International School Community Newsletter v2012.12 – 1 December, 2012
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International School Community Newsletter v2012.12 – 1 December, 2012
Check out our latest newsletter here – eepurl.com/sqZoz
Every 1-2 months International School Community will highlight one of our members in our Member Spotlight feature. This month we interviewed Andrew Vivian:
(This member spotlight is a continuation from an interview we did earlier which can be found here.)
From there, we spent a year in Guangzhou, China, at Utahloy International School, with Helen as Primary Principal and me as Head of Science. Guangzhou, despite the air quality, was a really nice place to live. We started off in an apartment in town, while we looked for a place big enough to hold our material possessions – for us, home is where we live, and we take our furniture and everything with us, so relocation costs are substantial. We ended up in a ground-floor apartment out of town, but only a cheap 30-minute taxi ride to “the action”. The shopping was the main attraction, particularly for Helen,
We were asked to come and work at a school in Jakarta, and relocated, because we wanted to continue teacher training and we love Indonesia. Things didn’t work out, and we decided to try our hands at consulting, because we have a lot of connections with Indonesian private schools and Helen is a well-established Primary Years Programme workshop leader for the IB. After a year and a half for Helen, and a year for me, we are keeping the wolf from the door. Helen does a lot of IB workshops around Asia, and is working with the management of a school in East Jakarta. I’ve done one workshop for the IB, a few in Jakarta and one in Beijing. My main work has been a couple of tours doing school inspections in Dubai. I’ve done some course writing and prepared some teaching materials for a couple of organisations. We have just finalised our working visas and our Indonesian company, and will, hopefully, be expanding our business soon.
Teaching internationally has been great for us. We’ve had a few heartbreaks, but, overall we have been able to save money, travel, and every day brings a new experience. We have been to most of the countries in Asia, and some amazing places in them. We speak Bahasa Indonesia, so, when we see something interesting, we can ask questions. One of our delights in Surabaya was just walking through the villages behind us, and talking to the locals.
We’ve had a lot of funny experiences, and no really dangerous ones. For example, we were on a boat up river in Kalimantan, after visiting the orang-utan sanctuary, when the boat broke down, 50 km from the port. We literally hitch-hiked with a passing fisherman. Enroute to Tibet, we stopped in Chengdu, in China. We caught a taxi to a restaurant recommended in a guide book. Half-way there, we realised that we didn’t have the hotel’s card, so we had no way of knowing where to go back to or how to communicate it to anyone. After dinner it took us two taxi rides and a 1km walk before we recognised a landmark.
International schools are funny places – some are excellent. Also, the “true” international schools now make up only a fraction of the places in which you can teach internationally and in tougher economic times, in Asia, at least, they have increasing numbers of local students anyway. Overall the positives tend to outweigh the negatives. Our philosophy is that we want to make a difference, so that working in host-country schools that offer IB programmes is our preference. Not everyone is comfortable in these sort of schools, but they are the places that give real insight into other cultures.
Many people like to teach overseas for the change in locale. That is a factor for us, but it is more about the sort of school we work in. For us, working in IB schools has been fabulous. We have been to most of the regional conferences over the past ten years and have met so many talented, committed people. We get to visit schools and help teachers do it better. In the process, we keep learning something new about education most days.
One thing I would recommend is to get everything in writing and even then, depending on which country you are in, it doesn’t matter any way if someone decides to be unpleasant. If you are prepared to “roll with the punches”, while sticking to your principles, then teaching internationally can be amongst the best things you can do in education.
In 5 words: adventure, culture, education, difference, satisfaction.
Make sure the check out Andrew’s website which tells more about the services he currently offers to international schools.
Thanks Andrew!
If you are a member of International School Community and would like to be our next member spotlight, contact us here. If we choose to highlight you, you will get a coupon code to receive 6 months free of premium access to our website!
