The Journey to School: Xian Hi-Tech International School in China

The journey to work is indeed an important one.  The journey though is not so clear for international school teachers when they are looking for jobs at schools in cities/countries to which they have never been.  So let’s share what we know!

One of our members, who works at the Xian Hi-Tech International School (Xian, China), described his way to work there as follows:

The road to XHIS…….

This is going to sound terribly stereotypical but one of the many reasons I love living in Shaanxi province is the potatoes! Now can you guess where I come from? I will tell you later. My journey to work each day is a very short one, but my journey to Xi’an has been a long one. I hope you enjoy reading about it.

journey to Xian Hi-Tech International School

My name is Brian Lalor and I am in my third year at Xi’an Hi-Tech International School, in Shaanxi province in China. We are a two programme IB world school and are working towards offering three of the four excellent IB programmes. Our school is small at present with only 270 students but we are at capacity and have an exciting move to a new purpose-built campus coming up in August 2017.

journey to Xian Hi-Tech International School

Each morning I get up and travel about four minutes to school! I know, the shortest ever commute, right? Our school is situated in residential area and all of our teachers’ apartments are located around the school. We are about 30 minutes from the city center in the southern suburbs. I ride my bicycle to school each day, that is why my journey is so short.

journey to Xian Hi-Tech International School

On my journey to school I pass through the morning market. Here local vendors sell fruit, vegetables, nuts and breads for very reasonable prices. One of the wonderful advantages to living in Xi’an is the potential to save money. It is much easier to live here when compared to other big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong. Our school pays for our apartment, flights, international health insurance and gives us a monthly allowance for living overseas. Before coming to Xi’an I worked in Ha Noi for nine years, and in Jakarta before that. Each city has its own advantages and disadvantages. The main disadvantages living in Xi’an are the standard of healthcare and the bad pollution in Winter.

journey to Xian Hi-Tech International School

Some of the wonders Xi’an has to offer are as follows. We are literally just a short 25-minute car ride to the beautiful Qin Ling Mountains which provides us with a great way to escape the heat in summer and some lovely snowy landscapes in winter. Another highly attractive feature unique to this city, is its amazing millenary history, with archaeological sites found literally in every part of town, with the city wall being one of its main attractions. And who hasn’t heard of the world-famous “Terra Cota Warriors”. Xi’an was once the ancient capital of China so as you can imagine there are lots to see in and around the community.

If you have not guessed it I am born and bread Irish. Oh those lovely potatoes! The food here is incredible and you could literally have a potato dish, every day of the week. Some noodles are even made out of potato here!

155595-linebreak

This Journey to School article was submitted to us by guest author and International School Community member.

What to know more what it is like to visit and live in China?  Out of a total of 165 international schools there are 110 that have had comments submitted on them. Here are just a few:

Beijing BISS International School (Beijing, China) – 36 Comments

Beijing City International School (Beijing, China) – 31 Comments

Beijing International Bilingual Academy (Beijing, China) – 35 Comments

International School of Beijing (Beijing, China) – 25 Comments

Tsinghua International School (Beijing) (Beijing, China) – 95 Comments

Western Academy Beijing (Beijing, China) – 43 Comments

Changchun American International School (Changchun, China) – 50 Comments

QSI International School of Dongguan (Dongguan, China) – 64 Comments

Guangdong Country Garden School (Foshan, China) – 48 Comments

Guangzhou Huamei International School (Guangzhou, China) – 48 Comments

Harbin No. 9 High School International Division (Songbei Campus) (Harbin, China) – 45 Comments

