v2012.05 – 5 May, 2012:
“Having left your own safe environment suddenly you no longer have control (which as teachers we typically enjoy in our classroom) over your world. As soon as you step out into the outside world in whatever country, you can be faced with:
- street signs and scripts you cannot read (e.g. in Asia, Middle East etc.)
- a language you do not understand
- how to get the simplest things done (fix a tap leak, AC problem)
- who to ask for help
It is similar to a new born chick who has just left the nest – since you lack confidence in your new surroundings you start out by going on small excursions, but then as you get more confident you go on further trips away from ‘the nest’.”
It is true I suppose that teachers prefer to have “control” in their classrooms. How ironic then that international school teachers put themselves in a situation where they for sure don’t have control. Living in another country is certainly you letting go of the control and safety of your home country and culture, or at least a familiar place to you. But that is what makes this career choice really exciting; you never know what to expect and what you will experience next. How frustrating though to not be able to read street and road signs, we can all relate to that. Additionally, not being able to understand the local language really makes you use all your other senses more in how to interpret body language and to gather meaning from body positioning, gestures and context. At this point native-English international school teachers are so used to being on a train or plane where everyone around them is speaking a different language than themselves that it is strange now (and quite over-stimulating) to be on a plane in the United States (for example) where they understand all the many conversations going on around their seat. We get very used to “tuning” out what is going on around us while living abroad, mostly because we just don’t understand what is being said.
This past month International School Community we had over 100 new members sign up! If this rate keeps up, we might have over 1000 members by the end of October! More members means more people that you can network with when you are job hunting or that you can ask questions to about a specific international school in which you are interested in working. Now, ISCommunity members currently work at or have worked at over 160 different international schools in over 53 countries!
From the staff at International School Community.
Recently updated schools with new comments and information:
· 04 May Copenhagen International School (4 new comments)
Copenhagen, Denmark
“The surrounding area is a bit posh. Most people from Copenhagen view the Hellerup area as place for…”· 04 May Southbank International School (5 new comments)
London, England
“There is a great food, green, meat market at Borough market, it is near London Bridge station. It is pretty cool there. They have…”· 02 May American School of El Salvador (10 new comments)
San Salvador, El Salvador
“EA provides foreign hire teachers furnished housing in modern school-owned town homes and houses located on…”· 01 May Tokyo International School (11 new comments)
Tokyo, Japan
“I interviewed with them a few years ago at the CIS fair in London. There were two male administrators there. They were…”
· 30 Apr Institute of Applied Technology (Abu Dhabi) (8 new comments)
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
“End of Service (Gratuity) equal to one month’s basic salary for each year of service…”
Copenhagen, Denmark
“The surrounding area is a bit posh. Most people from Copenhagen view the Hellerup area as place for…”· 04 May Southbank International School (5 new comments)
London, England
“There is a great food, green, meat market at Borough market, it is near London Bridge station. It is pretty cool there. They have…”· 02 May American School of El Salvador (10 new comments)
San Salvador, El Salvador
“EA provides foreign hire teachers furnished housing in modern school-owned town homes and houses located on…”· 01 May Tokyo International School (11 new comments)
Tokyo, Japan
“I interviewed with them a few years ago at the CIS fair in London. There were two male administrators there. They were…”
· 30 Apr Institute of Applied Technology (Abu Dhabi) (8 new comments)
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
“End of Service (Gratuity) equal to one month’s basic salary for each year of service…”
(Click here for the last 40 schools to be updated with new comments)
Recent blog entries:
· Traveling Around: Tbilisi, Georgia (The life of an international school teacher is good!)
“Can you relate: Putting an update on Facebook on where I am and everyone not knowing where Tbilisi is…”
· International schools that were founded in 1932 (Hong Kong, Henderson, Masero & Lisbon)
“Founded in 1932 by Madam Tsang Chor-hang, Yew Chung has been providing quality bilingual education to the learners of Hong Kong for almost 80 years…”
· Overview of an int’l school #5 – Rainbow international School in Seoul
“Rainbow school is an international school established by Mr. Eshraf Saglam, a Turkish educationist in Seoul promoting multiculturalism and international diversity. With 260 students from 29 countries and 42 teachers from 6 countries…”
· Schools around the world get chance to sing in global recording
“An exciting global singing project has been announced. The project is called Voices around the World and the aim is for young people all over the world to learn and participate in a global recording…”
· International Teaching Predictions for 2012 #5: SE Asia
“We expect continued growth in Indonesia, Malaysia and even Vietnam as those emerging economies steadily prosper. Salaries may seem very low in these countries but…”
· The Wonderful World of International School Hiring Fairs: Lesson #8 – “Benefits, preps, class sizes, and student mix.”
“If all these benefits and other factors don’t seem to match up for you at this point in your international school career, then the answer you will most likely give…”
Recently added schools:
- Stars and Stripes American Kindergarten
(Shanghai, China) - Glory International School Nansana
(Kampala, Uganda) - PaZaNa International School Academy
(Apia, Samoa) - The Udine International School
(Udine, Italy) - International School of Brno
(Brno, Czech Republic)
Requested schools to have members leave comments on:
- Naseem International School (Bahrain)
(Riffa, Bahrain) - Dhirubhai Ambani International School
(Mumbai, India) - Makuhari International School
(Tokyo, Japan) - International School of Myanmar
(Yangon, Myanmar) - Dhahran Ahliyya Schools
(Dammam, Saudi Arabia)
Last month we have had visits from 96 countries around the world!
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 Highlighted Article
Kazakhstan Attracts Teachers Looking for Career Development“Kazakhstan may not be the obvious destination for teachers wanting to work abroad. But the Nazarbayev Intellectual School Networkis offering experienced, English-speaking middle and secondary teachers a one-year contract that is proving very tempting for some.”“There are NIS schools in cities throughout Kazakhstan, all of which are leading a programme of educational reform in the country led by the President of the Republic. The aim is to develop a new way of educating the future elite of Kazakhstan and the NIS Network is enlisting the skills of experienced English-speaking teachers to spearhead the progress….” Check out this blog entry to read more about what your life might look like as an international school teacher in Kazakhstan. |
 Highlighted blog of an international teacher:
This international school teacher’sblog is about teaching and living in Dubai, Almaty, etc.One of their blog entries (International Schools: The circuit)is describing how small the international school community is and how many of us “hop” around from school to school:“It is in fact a very small community and the chances are that you will know someone who has been to a specific school, once you have been in one or two schools overseas. Don’t be surprised after some years if you walk into a staffroom in a different school, and country, and you meet someone you worked with in another school…”Another one of their entries (What to expect at a job fair) is about what candidates might experience at the international school recruitment fairs: “During the afternoon, the school will have interviews in their hotel rooms – it is all a bit surreal, but the recruiters carry out the interviews in their rooms (this is normal procedure!) At the end of this day the schools will then look at the candidates they have interviewed (and if you are one of them) then they will either invite you for a second interview…” * If you are an international school teacher and would like your blog highlighted on International School Community contact us here. |
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