A new survey has arrived!
Topic: Which international school teacher conference do you prefer to go to?
Most international schools will offer some benefits to their teachers. If you are lucky, your school will offer a benefit that gives you a set amount of money each year to use on a professional development event of your choice. Many of those international schools will also let you now roll-over your unused PD money into the following year, up to three years worth in total if you need to. Knowing that going to and attending an international school teacher conference can be quite expensive (e.g. registration costs, flight, hotel, meals, taxi rides, etc.), it is good to know that your school will either pay for you to go to them (all expenses paid) or that you can use your own PD money to go to them (hopefully all expenses paid as well).
If you have the money and the school you work at is open to where you use your PD money, the question then is…where should you go? There are a nice handful of conferences that international school teachers can go to (EARCOS, ECIS, AASSA, MAIS, AISA, IB, etc.). They also pretty much offer the same style of conference: a variety of guest speakers show up to inspire the attendees somehow (professionals in education or in topics related to education), and then there are different workshops led by international school teachers themselves (sharing a new strategy, research, best-practice techniques, etc.). Is there one of these conferences that is better than the others? We are not for sure. Mostly teachers just go to the one that is closest to their school.
One thing that does seem for sure is that it seems as if the numbers of attendees at international school conferences is lower than normal as of late (e.g. the ECIS Conference in Nice this year). There are also less companies signed up to be exhibitors as well. Some participants at ECIS this year were saying that just a few years back there were 1000s more attendees that showed up. They also were surmising that because there are so many international school teacher conferences nowadays, there just isn’t enough time and money for all the exhibitors to go to them…and the same goes for the teachers and administrators.
Did you know that some international schools (mostly for-profit ones) will grant you the money to attend a PD event (if it directly relates to the benefit of the school) only if you plan on staying for another two years? If you decide to leave the school before that two-year deadline, then you must pay back all the money that you used to go to that PD event! Hopefully there aren’t too many international schools out there that do that to their teachers still. It is so important that international school teachers are treated as professionals in the field of education. As professionals, we need to stay up-to-date with current trends and practices, as well as what current research is saying about how to be an effective teacher. Additionally, it is vitally important for international school teachers to be at these events so that they can network with others that also work in the international school community. Networking can maybe lead to a future job at another international school for you, but it also can help you do the things you need to do in your current placement. Why do the job by yourself when there are most likely other international school teachers that also need to do that same job? Two heads are better than one, no? Then you can share the load and work together on different projects that are of interest to both of you.
So, which international school teacher conference do you prefer to go to? Go to the homepage of International School Community and submit your vote today! You can check out the latest voting results here.
From the staff at International School Community.