American International School (Hong Kong) (Hong Kong, China) – 24 Comments

Canadian International School (Hong Kong) (Hong Kong, China) – 69 Comments

Creative Secondary School (Hong Kong, China) – 39 Comments

Hong Kong Academy (Hong Kong, China) – 34 Comments

Hong Kong International School (Hong Kong, China) – 104 Comments

Canadian International School Kunshan (Kunshan, China) – 28 Comments

Kang Chiao International School (Kunshan, China) – 41 Comments

Access International Academy (Ningbo) (Ningbo, China) – 48 Comments

British International School Shanghai – Puxi (Shanghai, China) – 35 Comments

Concordia International School (Shanghai) (Shanghai, China) – 86 Comments

Shanghai American School – Puxi (Shanghai, China) – 39 Comments

Shanghai Community International School (Shanghai, China) – 33 Comments

Shanghai Rego International School (CLOSED) (Shanghai, China) – 74 Comments

Shanghai United International School (Shanghai, China) – 40 Comments

Western International School of Shanghai (Shanghai, China) – 204 Comments

Yew Chung International School (Shanghai) (Shanghai, China) – 27 Comments

Buena Vista Concordia International School (Shenzhen, China) – 39 Comments

International School of Nanshan Shenzhen (Shenzhen, China) – 26 Comments

QSI International School of Shekou (Shenzhen, China) – 20 Comments

Suzhou Singapore International School (Suzhou, China) – 47 Comments

Wellington College International Tianjin (Tianjin, China) – 54 Comments

EtonHouse International Schools, Wuxi (Wuxi, China) – 49 Comments

Xian Hi-Tech International School (Xian, China) – 54 Comments

Zhuhai International School (Zhuhai, China) – 59 Comments

So what is your journey to the international school you work at?  Earn one year free of premium membership to our website if you participate in this blog series – ‘The Journey to School’.  Email us here if you are interested.

The Finland Phenomenon – Inside the World’s Most Successful School Systems

Finland’s Education System has been the toast of the Education World with educators from all of the world all wanting to know what makes its tick & also one of the best systems in world, here is why…

Finland

WHY FINLAND EDUCATION

A little over 4 decades ago, Finland transformed its education system as part of the country’s economic recovery plan. Finnish students had become the best young readers by the time the 2000 Program for International Student Assessment (a global standardized test for 15-year-olds) results were published. Three years later, Finnish students led global students in Math, and by 2006 they were doing it again in science. Perhaps more important than their PISA results, however, was the take home that the Finnish school system is one of the most equitable in the world, i.e. performance variation among students in schools remains small.

Finland Finland Finland

Success of the Finnish education is based on providing equal opportunities for all. This means that in everyday school work the individual characteristics of everybody, including the strongest and weakest pupils, are taken into account. Providing equal opportunities for all results in even learning out comes as it does not depend on the geographical location or size of the schools nor pupil’s socio-economic background.

Finland
The success of providing equal opportunities for all is attested by the Finnish students’ performance in high level in all domains in PISA studies. An exceptionally small share of students are at the lowest proficiency level and there are relatively small differences between schools across the country.

Finland’s excellent learning outcomes are the result of research-based pedagogy and its innovative approach to teaching and learning. This pedagogy and the methods can be applied in different countries and societies, they are not based on the characteristics of the Finnish society. In Finland, teaching in not based on a specific religion or philosophy, thus the pedagogical approached used can be applied in various settings and societies.

Finland

In a study of the parents’ satisfaction on the quality of education and care in Qatar-Finland International School (established in Doha, Qatar in 2014) It was found that the parents were very satisfied with the quality of education and care. As quality elements parents emphasized enjoyment of the child, teaching methods, characteristics of the teachers and positive experience of home-school collaboration. The operations in Qatar-Finland FinlandInternational School are based on the Finnish National Core Curriculum but it is adapted to the Qatari standards and context. In the study no statistically significant difference between nationalities were found. In the study the parents also expressed satisfaction with the individualized learning possibilities and differentiated teaching. The findings of the study support the statement that the Finnish quality criteria responds to and can be adapted to the international education requirements.

