structure the day before (at least, our trainers didn't), but they are looking to see that your trying and that you are responding to what they tell you. (If, in practice, a trainer tells you that you need to start doing something, you should keep that in mind the next time you're teaching.)

I don't want to make it sound entirely daunting though. I also had a good time. Overall, it was a fun atmosphere, not an intimidating or scary one. (We did meet with the president of the company over Skype one day though, and that was a bit intimidating to say the least, though he was very nice.)

There's no way I could go through everything we covered in the training here, and I couldn't anyway as a lot of stuff about AEON's particular style of teaching is owned by them and isn't something I'm legally allowed to share. I will say, though, that it would have been nice to been given the lesson structure prior to training in order to prepare myself a bit. It might have lessened some of the pressure going into training. I, like many others, felt that I should have the lesson format memorized as soon as the next day (when you teach your first lesson), and while they're looking more for a good attempt at following the structure, I would have been more at ease if I'd had more time to prepare on my own somehow.

That being said, I enjoyed my training experience overall despite how tiring it was by the time it came to an end. I was lucky to have a great fellow trainee and also great trainers. If you're planning to join AEON, then I hope that you manage to have as great of a training experience as I did.

Teaching

I had to go to school early today for a Beta Club meeting.  Beta Club meetings never take that long.  Basically, I just walk in, sign in, find out whatever's going on, and leave.  She always has donuts there for us, but I never eat any.  I'm the sort of person who's in no mood for food until I've been awake for an hour or two.  (And I've usually only been awake for about an hour when I get to the meeting.  I sleep in as late as possible.)

Beta Club is in charge of the blood drive our school has.  We're supposed to donate blood, or if we can't, find someone else to.  I never plan on donating blood (Words can't describe how terrified I am of blood.  It would be horrific.), so I asked my sister to donate blood.  For some reason, this is incredibly exciting to her.  She just turned sixteen two days ago, so she just barely makes the age limit for donating blood.  I'll never understand her happiness when I handed her the forms.  I'm going to stop talking about this because typing the "b" word is getting to me.

In AP U.S. History today, we all had to talk a bit about a part of the chapter that had been assigned to us.  I had about three paragraphs.  Basically all I had to say was Parliament gained power as the real exectutives of Britain, and they weren't as concerned with controling the American colonies because it meant raising taxes which wouldn't make the landholders and merchants, who they relied on for support and re-election, happy.  That's almost exactly what I said actually (except it was slightly more detailed).

The Internet was down at school today, which meant we couldn't really work on yearbook stuff.  Instead, we flipped through TV channels.  Ji had the remote, and she never stayed on one channel for more than five minutes.  We watched parts of Scooby Doo, Alton Brown, news channels, and various other things.

Remember how I sayed peer tutoring was stressful?  That has gotten so much better lately.  Before I started peer tutoring, I was kind of afraid that it would make me doubt the fact that I want to be a teacher.  Luckily, it hasn't.  In fact, I think I'm more sure now than I was before.  It's made me consider becoming a middle school or special needs teacher though.  When I first got put in special needs classes at the middle school, I wasn't too happy about it, but it's really not that bad.  I still think I'm going to stick with high school (and not special needs) though.  I don't know if I could deal with middle schoolers all day.

It's gotten to the point where I've gotten comfortable with the teachers and aides in the classrooms I'm in.  I also know a lot of the kids better, and I don't feel as awkward working with them anymore.  One boy gave me a high-five when I walked in the classroom today, and there's another boy that likes to ask me questions about what high school's like every day.

Today, I was going over multiplication flash cards with three of the kids.  Two of them were supposed to be competing to see who could get the most, but the other kid kept cheating and telling one girl the answers.  Then, both of them would try and grab the card out of my hand quickly.  I had to keep flipping the cards without giving one to either girl.  All of this over who could get more cards?  It's fine for an hour and a half, but I don't know if I could deal with that all day.

Even though I don't want to teach middle school, this experience has made me more sure that I want to teach high school.  I think before I was worried because it's such a big decision, and I didn't want to screw it up.  To be honest, that still worries me a bit, but I really do think I'm making the right decision by majoring in secondary education.  Let's just hope I'm right.

I almost forgot the mention this, but Haley, Jordan, and I were talking about Pottermore at lunch today.  Both of them have gotten in.  I want my email!  They were telling me how awesome it is and everything.  I can't wait to be sorted!  Jordan's a Slytherin and Haley's a Ravenclaw.  Haley wanted to be a Slytherin, so she's not too thrilled.  She says she doesn't think she'd ever be able to get into the common room.  I really hope I get Hufflepuff, but I wouldn't be surprised if I get Ravenclaw as well.  If only my email would come!