International School Community Newsletter v2012.03 – 03 March, 2012

v2012.03 – 3 March, 2012:

We have had a surge of new members on International School Community this past month taking us over the 300 mark. With 67 new members joining, we are now at a total of 326 members! It is so interesting to look at the range of members that we have so far: veteran international school teachers, teachers new to the international school community, teachers who are thinking about getting into our community, retired international school teachers, international school parents, international school directors, etc. All premium members are able to send unlimited private messages to other members on our website to contact for information and also to network with if you have questions about what life at a specific international school he/she is currently working at or has worked at in the past.

Go ahead then and send a private message to one of our members that is currently living in one of the many different cities around the world represented on our website. International School Community’s current members work at or have worked at over 115 international schools! Check out which schools here and start networking today!

Our 320+ members have now also submitted over 3300+ comments and information on our 1120+ international school profile pages. To celebrate these recent milestones, you can now get 50% off of your next membership subscription by using this coupon code: MARCH3241. With the discount, you can renew your premium subscription for as little as 5 USD! Just go to your My Account page and click on “renew your subscription”. This offer will expire on 17 March, 2012.

Premium members also have unlimited access to our 1126 international school profile pages. On each school profile page there are 4 separate comment and information submission sections: School information, Benefits information, City information and Travel information.

There are many international schools profile pages getting updated all the time. In the international school community, it is important we share what we know to help others make better informed decisions when looking for employment at an international school.

Thanks again for everyone’s support! For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, enjoy the beginning of spring!

From the staff at International School Community.

Recent blog entries:

· TEN COMMANDMENTS OF RELOCATING OVERSEAS: #9 – Maintain a sense of humor, but most importantly be ready to laugh at yourself.
“When you are living abroad, there are moments when the locals are looking at you strangely. You might be thinking that they are making fun of you, being rude, or just plain staring at you. Most of the time though they usually don’t have an unkind intention towards you. The initial reaction is to…”

· Great resource: ISAT – International Schools Association of Thailand
“If your dream is to work at an international school in Thailand, the ISAT website can be a great resource for you…”

· International schools that were founded in 1947 (New York, Cali, Medellin, Rome, and Sao Paolo)
“The United Nations International School (UNIS) was established in 1947 by a group of United Nations Parents to provide an international education for their children, while preserving their diverse cultural heritages. What began as a nursery school for 20 children quickly grew, adding…”

· Overview of an int’l school #4 – Makuhari International School
“At MIS, at present, around 60% of our children are Japanese returnee children, the other 40% are either dual nationality or foreign children…”

· The Wonderful World of Int’l School Hiring Fairs: Lesson #6 – “Remember to research.”
“When interviewing at an international school recruitment fair, it is indeed a difficult task to be 100% knowledgeable about each international school you interview with. You do some final researching the night/morning before the interview, but…”

· Comments and information about hiring policies on International School Community #3
“The school goes through Search Associates. Teachers must have appropriate degree for teaching the subject of major concentration and by under 65 years of age. They are willing to hire interns for certain positions…”

Recently added schools:

International Christian School (Caracas)
(Caracas, Venezuela)
Swiss School Bangkok
(Bangkok, Thailand)
Lycee Francais de Bangkok
(Bangkok, Thailand)
Al Ittihad National Private School
(Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)
Beijing National Day School
(Beijing, China)

Requested schools to have members leave comments on:

Baku International School
(Baku, Azerbaijan)
International School Hannover Region
(Hannover, Germany)
Seoul Foreign School
(Seoul, South Korea)
Horizon School Dubai
(Dubai, United Arab Emirates)
Dasman Model School
(Kuwait City, Kuwait)

Last month we have had visits from 80 countries around the world!

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Site Stats:
Current members: 325 ( 67)
School profiles: 1126 ( 38)
Blog entries: 226 ( 21)
Posted comments & info:
3301 ( 612)
Twitter followers: 297 ( 31)

MORE BIG improvements:

We have updated our Members List pageto include a sorting feature. Now visitors and members are able to sort our 325 members more effectively now. It is now possible to sort the list by Newest First, First Name, Last Name, Current School and By Location (also being able to sort these lists by Descending or Ascending order). Go ahead and try it out and start contacting our members and networking today. Who knows who you might find?!We have also just completed two more updates to the school profile pages. Now there is a Youtube video that can be found sometimes on a school’s profile page. If there is one available, then it will show up under the map feature.

The video shown will be related to the school, typically a review or an overview of the school from the school itself.

The other update on the school profile page is the school’s Facebook feature. If the school has a Facebook page that they update with the news from their school, it will now show up on the school’s profile page on our website. The feature can be found under the Members of this School feature.

Check out pictures of the improvements and other details here!

New members:

· Sally Loughborough
(Hampton International School)
· Alissandra Butzbach
(Baku International School)
· Linda Belonje
(KIS International School Bangkok)
· Karen Jones
(Ajial Bilingual School)
· Falustein Shoman
(Al Ittihad National Private School)
· Kiyo Horii
(Nishimachi International School)

Current Survey Topic:

Vote here!

Member spotlight:

Beverley Bibby
“I am in my 4th year of teaching at Seisen. Seisen was my first experience in a PYP school. It was a new learning curve, but…”

Check out the rest of her interview on our blog here. If you’d like to be one of our next member spotlights send us a message here. Highlighted members will receive a coupon code for 6 free months of premium access!

Discussion Topic

Discussion Topic: Things I (an international school teacher) Have Not Done in a Year“After living abroad for so many years, I have forgotten all the things that you don’t do anymore. We used to have a different life, didn’t we? But now that you are living abroad, many of your routines have changed. Being that these changes have now become your new routines, you tend to forget about the things you used to do!Inspired by this blog entry by the Kirby Family, Things I Have Not Done in a Year, we invite our readers and members to discuss their list of things that they haven’t done in a year (or more for that matter).

Highlighted blogs of international teachers:
This international school teacher’s insight about moving back to your home country after teaching and living in Hong Kong is something we can all relate to:“I think I wouldn’t be completely honest if I said I was happy to be moving back to Canada. There are many things I am looking forward to about going back, foremost among them, being closer to our family, but there are many things I am going to really miss about Hong Kong, especially my job. In early June I included an article in one of my posts that I wrote in 2005 about what I will miss about Hong Kong. I’ve learned there…”* If you are an international school teacher and would like your blog highlighted on International School Community contact us here.