February 2015 Newsletter: Which ISCommunity Features Are You Using the Most?
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February 2015 Newsletter: Which ISCommunity Features Are You Using the Most?
Check out our latest newsletter here.
Only on International School Community will you be able to search for the perfect international school for you. You get the possibility to search (using our unique search engine) for international schools based on the type of school that best fits your criteria. There are many different kinds of international schools: ones that are small in student numbers to ones that have more than 1200 students, ones that are for-profit to ones that are non-profit, ones that are in very large cities to ones that are in towns of only 1000 people, etc. Each international school teacher has their own type of school that best fits their needs as a teacher and as a professional. Your personal life is also very important when you are trying to find the right match. Most of us know what it is like to be working at an international school that doesn’t fit your needs, so it’s best to find one that does!
Utilizing the School Profile Search feature on International School Community, you can search our 1773 schools (updated from 1606 on 20 February 2014) for the perfect school using up to 9 different criteria. The 9 criteria are: Region of the world, Country, City, Curriculum, School Nature, Number of Students, Age of School, Kinds of Students and Metro Population. You can do a school profile search in two different locations on our website: the Schools List page and on the side of every school profile page. Check out our past school profile search results here.
Search Result #15
Criteria selected:
Schools Found: 15
The 15 international schools that met the criteria were found in 4 countries. Here are a few that have had comments and information submitted on them:
• Harbin No. 9 High School International Division (Songbei Campus) (Harbin, China) – 45 Comments
• Shanghai Rego International School (Shanghai, China) – 74 Comments
• Orchlon School (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) – 68 Comments
• International School of Koje (Geoje, South Korea) – 48 Comments
• North London Collegiate School (Jeju) (Jeju-do, South Korea) – 19 Comments
Why not start your own searches now and then start finding information about the schools that best fit your needs? Additionally, all premium members are able to access the 12936 comments and information (updated from 10304 on 20 February 2014) that have been submitted on 812 international school profiles on our website.
Join International School Community today and you will automatically get the ability to make unlimited searches to find the international schools that fit your criteria with a free 2-day trail of premium membership coupon code sent to you in your welcome email after joining.
Are you inspired to start up a blog about your adventures living abroad?
Our 39th blog that we would like to highlight is called “Teach. Travel. Taste. A peek into the life of an American teacher in Colombia” Check out the blog entries of this international school educator who has worked at Colegio Panamericano in Colombia.
A few entries that we would like to highlight:
“Soon I’ll be on way to South America to teach 1st grade in an international school! While the prospect of going down to 1st grade is terrifying, even if it’s only one step down, I couldn’t be more excited (and nervous) for this change. To answer some of the questions I’ve been receiving: This is a two-year contract…at that point, I’ll see how I’m feeling. I will be teaching in English with my own classroom, literally identical to here in the states. They use the Common Core standards, Daily 5/CAFE literacy model, Everyday Math, and more American-based curriculums. They speak Spanish in Colombia, though naturally every country (and city!) has its own dialect and slang. I know it’ll be a rough adjustment, not only coming from English everyday for the last two years, but also because the Spanish I got okay at was “Spain-spanish”. One of my ultimate goals in doing this, however, is to become truly fluent…not stumble along in broken Spanglish with my students’ parents as I have been doing. Any other questions, please comment…”
So exciting to get your brain thinking about your future move to your new country. So many things to be thinking about!
Good to know a bit about how the school runs and about their curriculum too, so you can plan ahead.
Want to learn even more about what new programs and curriculum that international schools are taking on? We have a comment topic called “Recent things that the school has taken on (i.e. new curriculum, specific professional development, etc.).” Currently there are 183 individual comments in this comment topic talking about 100s of different international schools. Check them out by doing a search for the school you want to know about here.
“As it always is when you move to another culture, you find that you miss certain parts of your own culture, while discovering that parts of your new culture really make a lot of sense if you stop to think. Being home was great, but vacations are always a bit haphazard and I’m ready to get back to my regular routine…”
It is always a mixed bag of emotions when taking a trip back to your home country. The culture that you surround yourself in 24/7 in your host country is now gone and you are surrounded by your home country culture.
It is good to go back home, and many veteran international school teachers can relate to just wanting to get back to you host country and your daily routine there.
