Welcome to our vibrant community, your daily dose of school life inspiration, teacher information, and entertainment. Join us as we navigate the everyday journey of life.
Topic: What is the air quality like where you are currently living?
Getting bronchitis for the first time in your life because you are now living in a very polluted city with very bad air quality….not fun stuff.
Not being able to let your children play outside in the garden area of your apartment complex because of the warning on the news about the air quality that day being too high and too dangerous to breathe for long periods of time….very unfortunate.
Not seeing a blue sky for many weeks….depressing.
The air quality of the place you move to is very important to know about and fully understand. It can truly affect many of the normal things that you do in your daily life.
Is it a factor important enough to consider when thinking about moving to a county with extremely bad air quality? Some might say YES!
It might not be worth it to subject your body and risk the negative (and maybe long lasting) side effects for a standard stay for an international school teacher (which is typically a 2-year contract).
Let’s not forget though the many cities that have very clean air quality. That alone could be one excellent reason to stay another year. It might even be better than the city you lived in back in your home country!
So, go ahead and vote to describe the air quality in the city you work in. Go to the homepage of International School Community and submit your vote today! You can check out the latest voting results here.
Survey results are in: Describe the current condition of the international school building you work at.
The survey results are in, and it seems as if most visitors and members of International School Community who voted are working in a Brand new/Excellent international school building.
We all dream about teaching in the perfect, purpose-built school building, but many of us never get the opportunity. According to our recent survey results though, it appears as if most of us are!
Maybe it is because of working at an international school, I mean many of these schools are run by some of the richest people in the city’s community. Most of these well-off families want their children to attend not just the best school in the city, but possibly the nicest looking as well. If some people with money and good connections in the community want a nice-looking school building for their children, then I am sure they can and will do just that!
Many international schools however find themselves stuck in a converted building, meant for another purpose….not so much for teaching. In those buildings, international school administers and teachers struggle to ‘make-it-work’; somehow managing to educate students in less-than-ideal situations. Even when they try to update something in the building, there are too many extraneous factors that stop them from doing so.
Other international schools start off as someone’s (or a group of people) dream. Not existing before, the new building is constructed to fit that dream. The people in charge can direct how the building looks like and make it the most purpose-built as they can to fit their needs. There are definitely international schools out there just like that, someone’s dream school.
But for the other international schools stuck in a building that is either falling apart or too small to fit the growing needs of the school, getting a new building made for them is a big challenge to say the least. Constructing a new international school building is multi-faceted and very time-consuming. Many factors come into play and the timing has to be perfect. There needs to be the right amount of funding up-front. There needs to be years of planning to take place and support from all stake holders. There also usually needs to be a stable student-body where the student numbers are either growing or holding very tight.
Of course when the stars align, then the lucky international school teachers (and all the other stake holders) get to work and learn in a brand new, excellent school building. I mean who wouldn’t want to work in a new purpose-built international school building?
Luckily on International School Community, we have a School Information section in the comments and information part of each school’s profile page that discusses the building and campus for each school. It can be important to know more about the school’s building if you are planning on moving across the world to work in it. Is your potential new international school state-of-the-art in its design with the most up to date technology or a building that is falling apart?
The comment topic in the School Information section tab is called:
• Describe the different aspects of the school building and the school grounds. Also, describe the surrounding area around the campus.
There have been many comments and information submitted in this topic on numerous school profiles on our website; 547 to be exact. Here are just a few:
One International School Community member said about working at MEF International School Istanbul: “The Int’l school is very subservient to the National school in terms of use of facilities and is given a real afterthought treatment by the general management.”
Another member said about working at Yokohama International School: “Space is really expensive in the school area, however, YIS has adequate space for its size. It is somewhat restricted in terms of sports facilities, but uses a nearby field.”
Another member submitted a comment about working at Wells International School (Thailand): “Wells includes three campuses: 2 kindergartens and 1 primary and secondary campus. All three are relatively small, but the facilities are expansive given the land restrictions. The head campus, located on Sukhumvit at On Nut, has over 30 classrooms, an auditorium, three science labs, 2 sports courts and more.”
If you are currently a premium member of International School Community, please take a moment to share what you know about the buliding/campus of the international schools at which you have worked. You can start by logging on here.
Stay tuned for our next survey topic which is to come out in a few days time.
The School Profile Walls have arrived! (IS_Community Newsletter v2013.09 – 7 Sept, 2013)
Being in the education sector provides valuable oppurnities to learn from overseas school interactions. Our school Khaitan Public School, Sahibabad was very fortunate to have its first tie up with an International School from KEF Nepal.
On 2nd November 2012 two distinguished people honored us by visiting our school, Mr. Keshab Prasad Paranjuli (Math HOD/Academic Dean) and Mr.Purna Bhadur Rana (IT HOD) from Karunanidhi Education Foundation (KEF) Nepal.
Mr. Paranjuli and Mr. Rana being welcomed
Observing kinder garden students
Visiting classes and interacting with students sharing information on Nepal
They viewed our student’s assignments, saw live classes while interacting with them. When the students sang our School Anthem they were very delighted and shared their school anthem with us in Nepalese. They were eager to know more about subjects taught, teaching methodology adopted by teachers, student response, extracurricular activities, special students needs, and corrective methods for indiscipline adopted by our school authorities and our school’s Entrepreneurship programme with the 11th grade students.
The Entrepreneurship programme was a new concept for learning the ropes early in life where the school provides a platform to enable students to start an enterprise thereby forming a real time company headed by a CEO and other employees as they would in a real company. The company decides its name, logo, procures items to be sold to the consumers, markets its products, issues receipts and maintains a log of all transactions executed by the organization. This activity is held on the school campus for a fixed time 1 month duration. As students get a real feel of what it is to be responsible to own something the learning is optimum.
Inquiring about the Entrepreneurship Programme and School Staff
What I have personally learned from this rich interaction is to know about a country you need to meet the people. People who have a thirst for knowledge continuously keep learning with an open mind and heart. To truly grow as a human being you have to have an open mind with no prior perceptions about countries. Showing warmth towards someone from another country in your homeland in the heart of your educational institution matters a lot and acceptance is everything. Sharing best teaching practices employed in each other’s schools has tremendous learning. Eagerness from our partners to learn about us, our culture, methods was not only very encouraging but also very positive enabling us to have a long term fruitful partnership. I would be forever grateful and indebted to our Nepal school partners for this invaluable experience.
Charmaine Vida Tayal
International School Award Coordinator, Facilitator Projects, Khaitan Public School Sahibabad, India
Thanks Charmaine for sharing your visit with us! Currently we have 75 international schools listed in India on our website, with many of them having comments and information that have been submitted on them. Check them out here.