Here are some links that you may find of interest:

1. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-20-education-systems-countries-20152016-anupam-vaid?trk=hp-feed-article-title-publish

2. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-finland-has-best-schools-anupam-vaid?published=t

3. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/11-ways-finlands-education-system-shows-us-less-more-anupam-vaid?published=t

4. http://hechingerreport.org/how-finland-broke-every-rule-and-created-a-top-school-system/

5. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/?no-ist

6. http://www.koulugroup.com/finnish-education/

Finland

This article was submitted by a guest author Anupam Viad, General Manager of Travel to Learn.

Traveling Around: Slovenia (The life of an international school teacher is good!)

Traveling Around: Slovenia

slovenia
Can you relate?

• Enjoying a nice walk along the river that runs through the city of Ljubiana. I definitely had thoughts that it would be nice to live here in this city.
• Loving that the symbol of Ljubiana is the dragon. I quite enjoyed the cool sculptures of dragons on one of the bridges going over the main river, Ljubljanica.
• Walking across the whole city, from our airbnb, to go to a restaurant that we had planned to check out only to find out that they had run out of food already. We never went back there!
• Running into a food fair in the center of the city. The food fair was very unique and had stands that sold so many different, delicious cuisines. We found out that the next day had another, different food fair in the same spot. We went back again the following day to check it out. 🙂

 slovenia slovenia
• Renting a car and doing day trips in and out of Ljubiana. Enjoying the freedom of having a car, but as I was the driver, I couldn’t fully enjoy the beautiful views of all the mountains and landscapes.  It is dangerous trying to take pictures and drive at the same time!
• The level of English of Slovenian people is quite high. Everywhere we traveled to in the country had locals that could speak in at least a conversational level of English.
• Going up at just the right time to enjoy the views of the Ljubljana Castle, which you can see from basically every part of the city. We went during the sunset.
• Appreciating the older buildings throughout the city, with their colorful facades and intricate designs. I wonder why we don’t make such cool buildings any more for our cities. They really make a city special and unique. Plus, they are great to look at and I would imagine they would make the locals very proud to live there.
• Checking out all the graffiti around the city. I wonder who are the people who actually do this graffiti. I would feel so bad defacing city property. Well some people don’t see it that way, but some day I would guess. I suppose the graffiti artists think they are making boring buildings more beautiful to look at.
• Loving the beautiful weather that we luckily got during our trip here. The view from our top floor airbnb was great!  The fresh, clean air too was very nice.
• It’s true that Slovenia really has everything. It has a seaside on the Mediterranean, which isn’t too far away (Piran is a super cool city). It also has mountains (the ALPS) which are awesome to look at. Plus their climate isn’t that bad either.  The nature on offer is just unbelievable. We found a number of amazing spots with great landscape views, and there weren’t hardly any other people around. Very serene!
• If there is one place that you should definitely go on your trip here, it is Lake Bled. This place and area is just so beautiful. It is truly like a storybook fairytale there. Loved it!

slovenia slovenia

Currently we have 105 international schools listed in Eastern Europe on International School Community. 52 of them have had comments submitted on them. Here are a few of those schools:

• American International School of Zagreb (Zagreb, Croatia) – 29 Comments
• International School of Latvia (Riga, Latvia) – 33 Comments
• Anglo-American School of Moscow (Moscow, Russia) – 66 Comments
• Pechersk School International (Kyiv, Ukraine) – 51 Comments
• International School of Belgrade (Belgrade, Serbia) – 34 Comments
• Wroclaw International School (Wroclaw, Poland) – 46 Comments
• American School of Warsaw (Warsaw, Poland) – 74 Comments
• QSI International School of Ljubljana (Ljubljana, Slovenia) – 9 Comments

If you are on a trip right now, away from your host country, write to us at admin@internationalschoolcommunity.com with your “Can you relate?” traveling experiences.  Tell us where you are traveling in the world, what you are seeing and how you are coping with any culture shock.  Once your Traveling Around experience is posted on our blog, International School Community will give you 6 free months of premium membership!

All about schools

More features

Let's connect

Meet us on Facebook
Follow our Tweets
Join our Linked In Group

IS Community