Want to learn even more about what international school teachers think of the local customs in their host country? We have a new comment topic called “What are some locals customs (regarding eating, drinking and going out, family, socializing, etc.) that you find interesting for expats to know about?” Here is an example of one of them:
‘If you travel somewhere, you are expected to bring back “omiyage” snacks for co-workers and friends; these are normally or other sweets that happen to be the specialty of whatever city or region you have visited and which you can pick up at any train station when you are on your way back.’ – Hiroshima International School (Hiroshima, Japan) – 64 Comments
Want to work for an international school in Colombia like this blogger? Currently, we have 17 international schools listed in this country. Here are a few that have had comments submitted on them:
• Colegio Karl C. Parrish (Barranquilla, Colombia) – 24 Comments
• Colegio Anglo Colombiano (Bogota, Colombia) – 17 Comments
• Colegio Nueva Granada (Bogota, Colombia) – 15 Comments
• Colegio Panamericano (Bucaramanga, Colombia) – 34 Comments
• Colegio Albania (La Guajira, Colombia) – 19 Comments
• Colegio Granadino Manizales (Manizales, Colombia) – 43 Comments
• Columbus School Medellin (Medellin, Colombia) – 22 Comments
• Fundacion Liceo Ingles (Pereira) (Pereira, Colombia) – 28 Comments
There are 11 International School Community members who currently live in Colombia. Check out which ones and where they work here. Feel free to go ahead and contact them with any questions that you might have as well; nice to get first hand information about what it is like to live and work there!
If you are an international school teacher and would like your blog highlighted on International School Community contact us here.
Traveling Around: Casablanca, Morocco (The life of an international school teacher is good!)
Get inspired to make your next travel purchase!
Traveling Around: Casablanca, Morocco
Can you relate?
• Arriving at the airport in Casablanca and not expecting such pleasant and cheerful passport control officers.
• Standing in a small SIM card shop at the airport for 10 minutes while two sellers are talking in Arabic to 5 other people at the same time trying to open you an account.
• Getting 2000 Dirhams (MAD – Moroccan currency) and hoping that it’s gonna cover you for 5 days.
• Being surprised by quality and punctuality of the Moroccan railway.
• Getting attacked by numerous taxi drivers in front of Casablanca’s Gare du Voyagers train station (our hotel was within 2 minutes walking from the station).
• Smelling smoke in a non-smoking hotel room.
• Learning how “q” is pronounced in Arabic.
• Being wowed by Casablanca’s brand new tram system.
• Eating your first tajin and not being amazed, like you’ve heard.
• Using FourSquare and having it find us just the right place to eat at.
• Being served that tasty, round Moroccan bread with EVERYTHING.
• Ordering food at a restaurant that we were planning to eat it, double checking first that they could accept our credit cards, only to find out later that they only accepted Moroccan based credit cards. (low on local currency)
• Having always somebody just outside of the hotel, restaurant, etc. who was there to help you flag down a taxi. Nice.
• Deciding to attend an expensive “party evening for tourists” even knowing that it was going to have a lot of tourists and potentially going to be lame, but then actually enjoying the show/dinner (some excellent local, traditional bands and performers…they were pretty good and entertaining)
• Sitting in a train car cabin with a local and her being super nice to us, even offering some of the snack she was eating.
• Learning about amlou, a Moroccan spread made of almonds, honey and argan oil. Buy yourself a big jar of it! It is totally worth it.
• Trying to bargain and get a better deal at the market will lead you to getting called “a cheap American”. Works better if you say you are from Eastern/South Europe. 🙂
• Seeing cute, stray cats everywhere…even in the restaurants!
• Trying to talk in broken French as many of the local people did not know much English.
• Walking around and not see really any tourists wondering about, anywhere.
• Finding a Paul’s Bakery to get a sandwich to go right before we headed out on our flight home.
Currently we have 8 international schools listed in Morocco on International School Community. Here are the ones that have had comments submitted on them:
• Casablanca American School (36 comments)
• George Washington Academy (34 comments)
• American School Fes (7 comments)
• American School of Marrakesh (29 comments)
• Rabat American School (15 comments)
• American School of Tangier (10 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 SIX free months of premium membership!
PHOTO CONTESTS! Don’t forget to enter your trip photos in our photo contests. Top three photos win free premium membership. Actually, every that participates wins 1 week of free premium membership.