Want to work for an international school in Guangzhou like Andrew? Currently, we have 8 international schools listed in Guangzhou on International School Community. Here are a few that have had comments and information submitted on their profiles:
• American International School of Guangzhou (12 Comments)
• Guangzhou Nanhu International School (4 Comments)
• Alcanta International College (6 Comments)
• Guangzhou Huamei International School (5 Comments)
• Clifford International School (8 Comments)
• The Affiliated High School of SCNU (8 Comments)
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.
The survey results are in, and it seems as if most visitors and members of International School Community who voted expect to keep working abroad at international schools for at least 1-3 more years.
For many of us, I suppose teaching abroad at international schools is a temporary circumstance in our lives. Some of us have international school colleagues that move abroad to teach, and after their one and only international school posting, they are now living and happily working back in their home countries. Sure, there is a chance of them moving abroad again, but it likely to not happen again. Many people look for stability in their lives, and many people ultimately find that stability back in their home countries.
For other international school educators, when they start working at international schools, they can’t seem to get enough of this life. Working at international schools and moving from country to country can be very addictive. 10 total people out of 23 voted that they will be working at international schools 7-10 more years and even maybe for forever! The salaries/benefits, work conditions and standard of life must be quite attractive for these people. If things are going well and you are not having to worry about money, why not choose to stay working at international schools? It is nice to not have to worry about paying for housing or any utilities for example. It is also maybe nice to not have to clean your house or wash your clothes as you may be able to hire a house keeper to do those things for you in your current position. These people might have met their partner while living in their host country and now have decided to stay abroad for the long term!
Then there are the teachers that have made the all-important (and possibly difficult) decision to make this year their last one (3 people in our survey have said that this is what their future holds for them). To say goodbye to the international school teaching world is sometimes not an easy decision to make. Livin’ the ‘good life’ will soon be ending for you, and you may not ultimately want things to end. Also, the anticipation of reverse culture shock is not necessarily welcomed with open arms. Cringe!
On the other hand, your current situation might just be a very bad fit for you, enough of a bad fit that you have decided to not take the risk of working at another international school. A very negative experience at one international school might have you come to the realization that this life really just is not a good fit for you.
Moving back home has it pros and cons, and one must look at them carefully. One reason to not move back to many of the states in the United States is that the job market for teachers is not so good right now. There are many, many teachers applying for one position still right now. Hopefully as the U.S. economy improves, more money for staffing and for school districts in general will become available which may lead to more jobs for prospective teachers. I think the same thing is happening at many international schools right now. Many international schools are looking for and actually finding more families with children to attend their school. More students typically means a higher need for more staffing. How nice would it be if the power was back in the candidate’s hand at the recruitment fairs; more options and opportunities for us!
There are many factors to consider when deciding to stay abroad or move back home. Knowing about what kinds of teachers work at an international school and the average staff turnover rate can prove to be helpful information to know; just to see what others are doing who maybe from the same country and situation as you. 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 this very topic.
• Describe what kinds of teachers work here (local vs. expat, nationality, qualifications [or lack there of], etc.) and staff turnover rate.
There have been many comments and information submitted in this topic on numerous school profiles on our website.
One International School Community member said about working at Khartoum International Community School: “You will find a range of teachers from New Zealand to Canada, via UK, Egypt, Palestine, South Africa, Australia, France and more. Most teachers are expat hire. Local hire teachers are well qualified. The school is still only 7 years old so turnover rate is hard to reflect on. It ranges from 1-7 years at current time.”
Another member said about working at Tsinghua International School (Beijing): “Can’t really comment too much on this as things may have changed. When I was there lots of staff were from North America, but what could be called “old Chinese hands.” They’d lived in China a long time. Other staff were Chinese with American passports. All were great, but at the time, not many were what you’d think of as north American trained teachers. Very high turnover when I was there.”
Another member submitted a comment about working at Colegio Granadino Manizales: “The school has both Colombian and expat teachers. All of the expat teachers are North American and all are qualified teachers. The Colombian teachers are also well certified. There is not a high turnover rate at the school. Many expat teachers, though young, stay three or four years and some have been at the school much longer.”
So how many more years do you expect to keep teaching abroad at international schools? Please share what your plans are!
Stay tuned for our next survey topic to come out in a few days time.